No hearing. No visit. Just the documents you sent.
Deposit adjudication in England and Wales is a documents-only process from start to finish. The adjudicator does not hold a hearing and does not visit the property. It is decided on the papers, and while a scheme may occasionally chase a critical document that was left out, you should not count on being asked. The adjudicator reads what both sides have filed inside the window and decides on the balance of probabilities. Whatever you failed to preserve simply does not exist.
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In 2026, a tenancy deposit dispute in England and Wales is decided on paper. The adjudicator at the DPS, TDS or mydeposits reads what both sides file, holds no hearing and never visits the property. ProofSnap captures the listing, inventory and agent thread as a hashed, timestamped evidence package, from $4.99 (about £4).
Adjudication is free to both sides and each scheme sets its own timetable, typically around ten working days for each side to file an evidence pack, with a decision following within roughly a month. Check the timetable of the scheme holding your deposit rather than assuming, because the three schemes differ. The standard of proof is the balance of probabilities: the adjudicator asks whether it is more likely than not that the claimed loss is attributable to the tenant. Scotland runs a separate regime with three schemes of its own and a 30-working-day protection deadline, and Northern Ireland has two schemes and 28 days, so check the rules where the property is. Because nobody will ask you a question, the quality of what you file is the whole case. ProofSnap packages the original listing, the inventory, the condition report, the agent thread and any repair request. Each capture carries the full page, the saved source, the URL, the UTC capture time, a SHA-256 hash of every file, an RSA-4096 signature and an eIDAS qualified timestamp that carries the Article 41(2) presumption before a United Kingdom court as a matter of domestic law. A scheme adjudicator is not a court, so in an adjudication the same package works as evidential weight rather than as a presumption.
By Radim Motycka, Founder and Lead Engineer, ProofSnap · · Independently verifiable via Trust Verifier
How these disputes are decided
You do not get to explain. You only get to file.
Every instinct from a courtroom is wrong here. Nobody hears you, nobody visits, and there is no second chance after the deadline.
The listing no longer says what it said
Rental listings are edited constantly: white goods included, garden maintained, carpets new. When the listing that made you sign is gone, you are describing it from memory while the agent describes it differently, and the adjudicator sees only the descriptions.
The repair thread gets tidied up
Agents change and portals archive old threads. The repair you chased four times becomes a repair nobody remembers being asked about, and an undocumented request is indistinguishable from one that never happened.
The filing window closes fast
Each side gets a short filing window, measured in working days rather than weeks. Time spent hunting for evidence you no longer have comes straight out of it, and late material is simply not before the adjudicator.
What the adjudication process looks like
All three approved schemes run a similar adjudication. The details differ slightly, so check the rules of the scheme holding your deposit.
Documents only, no hearing, free to use
All three approved schemes in England and Wales offer adjudication free of charge to landlord and tenant alike, and the adjudicator decides on the evidence sent to the scheme. There is no hearing and no visit to the property. That is faster and cheaper than court, and it means an argument you did not put in writing is an argument you did not make.
A filing window each way
Each scheme sets its own timetable, typically around ten working days for each side to file an evidence pack. The three schemes differ, so work to the timetable of the one holding your deposit rather than to a figure you read somewhere else.
Three approved schemes in England and Wales
England and Wales use the same three authorised schemes: the Deposit Protection Service, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme and mydeposits. The tenancy law underneath them differs. In England the first phase of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (2025 c. 26) was commenced on 1 May 2026 by SI 2026/421 and abolished assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 possession. Wales got there first and separately: assured shorthold tenancies ended in Wales on 1 December 2022 under the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, which replaced them with occupation contracts. Scotland and Northern Ireland run entirely separate schemes on their own legislation and their own deadlines.
Time limits after the tenancy ends
Limits differ by scheme and by route within the same scheme. The insured routes run to a deadline measured from the end of the tenancy, while the custodial routes work on response windows. Read the rules of the scheme holding your deposit and raise the dispute promptly rather than assuming the door stays open. If adjudication is not available, you are left with the county court, where the same documents matter more, not less.
What actually wins a deposit adjudication
Adjudicators decide on the gap between the check-in inventory and the check-out report, judged against fair wear and tear, which is never a valid basis for a deduction. A landlord without a signed inventory will struggle to justify any deduction at all, and where a landlord files nothing, the adjudicator decides on what is in front of them, which often means the deposit is returned to the tenant in full. That means the strongest file is the set of matching documents: the inventory and photographs at the start, the same rooms at the end, the original listing showing what was promised and the thread showing what was reported and when. Capture the listing on the day you sign, not on the day the dispute starts, because by then it will have changed. Landlords should do exactly the same for exactly the same reason. The same discipline applies to every documents-only process, which is why the approach here mirrors the one on evidence for an APP fraud reimbursement claim and on evidence for an unfair dismissal or redundancy claim.
