Glossary · UK
What is Tenancy Deposit Cap?
The statutory limit on how much a landlord in England can ask for as a security deposit on an assured shorthold tenancy: five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, or six weeks' rent above that threshold.
Full Definition
The tenancy deposit cap, introduced by the Tenant Fees Act 2019, limits how much a landlord or letting agent in England can require as a security deposit from a tenant on an assured shorthold tenancy. Where the total annual rent is below £50,000, the maximum deposit is five weeks' rent; where annual rent is £50,000 or more, the cap rises to six weeks' rent, reflecting the much smaller pool of higher-value lets where a larger deposit is proportionately less burdensome relative to the rent. The cap applies to the total deposit taken, regardless of how it is structured or described, and landlords cannot get around it by taking an additional "damage deposit" or similar payment on top of the capped tenancy deposit. Worked example: a tenant renting a flat at £1,300 a month (£15,600 a year, well under the £50,000 threshold) can be asked for a maximum deposit of five weeks' rent -- £1,300 × 12 ÷ 52 × 5, which works out to roughly £1,500 -- and any tenancy agreement or side letter requiring more than this is unenforceable to the extent it exceeds the cap, with the excess treated as a prohibited payment that must be returned to the tenant. Rent paid in advance is treated separately from the deposit and is not subject to the same weekly cap, though a landlord cannot demand large sums of "advance rent" simply to circumvent the deposit limit if in substance it is functioning as additional security rather than genuine early rent. Any deposit taken on an assured shorthold tenancy must also be protected in a government-approved tenancy deposit scheme within 30 days of receipt, and the tenant given prescribed information about which scheme holds it; a landlord who takes a deposit above the statutory cap, or who fails to protect a deposit correctly, risks a court order to repay the excess or the whole deposit, a penalty of one to three times the deposit amount, and being barred from serving a valid Section 21 no-fault eviction notice until the breach is remedied, which is why compliant, capped deposit-taking is treated as a baseline requirement by most managing agents.