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Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Act 2003
63Security deposits
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63 Security deposits
(1) A retail shop lease is taken to include provisions to the following
(a) money paid by the tenant to the landlord as security for the
performance of the tenant's obligations under the lease is to
be held by the landlord on behalf of the tenant:
(i) in an account mentioned in section 50 of the Agents
Licensing Act 1979; or
(ii) in any other interest-bearing account;
Business Tenancies (Fair Dealings) Act 2003 47
(b) if the landlord holds money in accordance with
paragraph (a)(i) – Part V of the Agents Licensing Act 1979
applies in relation to that money;
(c) if the landlord holds money in accordance with
paragraph (a)(ii):
(i) the landlord must account to the tenant for interest
earned on the money but the landlord is entitled to retain
the interest and deal with it as money paid by the tenant
to the landlord to form part of the security deposit
concerned; and
(ii) the landlord is not entitled to unreasonably refuse to
accept a guarantee from an ADI in satisfaction of a
requirement to provide security in the form of a deposit,
bond or third party guarantee for the performance of the
tenant's obligations under the lease.
(2) Subsection (1) does not prevent the landlord appropriating security
moneys in accordance with a lawful entitlement to do so.