How to protect a deposit

Once you’ve created your account, we’ll send a Direct Debit mandate form to you. You’ll need to complete and return this to us by post to the address below.

You’ll also need to confirm you have Client Money Protection (CMP) in place. To do this, you must send us either a membership/CMP certificate or letter of confirmation, from one of the following CMP providers:

• Client Money Protect
• UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA)
• Safeagent
• Money Shield
• Propertymark
• Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

We need 2 validation documents from the following list, one from each section.

Document 1. An original or certified copy of the Tenancy Agreement for the tenancy the deposit relates to

Document 2. An original or certified copy of any ONE of the following items to confirm the Landlord’s* address:

• Local authority tax bill relating to the current tax year
• Current UK/EEA photocard driving licence or blue disabled driver’s licence
• Current full UK paper driving licence
• Utility bill no older than three months (not including a mobile phone bill), or a certificate from a supplier of utilities confirming the arrangement to pay for the services on pre-payment terms
• Bank or building society statement (original statements only, not printed from the internet) which includes the account holder’s address
• Current home or motor insurance certificate (issued within last 12 months, The landlord must be the named policy holder)
• Mortgage statement (no more than 12 months old)

* Where an Organisation is creating an account, the documents above should be for a current statutory director or equivalent person in the Organisation.

We can accept copies of your documents that have been individually certified by one of the following officials:

• Post Office identity checking service
• Officials of an embassy, consulate or high commission of the country of issue
• Police officer
• Solicitor or accountant
• Notary Public
• Representative of a FCA organisation or of a UK or EU regulated bank
• Family GP
• Civil servant
• Teacher

Certification must be no older than six months. The person undertaking the certification can’t be a family member, and they must provide their business contact details.

Send your documents to us by post to:

Business Support Team
The Deposit Protection Service
The Pavilions Bridgwater Road
Bristol
BS99 6AA

Yes, original copies of your validation documents will be returned to you via post to the address you used to create your account. We recommend that you send certified copies of your validation documents to us to avoid the risk of your original copies being lost in the post.

Yes, you can send copies as long as they are legible, and have been individually certified by one of the officials listed above. Email your documents to support@depositprotection.com.

If you’re trading as an organisation and have a trading address different to your personal address, you’ll need to provide documentation to verify the trading address as well as your personal address.

If you urgently need to protect a deposit, our free Custodial scheme doesn’t require validation. Create your Custodial account and begin protecting deposits straight away here.

You must be a resident of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man to use our Insured scheme. If you live outside of these territories you can use our free Custodial scheme.

Once we've completed the validation process we'll contact you to confirm your account is active. To protect a deposit, you’ll need to log into your account and add details for the tenancy, tenants, and deposit. We'll send you a Deposit ID, and an invoice for the protection fee to complete the process.

Our online service allows multiple user access, so members of your organisation can log into your account and carry out your deposit administration.