Your tenants can apply to a county court if you do not use a tenancy deposit protection (TDP) scheme when you have to. They can do this at any time during the tenancy.
If the court finds you have not protected the deposit, it can order you to either:
repay it to your tenants
pay it into a custodial TDP scheme’s bank account within 14 days
The court may also order you to repay your tenants up to 3 times their original deposit within 14 days of making the order.
At the end of the tenancy
The court may also decide that your tenants do not have to leave the property when the tenancy ends if you did not use a TDP scheme when you should have.