The law behind the deposit: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland
There is no single United Kingdom deposit law. Four nations apply different statutes, different deadlines and different sets of schemes, and applying the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in this area.
Four rules that decide most deposit claims in England and Wales
Rules 1, 2 and 4 hold in both England and Wales, but the tenancy label differs: England now uses assured tenancies after the Renters' Rights Act 2025, while Wales has used occupation contracts since 1 December 2022, with the same 30-day deposit duty under section 45 of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016.
- Thirty days to protect the deposit. Section 213(3) of the Housing Act 2004, as amended with effect from 1 May 2026, states: "Where a landlord receives a tenancy deposit in connection with an assured tenancy, the initial requirements of an authorised scheme must be complied with by the landlord in relation to the deposit within the period of 30 days beginning with the date on which it is received." The same 30 days apply to giving the tenant the prescribed information under section 213(6). Source: legislation.gov.uk, Housing Act 2004 as amended, in force 2026.
- Miss it and the penalty is one to three times the deposit. Under section 214 of the Housing Act 2004 the tenant can apply to the county court, which must order the deposit repaid or protected and must order the landlord to pay the tenant a sum of between one and three times the deposit. Source: legislation.gov.uk, Housing Act 2004 s.214, in force 2026. This is a court claim, not scheme adjudication, and the two routes are separate.
- The deposit itself is capped. Schedule 1 paragraph 3 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 caps most deposits in England at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and six weeks' rent where the annual rent is £50,000 or more; anything above the cap is a prohibited payment and recoverable. Wales has its own fee and deposit rules under the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019, so check the Welsh figures if the property is in Wales. Source: Tenant Fees Act 2019, in force for all tenancies since 1 June 2019.
- Scheme adjudication is free, binding and evidence-only. The DPS, TDS and mydeposits each run adjudication at no cost to either side. An independent adjudicator reads the two evidence packs, holds no hearing, does not inspect the property, and decides on the balance of probabilities. There is no oral stage at which a missing document can be explained, which is exactly why a capture that carries its own date matters more here than in a courtroom.
The four nations side by side
| Jurisdiction | Governing legislation | Deadline to protect | Approved schemes | Where sanctions are decided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | Housing Act 2004, Part 6 Chapter 4, as amended by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (2025 c. 26) | 30 calendar days | Deposit Protection Service, Tenancy Deposit Scheme, mydeposits | County court, under section 214 |
| Wales | Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, section 45, with the Housing Act 2004 schemes; occupation contracts, not assured shorthold tenancies | 30 calendar days | Deposit Protection Service, Tenancy Deposit Scheme, mydeposits | County court |
| Scotland | Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011, SSI 2011/176 | 30 working days | SafeDeposits Scotland, Letting Protection Service Scotland, mydeposits Scotland | First-tier Tribunal for Scotland, Housing and Property Chamber |
| Northern Ireland | Tenancy Deposit Schemes Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012, as amended by the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 | 28 days to protect, 35 days for the prescribed information | TDS Northern Ireland, mydeposits Northern Ireland | Prosecution by the district council, or a claim in the county court |
Renters' Rights Act 2025: what is actually in force, and what is not
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 (2025 c. 26) received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and it is being switched on in phases rather than all at once, so it is worth separating what is in force from what is not. In force since 1 May 2026, commenced by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/421: assured shorthold tenancies and fixed-term assured tenancies are abolished for the private rented sector in England, section 21 no-fault possession is gone, private lets run as assured periodic tenancies, and the deposit provisions in Chapter 4 of Part 6 of the Housing Act 2004 now read "assured tenancy" where they used to read "assured shorthold tenancy". Source: legislation.gov.uk, SI 2026/421 and Housing Act 2004 s.213 as amended with effect from 1 May 2026.
Legislated but not yet commenced, according to the government's published implementation roadmap of November 2025: the private rented sector database, which starts with a regional rollout only, and the landlord ombudsman scheme, which landlords are expected to have to join in 2028. Do not plan a deposit claim around either of them. If somebody tells you a Renters' Rights Act duty applies to you today, check the commencement regulations before you rely on it.
Two things worth adding. The 30-day protection duty and the section 214 penalty of one to three times the deposit are unchanged, and the private rented sector reforms do not reach Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, each of which has its own housing legislation.
Three differences catch people out. Scotland counts 30 working days rather than 30 calendar days, and Scotland has no assured shorthold tenancies at all: private lets granted since 1 December 2017 are private residential tenancies under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016. Northern Ireland moved from 14 days to 28 days for protection, and from 28 days to 35 days for the prescribed information, under the Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, whose first substantive phase commenced on 1 April 2023.
Why a qualified timestamp is worth having in a UK case file
The United Kingdom is not in the European Union, but the eIDAS presumption still applies in a court here as a matter of domestic law. Article 24A was inserted into Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, as it forms part of assimilated law, by the Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/89). It lists Article 41(2) among the provisions that apply to services meeting the equivalent European Union standard. Article 41(2) reads: "A qualified electronic time stamp shall enjoy the presumption of the accuracy of the date and the time it indicates and the integrity of the data to which the date and time are bound." Source: legislation.gov.uk, assimilated Regulation (EU) No 910/2014, in force 2026.
