Separating Fact from Fiction: A Data‑Driven Rebuttal to Generation Rent’s Latest Claims on Tenancy Deposits
1. Context: what was actually said?
Generation Rent’s 21 July 2025 press release, amplified by Property Industry Eye, claims that:
46 % of tenants “don’t know they can challenge deductions”.
Only 4 % use the free dispute process.
This “puts millions more in unscrupulous landlords’ pockets”.
Those sound‑bites make great headlines, but they crumble under even basic scrutiny.
2. Eighteen years of consumer protection that rarely get a mention
Deposit protection has been law since 6 April 2007 (Housing Act 2004; The Housing (Tenancy Deposit Schemes) Order 2007).
Landlords must:
register the deposit in an approved scheme (DPS, MyDeposits or TDS);
serve the Prescribed Information;
give every new tenant the Government’s How to Rent guide.
Failure triggers penalties of up to 3× the deposit and loss of Section 21 rights—hardly a licence to “pocket millions”.
3. Why the formal dispute rate is tiny (and that’s a good thing)
Most renters behave exactly like motorists with a parking ticket: if they know they’re in the wrong, they pay; if they think they’re right, they usually settle before going to adjudication.
4. The Depositary’s real‑world evidence
Because our platform digitises the entire end‑of‑tenancy journey, we capture data no‑one else tracks, claim‑vs‑deduction accuracy:
68 k+ tenancy conclusions processed to date.
Sample agents:
1 600 check‑outs → tenants agree 74.5 % of proposed deductions.
1 600 check‑outs → 85 %.
450 check‑outs → 92 %.
Average dispute rate for those branches? 3 %, well below national figures. The data prove proposals start out reasonable and tenants feel empowered to negotiate.
5. Myth‑busting the headline claims
6. A constructive path forward
We share Generation Rent’s goal of faster refunds, in fact, it’s our mantra: easier, faster, better. By integrating with inventory apps, payment platforms and the TDS API, we’ve already cut the national average from 21 days to 12.
Next stop: single‑digit days.
7. Key take‑aways
Deposit legislation already works, when everyone follows it.
Low dispute volumes signal success, not scandal.
Platform data prove most deductions are fair and negotiated.
Better tech, not louder outrage, will get tenants their money back faster.
Bottom line: Tenants deserve transparency, landlords deserve to recover genuine costs, and both sides deserve a process measured in days, not weeks. That’s exactly what The Depositary delivers - today.
