Election-speak and politicians might make you weary but before Parliament dissolved for the General Election there was one outcome that brings major relief for landlords and tenants in the private rental sector (PRS).

Among the last acts of the Commons was to pass into law the Deregulation Act, 2015. It clears up the confusion caused by the now infamous Superstrike case, the outcome of which brought some panic in the residential lettings sector about deposit protection and whether or not a valid “Section 21” notice could be served to regain possession.

“The outcome is still mindbending for some, but the important date to remember is June 23, 2015, by which time all deposits held but not registered with an approved tenancy deposit scheme must be registered and the prescribed information given to the tenant,” explains Zaza Oswald, partner in charge of lettings for Carter Jonas in Hampshire.

“The new rules make it much clearer about how deposits should be protected although to the layman or woman it’s still very complex.

“Landlords and tenants who use a reputable lettings agency should have no difficulty getting their queries answered.

“The law is relevant to any deposit currently held on an AST. It assists landlords who did not re-protect deposits or re-serve Prescribed Information when a tenancy was renewed or when a statutory periodic tenancy arose.

“A deposit taken on an AST after April 6, 2007, and correctly protected, with Prescribed Information served to the tenant, does not need the Prescribed Information reissued to the tenant on future renewals of the AST or where the AST rolls into a statutory periodic tenancy so long as the landlord, tenant, and property information remain the same and the deposit remains in the same tenancy deposit protection scheme. If any of these details change, the tenants must still be given revised Prescribed Information about their deposit.

“There are also changes creating a new form of Section 21 notice coming into force on July 1, 2015. Any tenancy created after that date will need to use a new style of Section 21 notice, tenancies created before then, or based on renewals or extensions of tenancies created before then, can still use the old style notice. From June 1, 2018, all ASTs will need to use the new style notice irrespective of when they began.

“The remaining changes to Section 21 - the limit on serving notice in the first four months and the various alterations regarding tenant complaints about condition - do not come into force until October 1, 2015, and, again, are only applicable to new tenancies commencing after that date until they become applicable to all tenancies from October 1, 2018.”