Half a billion pounds in tenants’ deposits has been safeguarded by the Tenancy Deposit Scheme in less than a year since deposit protection and Alternative Dispute Resolution became mandatory.

The Tenancy Deposit Scheme released this figure with five weeks to go before the first anniversary of mandatory operations. By 1 st March, the scheme covered nearly 450,000 tenancies, housing close on 700,000 tenants in property owned by 335,000 landlords. These figures are rising on an average by 7.5% a month.

During 2007, on average 127 disputes were resolved through Alternative Dispute Resolution each month. This is more than double the number handled under voluntary deposit protection. The number of disputes sent to the Scheme continues to rise.

Lawrence Greenberg, chief executive of The Dispute Service, which runs the Tenancy Deposit Scheme said: “Obviously we are very pleased with our success but we are well aware that Tenancy Deposit Protection is a new concept for the public, landlords and tenants, and their letting agents.

“We are doing everything we can to make our web-based systems easy to use for agents who are responsible for protecting the rights and money due to both tenants and landlords.”