How to Calculate the 30 Working Days Deposit Deadline in Scotland

The most expensive mistake Scottish landlords make with tenancy deposits is counting the wrong kind of days. Under Regulation 3 of the Tenancy Deposit Schemes (Scotland) Regulations 2011, you have 30 working days — not calendar days — to lodge the deposit with an approved scheme and serve the prescribed information on the tenant. Get the count wrong by even one day and you face a mandatory penalty at the First-tier Tribunal of up to three times the deposit.

What Counts as a Working Day

Regulation 2 of the 2011 Regulations defines a working day as any day that is not:

• A Saturday
• A Sunday
• An official bank holiday in Scotland

This is the Scottish definition, not the English one. England uses a 30-calendar-day deadline under different legislation. If you manage properties in both jurisdictions and apply the English calendar-day count to a Scottish tenancy, you will almost certainly breach the deadline during any period that includes bank holidays or long weekends.

When the Clock Starts

The 30-working-day clock does not start when the tenant pays the deposit. It starts on the beginning of the tenancy — the official tenancy start date recorded in the tenancy agreement.

This distinction matters in practice. If a tenant pays a deposit on 15 May for a tenancy that starts on 1 June, the clock begins on 1 June. You have a buffer before the tenancy begins, but once day one arrives, the 30-working-day countdown is running whether or not you've set up your scheme account.

Counting the Days: A Worked Example

Tenancy start date: Tuesday, 2 June 2026.

Day 1 is Wednesday, 3 June (the first working day after the tenancy begins — day one is the next working day, not the start date itself). You then count forward, skipping every Saturday, Sunday, and Scottish bank holiday.

Scotland's bank holidays for 2026 include:

• 1–2 January (New Year)
• 3 April (Good Friday)
• 4 May (Early May bank holiday)
• 25 May (Spring bank holiday)
• 15 June (World Cup bank holiday)
• 3 August (Summer bank holiday)
• 30 November (St Andrew's Day)
• 25 December (Christmas Day)
• 28 December (Boxing Day substitute day)

Some Scottish local authorities observe additional local holidays (Glasgow Fair, Edinburgh Autumn Holiday). These local holidays are not statutory bank holidays for the purposes of the 2011 Regulations — only the nationally gazetted dates count.

In our example, with a Tuesday, 2 June start, the 30th working day falls on Wednesday, 15 July. If you lodge the deposit on 16 July, you are one working day late — and that single day is enough for a tribunal application.

Both Obligations Share the Same Deadline

The 30-working-day window covers two separate duties:

1. Lodging the deposit — transferring the money to an approved custodial scheme (SafeDeposits Scotland, MyDeposits Scotland, or LPS Scotland) and receiving confirmation that the scheme has placed it in a designated account
2. Serving prescribed information — delivering the written Regulation 42 pack to every named tenant

Both must be completed within the same 30 working days. Lodging the deposit on day 25 but serving the prescribed information on day 35 is a breach of the separate prescribed-information duty, even though the deposit was lodged on time.

Common Mistakes

Counting calendar days instead of working days. Thirty calendar days from 1 June is 1 July. Thirty working days from 1 June is mid-July. A landlord who races to meet a 1 July "deadline" has actually given themselves unnecessary urgency — but a landlord who assumes 30 calendar days and hits a bank-holiday-heavy period might relax too long and miss the real deadline.

Starting the count from the deposit payment date. If the tenant paid the deposit two weeks before the tenancy start date, those two weeks don't count toward the 30 working days. The clock starts on the tenancy start date, period.

Assuming the bank transfer date is the lodging date. Compliance is achieved when the scheme confirms receipt, not when you initiate the transfer. A Faster Payment usually clears quickly, but a BACS transfer can take three working days. If you're close to the deadline, use Faster Payments or a debit card through the scheme portal.

Forgetting that lodging and prescribed information are separate deadlines. You can lodge the deposit on day five and then forget about the prescribed information until day 35. That's a breach on the prescribed information even though the deposit was safely lodged.

What If You're Already Past the Deadline

If you've missed the 30-working-day window, lodge the deposit and serve the prescribed information immediately. Late compliance does not erase your exposure to a tribunal penalty. Demonstrated self-correction is a primary mitigating factor the tribunal considers when setting the penalty amount.

A minor delay, self-correction before a tenant application, a safeguarded deposit, and no financial harm are listed as mitigating circumstances. The tribunal must impose some penalty — it has no power to dismiss a proven breach — but it has discretion over the amount, up to three times the deposit.

The full deposit compliance timeline — from the moment you receive money through to end-of-tenancy return — is mapped step by step in the Tenancy Deposits in Scotland guide.

See more Scotland guides →