Hundreds of thousands of tenants claim to have been cheated by rogue landlords who refuse to pay back their rent deposit, a survey has suggested.
Some tenants have found getting their deposit back a real headache
A quarter of tenants have lost at least part of their deposit at the end of a tenancy in the past five years.
One in seven thought the landlord right to keep their money, the Citizens Advice and Shelter survey found.
The groups want tough measures to protect tenants' cash included in the government's Housing Bill.
Mori quizzed 2,004 people for the survey carried out on behalf of Shelter and Citizens advice.
The two groups estimate that there are 2.2 million tenants, about 70% of whom have paid a deposit averaging £510 each.
The groups are calling on the government to include the setting up of a statutory national tenancy deposit scheme to protect people's money and resolve disputes in its Housing Bill, currently going through parliament.
Under present rules, tenants who feel they have had their deposits withheld unfairly often have little choice but to resort to court action to recover their money.
Court action can be expensive, time consuming and there is no guarantee of ultimately recovering the deposit.
"We must protect tenants from the cowboy landlords who ride off with their tenants' money without any concern for the hardship they cause," said, Adam Sampson, director of Shelter.
"These landlords also do great damage to the reputation of the vast majority of good landlords," Mr Sampson added.
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