Survey reveals landlords' postcode lottery

Tenants in the South East of England are most likely to damage property - according to analysis from The Deposit Protection Service (The DPS).

More than 40 per cent of DPS disputes between landlords and tenants have occurred in that region - with tenants trashing houses, letting gardens go wild or simply disappearing without notice.

More than half of the disputes in the South East (52 per cent) were the result of tenants damaging the property. More than a third (36 per cent) were due to the property not being cleaned - while the rest concerned poor repair of the garden.

The North East saw the second highest level of disputes (15 per cent), followed by the South West (12 per cent), North West (11 per cent) and West Midlands (11 per cent).

London is the worst offender when the analysis was broken down into cities, followed by Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and York.

Kevin Firth, director of The DPS, said: "Exasperated landlords have sent us all sorts of complaints about tenants - from vomit on the carpets to carpets vanishing completely.

"One landlord discovered that his property was being used as a brothel - while we have had several unsuspecting landlords whose properties have been transformed into cannabis factories.

"The introduction of a dispute resolution service has been one of the real successes of the Government's tenancy deposit legislation - ensuring that these differences are sorted out fairly.

"It is important to remember, however, that the number of disputes that do arise between landlords and tenants is relatively small."

The Deposit Protection Service currently manages £250million of live deposits, equating to over 329,000 separate deposits. Around 250 new landlords and agents sign up to the service every day.