The City of London Law Society has published its own form of rent deposit deed; (see City of London deed). It is comforting to see that many of the points of principle adopted in the Property PSL rent deposit deed for the benefit of landlords are mirrored in the document prepared by the City of London Law Society, including:
- Making use of a rent deposit deed charge to protect the landlord (rather than using a trust arrangement, as under the PLC form of deed, which is more designed to protect the tenant, than the landlord);
- Providing for the deposit to increase if the landlord draws down on the deposit, or a rent review increases the annual rent;
- Making use of the Avonridge case (Avonridge v London Diocesan Fund [2005] UKHL 70) to provide, on terms, for an automatic release from liability for a landlord who transfers the reversion;
- Extending the deed to cover all liabilities of the tenant (not just rent) ;
- Providing for repayment of the deposit upon lawful assignment or, possibly, earlier proof of satisfactory liquidity;
- Ensuring that any guarantor is a party to the deed;
- Ensuring that, wherever possible, the deed benefits from the relaxed registration and enforceability regime of the Financial Collateral Arrangements (No.2) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003/3226).;
At present, there is no intention to replace the Property PSL deed with the City of London deed, although a link through to the latter has been created on the relevant precedent page on this site.