The cost of the tenant fees ban for landlords has been revealed by deposit protection firm Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), which says it has handed back £817,000 in rental deposits so far to tenants since the ban came in on 1 June.

This means it is on track to return nearly £2m during the first year of the ban’s operation. The cash is being returned because tenants renewing their contract who paid rental deposits greater than the five-week rental cap now in place must be given the excess cash back. For tenancies over £50,000 a year it’s six weeks’ rent.

TDS says the average amount of money returned to a tenant is £320, and that it has the data because the scheme is the only one to have an online deposit cap refund tool. Debbie Davies, assistant director of Business Development at TDS, says: “We reviewed data from when the legislation was first introduced in order to establish how frequently deposits are being partially repaid by agents or landlords. During this period, we have made 2,550 repayments totalling £817,031 and the highest repayment to a tenant was £3,384.”