How long do I have to protect a tenant's deposit? Thirty days, and a record that proves it

30 days from receiving it in England and Wales, 30 working days in Scotland and 28 days in Northern Ireland. The clock runs from the day the money arrives, not the day the tenancy starts.

The notice every tenant must be given within the same 30 days: the scheme and how it works, the deposit amount, how to get it back and what happens in a dispute, and the landlord's and tenant's contact details. Protecting the deposit and serving it are two separate duties, and landlords who did the first routinely cannot show the second.

A tenant can apply to court for between one and three times the deposit, and a possession claim depends on the position being put right. Late protection does not stop being a problem once it is done; take advice from a housing solicitor.

One of the government-approved schemes for the nation the property is in. In England and Wales that is the DPS, MyDeposits or the TDS. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own approved schemes, listed in the table above.

The amount and the date it was received; the scheme and the deposit reference; the date it was protected; the date the prescribed information was served and how; the tenant's acknowledgement if you have one; and the scheme's certificate. Dates matter most: they are what a judge compares against the 30 days.

It depends on the nation. England: five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, six weeks at £50,000 or more. Scotland: two months' rent. Northern Ireland: one month's rent. Wales: the Welsh Government has the power to set a limit on security deposits but has not used it, so there is no statutory cap on the deposit itself; a holding deposit in Wales is capped at one week's rent. A holding deposit is a separate payment with its own rules in every nation.