Two honest caveats. Section 131 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, headed "Removal of recognition of EU standards etc", gives the Secretary of State a power to amend or remove that recognition by regulations, so this is a position that can be changed. And a scheme adjudicator is not a court: adjudication is a contractual, evidence-only process, so no adjudicator applies a statutory presumption to your file. What a qualified timestamp does for an adjudication is more practical: it lets the other side check for themselves that the capture is dated and unaltered, and the package is already in the right shape if the matter later goes to the county court. Qualified timestamps in ProofSnap are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List.
Capture the evidence in three steps, about forty seconds
No forensic training required. The proof is in the package, not in your testimony about how careful you were.
Capture while it is live
Open the listing, the portal message or the inventory and capture it. The full page is saved, including the parts below the fold that a phone screenshot would cut off.
Everything is hashed and timestamped
SHA-256 for every file, an RSA-4096 signature over the manifest, an eIDAS qualified timestamp and a Bitcoin blockchain anchor, so the date cannot be moved afterwards.
File inside your window
Attach the PDF evidence report to your submission, and order your photographs room by room with every one labelled. The adjudicator gets a document that reads cleanly and that the other side can verify independently.
What lands in the evidence package
A ProofSnap capture of a rental listing takes about forty seconds and produces an evidence package of between 11 and 15 files, depending on your plan, with every file carrying its own SHA-256 hash under a single RSA-4096 signed manifest. It arrives as one ZIP that anyone can check without installing anything.
Full-page screenshot
The whole page, not just the visible window, stitched and hashed.
Saved page source
The document as rendered at capture time, including the head, meta tags and structured data.
Extracted page text
Searchable plain text, so a quote can be found and cited without retyping.
Technical metadata
URL, page title, HTTP response headers, browser, operating system and the capture time in UTC.
Signed manifest
SHA-256 for every file, signed with an RSA-4096 key whose public key ships in the package.
Blockchain timestamp
The manifest hash anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps, so the capture time cannot be backdated.
Chain of custody and forensic log
A record of what happened during the capture, in the order it happened.
Evidence report as PDF
A readable summary you can attach to an application, a notice or a report.
Verification instructions
Written steps plus scripts, so the other side can re-check the hashes offline.
Anyone can verify it, including the other side. Drop the ZIP onto the public Trust Verifier and the hashes, the signature and the timestamp are checked in the browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing depends on ProofSnap still existing.
Three ways to get the evidence
You are charged in US dollars. Approximate sterling figures are shown for orientation only, and your card issuer sets the actual rate.
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Send us the link and our team captures the page and builds the package for you, with nothing to install. Useful when the capture should not come from a party to the dispute.
See the capture serviceProofSnap is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. This reflects the position as at 3 August 2026. Recognition of European Union qualified status in the United Kingdom rests on Article 24A of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as it forms part of assimilated law, inserted by SI 2019/89, which lists Article 41(2), so a qualified timestamp carries that presumption here as a matter of domestic law rather than European Union law. Section 131 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 contains a power to remove that recognition, which has not been exercised. Scheme adjudication is not a court, so an adjudicator applies no statutory presumption. Qualified timestamps are issued by Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List.
Official sources
Every figure and deadline on this page comes from the following primary sources. Check them yourself rather than taking our word for it.
- Housing Act 2004, Part 6 Chapter 4 sections 213 and 214, the 30-day duty and the one-to-three-times penalty, England and Wales.
- Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1 the five-week and six-week deposit cap and the £50,000 threshold.
- Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011 the Scottish regime, 30 working days and the First-tier Tribunal route.
- Private Tenancies Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 the Northern Irish 28-day protection deadline and 35 days for the prescribed information.
- GOV.UK: tenancy deposit protection which deposits must be protected and how the schemes work.
- Shelter Legal England: tenancy deposits the sanctions on landlords for non-compliance, explained with case law.
- Deposit Protection Service one of the three approved schemes and its dispute process.
- Tenancy Deposit Scheme adjudication timescales and what evidence to submit.
- mydeposits the third approved scheme, with its own dispute rules.
- Article 24A, assimilated Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 the domestic provision listing Article 41(2), inserted by SI 2019/89.
Presentation matters as much as the capture. Label every document, put the check-in and check-out side by side, and explain in plain words what each file is meant to show. An adjudicator reading a tidy bundle decides on the merits. An adjudicator reading a pile of undated screenshots decides on whatever else is in front of them. If the capture should not come from a party to the dispute, our done-for-you evidence capture service does it instead, and ProofSnap in the United Kingdom covers the wider set of use cases.
Questions people actually ask
The adjudicator sees your documents and nothing else
Capture the listing on the day you sign. It will not say the same thing when the dispute starts.