Deposit protection deadline calculator
I took a deposit. What is the last day I can protect it and send the prescribed information?
Rules last read at source on 15 September 2026. England only — Scotland and Wales are different regimes, and none of this applies there.
Your deposit
The day you or your agent received it — not the day the tenancy started, and not the day it cleared.
If your agent took it, the clock started when they received it, not when they passed it on.
Have you done either duty yet?
Optional. Fill these in and the page will tell you whether each one was done inside the window — and which one is still outstanding.
The date the scheme received it, as shown on your scheme certificate.
A separate duty from protecting the money, with the same deadline and its own penalty.
Enter the date the deposit reached you, and this will show the last lawful day to protect it and to give the tenant the prescribed information.
What this does not tell you
It is arithmetic on the dates you typed in. Every one of these is a way the answer above can be right and your position still be wrong.
It tells you the date. It cannot tell you whether the money actually reached a scheme, or whether what you sent the tenant was the prescribed information rather than a covering email.
The deadline runs from the day the deposit was received, which is not always the day the tenancy started or the day it cleared your account.
It assumes an assured tenancy in England with a deposit held by the landlord or their agent. A deposit replacement product, a holding deposit and a company let are all different questions.
Nothing here is a view on whether a particular deduction at the end of the tenancy is fair. That is between you, the tenant and the scheme's adjudicator.
Answers, in plain terms
Is it 30 days from the day I received it, or the day after?
From the day you received it. The Housing Act 2004 says the duties must be complied with "within the period of 30 days beginning with" the date the deposit is received, and "beginning with" makes the day of receipt day 1. So the last lawful day is the date of receipt plus 29 days, not plus 30. Counting from the following day gives you a deadline one day later than the real one, on a duty where being a day late is a full breach.
What are the two duties?
Protecting the money in an authorised scheme is one. Giving the tenant the scheme's prescribed information is a separate, second duty under the same section, running to the same deadline and carrying its own penalty. Protecting the deposit and never sending the prescribed information is a complete breach, not a partial one — which is why describing a deposit as simply "protected" understates what you still owe.
What happens if I miss the deadline?
The tenant can apply to the court under section 214, and the court can order you to repay the deposit or protect it, plus a penalty of between one and three times the deposit. Separately, while either duty is outstanding, section 215 stops the court making a possession order on any ground except 7A or 14. Discharging the duty late fixes the second problem going forward; it does not undo the first.
Does protecting it late fix the breach?
It stops the clock, and it lifts the possession bar, but it does not make the breach go away. The section 214 penalty is available to the tenant whether or not you eventually complied, which is why a deposit protected on day 31 is recorded as done late rather than simply done.
Tenarize runs this same calculation against your actual tenancies
The code behind this page is a copy of the code behind the product, kept in step by a check that fails our build if the two ever disagree. The difference is that inside Tenarize it runs against dates already on file, and tells you before the deadline rather than when you think to ask.