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NLJ this week: Cheque-mate for tenants hoping to get their deposit back

20 October 2023
Issue: 8045 / Categories: Legal News , Property
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The ‘return’ of a cheque posed a conundrum for the courts in a recent case about the return of a tenant’s deposit on a rented flat. In this week’s NLJ, Edward Blakeney and Fern Schofield, barristers at Falcon Chambers, examine the case along with the ‘surprisingly knotty problem of returning tenancy deposits by cheque and the surprisingly limited amount of authority on this question’

Deposits must, by law, be protected by the landlord, but the ins and outs of exactly how a deposit should be returned are not legally clear. The question before the court was whether or not the return of an uncashed cheque constitutes return of a deposit. The tenant in this case did not accept cheques.

Blakeney and Schofield look at the wider implications of the case, including in the event of the Renters Reform Bill passing into law.

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NEWS
Ceri Morgan, knowledge counsel at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP, analyses the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd, which reshapes the law of fiduciary relationships and common law bribery
The boundaries of media access in family law are scrutinised by Nicholas Dobson in NLJ this week
Reflecting on personal experience, Professor Graham Zellick KC, Senior Master of the Bench and former Reader of the Middle Temple, questions the unchecked power of parliamentary privilege
Geoff Dover, managing director at Heirloom Fair Legal, sets out a blueprint for ethical litigation funding in the wake of high-profile law firm collapses
James Grice, head of innovation and AI at Lawfront, explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the legal sector
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