Citizens Advice has published a report stating that “more than half of renters using a zero deposit scheme were misleadingly told they needed to use the scheme to rent their home. While others reported being forced to pay outlawed inventory check-in or check-out fees”.
Now, Zero Deposit‘s CEO has responded to the report, welcoming greater scrutiny and regulation for the sector in order to ensure that all providers are properly protecting tenants, agents, and landlords alike.
Sam Reynolds, CEO of Zero Deposit, commented:
“Reports of tenants feeling pressured into purchasing deposit alternatives are concerning and highlight the need for greater transparency and regulation across the sector. The challenges raised by Citizens Advice aren’t new and, as we’ve advocated for over many years, highlight the need for the regulation of the deposit alternative category.
The issue comes back to product fundamentals. There is a clear distinction between deposit alternative products that are designed with consumer protections at their core and those that are not. This means tenants are protected from mis-selling and pressure-selling practices, while landlords have confidence in the security and oversight behind the product.
Importantly, our product cannot be sold as a mandatory requirement, which gets to the core of the issues flagged by Citizens Advice – it is explicitly designed to guarantee that tenants are always presented with a genuine choice between a traditional cash deposit and our alternative.
We do not see any of the letting agents and operators we partner with committing any of the practices flagged by Citizens Advice in this study. We conduct thousands of customer satisfaction surveys and mystery shopping exercises every year, and work closely with our agency partners to ensure the product is introduced and explained consistently, transparently and in line with best practice.
We welcome greater regulation of the deposit alternative sector in order to establish clearer standards, improve consistency across the market and provide stronger protections for tenants and landlords alike. Good providers should have nothing to fear from higher levels of scrutiny and regulation, which will raise standards across the sector as a whole.”
