UK Landlords and Letting Agents Face Increases in TDS Subscription Costs

The latest statement by TDS – the Dispute Service, a UK non-profit organisation set up to resolve complaints and disputes between agents, landlords and tenants – suggests that the cost of subscription is expected to increase severely. The news caused concern for UK letting agents and residential landlords as the increase in subscription cost is not what they want at the moment. The Dispute Service, however, highlighted that if the cost of subscription is not increased, the organization will face a situation in which the number of disputes will exceed the resources available to TDS. Moreover, TDS promised that from now on, every single disputed deposit will be “adjudicated in-house in a bid”, as this method is expected to reduce costs. In the opinion of Mr. Hooker, chief executive of Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd (traded as mydeposits), claimed that the increase in the cost of subscription will hit agents and landlords hard at time when they are already struggling with a number of other difficulties. He highlighted that the intentions of TDS to “cut costs” via in-house adjudications and to “increase subscription costs” do not match at all. Trying to outline the advantages of Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd, Mr. Hooker claimed that his organisation is as professional as TDS when it comes to levels of service and quality of complaints resolution. Moreover, he said, Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd offers its clients a pay-as-you-go pricing scheme, which will not change, unlike TDS’ structure. Despite the fact that TDS claims that its new system of charging will be based on the number of live tenancies and will feature various discounts and uplifts, a large number of UK letting agents have already said that they are unhappy with the quality of TDS services and that they expect things to worsen further when the new calculations scheme comes into force.