Must a deposit be reprotected for each successive tenancy, even if both the tenant and property remain the same?

Question

Suppose Tim the tenant signs a 1yr fixed term AST with Larry the landlord. Tim pays Larry a deposit, which he protects. At the end of the fixed term Larry and Tim elect to sign another fixed term of another year. Can Larry just keep the deposit where it is, or must he resend Tim any communications off renewed confirmation that it remains properly protected etc?

Is it implied if Tim hasn't received any communications impending the funds' release by/from the protection scheme?

What does the law have to say?

Answer 1

No. If the landlord, tenant and property remain the same, and all the rules were followed for the original deposit, then no further action needs to be taken. This applies however many times the tenancy is renewed, or if the fixed term expires and the tenancy becomes a statutory periodic tenancy.

The details are contained in section 215B of the Housing Act 2004, which was inserted into the Act by the Deregulation Act 2015. The background to this section is quite interesting, as it was a direct reaction to a court case - Superstrike Ltd v Marino Rodrigues [2013].

In that case, the court found that the legislation, as originally written, required any deposit to be re-registered every time the tenancy was renewed, which included when transitioning from a fixed term to a periodic tenancy.

Clearly it was felt that this was not the original intention of the Housing Act, so the Act was subsequently amended to make explicit that the deposit does not to be re-protected if nothing else has changed.