Prescribed information: what to serve and when

Why it matters

Courts treat the prescribed information as a substantive tenant protection rather than a formality, and failure carries the same compensation range as failing to protect at all.

Legal requirements

• The information must be given within thirty days of receiving the deposit.
• It must include scheme details, deposit amount, property address and party contact details.
• It must explain the circumstances in which deductions may be made.
• Anyone who paid the deposit on the tenant's behalf must also receive it.

Common mistakes

• Emailing a scheme leaflet and treating that as the prescribed information.
• Leaving out the third party payer, typically a guarantor parent.
• Using an old template that names a previous landlord or agent.
• Keeping no evidence of the date it was served.

Practical guidance

• Use the current template from your scheme and complete every field.
• Serve it with the tenancy pack at the start so it is never forgotten.
• Get a signed acknowledgement or a dated email confirmation.
• Store the certificate and the acknowledgement together in the tenancy file.

Serving it as part of the tenancy pack

The reliable approach is to bundle the prescribed information with the tenancy agreement, the gas safety record, the EPC and the government guide, and send the whole pack in one dated delivery. That gives you a single point of proof for several statutory duties at once. Digital delivery with a read receipt or an electronic signature makes the record stronger than a posted pack that nobody signed for.

Changes during the tenancy

If the property is sold, if the managing agent changes, if the deposit moves to a different scheme or if the tenancy is replaced by a new agreement, review whether fresh prescribed information is needed. The safest habit is to reissue whenever any of the named details change. It costs nothing and closes off the most common technical defence tenants raise in possession and deposit claims.