How escrow-protected booking would work
This page describes a design, not a service. It sets out where a deposit sits today, where escrow would hold it instead, what would release it, and everything that is still missing before any of it could be real.
None of this is live
HomeTrust holds no money, operates no escrow account, and has no banking relationship. Nothing described below can be used today.
The Deposit Safety Report on the home page is the only thing this site does. It is free, it runs in your browser, and it is real.
Where your deposit sits today
Custody today
No instrument governs it. There is no account, no mandate and no third party between the two of you.
- Held by
- The landlord or broker you paid, in an account of their own, mixed with their own money.
- Comes back when
- They decide it does, after deductions they describe themselves.
- Outer limit
- 30 days after you vacate, under the Model Tenancy Act 2021. Nothing but you enforces it.
The person who decides whether you get it back is the person holding it.
That is not a finding about your landlord. It is the shape of the arrangement, and the shape is the same whether the deposit was inside the statutory cap or well above it.
Where it would sit instead
Four steps, written in the conditional because none of them has ever run. Each one names the instrument that would govern it, who would be holding the money, and what would move it next.
Your transfer instruction
You pay the deposit once, into an escrow account
At the moment you would otherwise transfer to the landlord, the same amount would go to an escrow account opened for this tenancy. The landlord is told it has arrived, and the tenancy starts on that confirmation rather than on a screenshot.
- Held by
- The escrow account. Not the landlord, and not HomeTrust.
- Moves next when
- The tenancy ends and a move-out is filed.
The escrow mandate
It is held untouched for the length of the tenancy
Neither side could withdraw it alone. The mandate would be agreed before the tenancy starts and would name the only two events that release money: an agreed move-out, or a decision in a dispute.
- Held by
- The same account, for the whole term.
- Moves next when
- One of the two named events happens.
The move-out inspection record
You move out, and the flat is read against the move-in record
Condition is recorded when you move in and again when you leave. Deductions are itemised against that pair of records, so a claim on the deposit has to point at a line instead of being asserted after the keys are back.
- Held by
- The same account, while the itemisation is agreed.
- Moves next when
- The deductions are agreed, or formally disputed.
The release instruction
The undisputed balance comes back to you
Whatever nobody is arguing about is released to you. A disputed amount stays in escrow until it is settled, and that is the part that changes: today a disputed amount stays with the landlord, which is why so few disputes are ever raised.
- Held by
- You, for the released balance.
- Moves next when
- Nothing. The tenancy is closed.
How long a release would take
Release would be tied to the inspection rather than to a calendar. The undisputed balance would move once the move-out record is filed and the itemisation is agreed; a disputed amount would stay in escrow until the dispute closes.
The Model Tenancy Act's 30-day return window after you vacate is the outer bound the design has to sit inside. A rail slower than the statute it exists to enforce would not be worth building.
We are not quoting a figure in days. No deposit has ever moved through this, so any number printed here would be invented.
What would have to exist first
The honest version of a roadmap is a list of things that are not there. This is ours.
- A bank that would hold the money
- Not arranged. HomeTrust has no banking relationship, nodal or otherwise, and nothing in progress that we could point you at.
- A licence to move other people's money
- Not held. HomeTrust is not a payment aggregator and is not registered as one, so the account would have to sit with a licensed partner rather than with us.
- A move-out inspection both sides accept
- Not designed past the paragraphs above. A release rule only works if the landlord agrees to be bound by it before the tenancy starts, and we have not tested whether any will.
- Renters who want it enough to use it
- Unknown. HomeTrust has no customers and holds no deposits. The list below is how we find out, which is the only reason this page exists.
Tell us to build it
Which cities get opened first, and which deposit sizes are worth holding, are decided by who asks. That is the whole purpose of this list.
What this site does today
It reads the rental terms you type against the Model Tenancy Act 2021 and screens what you were told against documented fraud patterns, then gives you the reading back. That is all of it. HomeTrust holds no money, operates no account, and charges nothing.
It takes about a minute and you already have every figure it asks for.
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