The two duties people conflate
Protecting the money and giving the tenant the prescribed information are separate obligations with the same 30-day clock. Doing the first and forgetting the second is the common failure, and it carries the same consequences.
What to record
- The amount taken
- Which of the three government-approved schemes holds it
- The date you received it, which is what the 30 days runs from
The cap
A deposit is capped at five weeks’ rent, or six weeks where the annual rent is over £50,000. Taking more than the cap does not make the excess merely refundable, it creates a problem you have to fix before you can do anything else.
Why the date beats a tick
If the deposit was protected late, that fact does not disappear because you later protected it. Recording the real dates gives you an accurate picture of your exposure rather than a comfortable one, which is the only version worth having.