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PARTLY

As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly check if your rental deposit is protected.

This still needs a person who signs their name to it.

Can you do it?

5 minutesto a draft.

15 minutesto something you’d act on.

Cost, all in£0

Skill needednone

Who has to check ityou

What the alternative costsNo relevant priced alternative is listed in the supplied tool data.

If this goes wrong: you assume the deposit is protected, miss a dispute or legal step, and have to sort out the consequences with the landlord, agent or scheme.

What to actually do

  1. Hand it to a person

    The route this page recommends

    A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

  2. Use a tool built for this

    Second choice

  3. Do it yourself

    The distant third

    A chat interface, no skill needed, and roughly 15 minutes until you can act on the result.

    How to actually do it

    1. Open GOV.UK's guidance on tenancy deposits and gather your tenancy agreement, deposit receipt, protection certificate and any prescribed information, removing unnecessary personal data.
    2. Copy the tenancy address, landlord or agent name, deposit amount, tenancy start date and the scheme named on any certificate into the prompt.
    3. Paste the copied documents and details into an AI chatbot and ask it to separate confirmed evidence, missing evidence and points it cannot establish.
    4. Open the official deposit scheme website named on the certificate, or use the scheme links reached from GOV.UK, and enter the details requested by that scheme.
    5. Compare the scheme's live result with the tenancy address, landlord or agent, deposit amount and dates in your documents, then ask the AI to list any mismatch without treating its interpretation as proof.
    6. Send the AI-drafted questions to the landlord or agent and keep their reply, the scheme result and your documents together.
    7. If the scheme cannot confirm protection or the landlord disputes the position, contact the scheme or Citizens Advice, and use a housing solicitor for a serious legal case.

    Prompt

    Help me check whether my UK rental deposit is protected. Do not claim that you have checked a live deposit scheme record. Use only the information and documents I provide, identify anything missing, and tell me which official source I should use to verify it. Ask me to compare the tenancy address, landlord or agent name, deposit amount, tenancy start date, protection certificate and prescribed information where relevant. Distinguish clearly between evidence that the deposit is protected, evidence that is incomplete, and information that cannot establish protection. Do not give a definitive legal conclusion. Include a short list of questions I can send to my landlord or letting agent. My details are: [tenancy address] [landlord or agent name] [deposit amount] [tenancy start date] [scheme named on any certificate] [certificate or prescribed information, copied without unnecessary personal data].

    Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

What it gets wrong

  • AI cannot access a deposit scheme's private or live records unless you perform the lookup yourself.
  • AI cannot authenticate a certificate or prove that a document has not been altered.
  • AI cannot resolve conflicting accounts from you, the landlord and the letting agent.
  • AI cannot take responsibility for a missed legal deadline or decide the best legal remedy.

What caps this at PARTLY: legal accountability, real time truth and verification cost.

How we scored this

Five axes, each scored nought to two by hand: ten means AI carries the task cleanly, and the thresholds that turn a total into YES, PARTLY or NO are published in the methodology. Each axis name links to its definition.

AxisScore (0–2)
Output1
Inputs1
Verification2
Liability1
Effort delta1
Total6 / 10

The methodology and its thresholds are published in full.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT tell me if my deposit is protected?
It can help you interpret a certificate and identify the official scheme to check, but it cannot confirm a live record by itself. Use the scheme's own lookup or contact the scheme directly before treating the deposit as protected.
How do I check if my landlord protected my deposit?
Gather your tenancy documents and use the official deposit scheme named in the certificate, or start from GOV.UK if you do not know the scheme. Compare the live result with your address, landlord or agent, deposit amount and tenancy details.
What if I cannot find my deposit protection certificate?
Ask the landlord or letting agent which authorised scheme holds the deposit and request the protection information in writing. If they cannot provide it, check the official scheme websites or contact Citizens Advice for guidance.
Can I take my landlord to court if my deposit is not protected?
Possibly, but the correct route depends on the tenancy, evidence and current rules. This is not professional advice; a serious case needs a housing solicitor, and you should preserve the tenancy documents, payment evidence and scheme correspondence.

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Assessed by gpt-5.6-luna (gpt-5.6-luna) on 2026-08-13, second-checked by an independent model. Wrong somewhere? Email [email protected] and it gets re-checked.

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