3.—(1) The Department may appoint a person who has applied to the Department to establish and maintain a tenancy deposit scheme of a description prescribed in Part 3 where the Department has approved that application under the Regulations.
(2) The Department must not approve an application where the applicant:—
(a)has been convicted of any offence involving fraud or dishonesty;
(b)is a bankrupt; or
(c)is disqualified from being a director of a company.
4. Upon application by a person approved under regulation 3 neither a tenancy deposit scheme nor any amendment to that scheme shall come into force unless approved by the Department.
5. The Department shall not approve a tenancy deposit scheme where:—
(a)the scheme is not of a description prescribed in Part 3 (description of schemes);
(b)the scheme administrator and the scheme do not satisfy the requirements of Part 4 (financing and accountability requirements);
(c)the scheme administrator does not satisfy the requirements of Part 6 (dispute resolution);
(d)the scheme does not include a customer service facility which is available to users of tenancy deposit schemes for the purposes of, in particular:—
(i)handling enquiries in relation to the tenancy deposit scheme whether made by telephone, letter, or electronic means; and
(ii)dealing with complaints about the tenancy deposit scheme, including complaints about the service provided by the scheme administrator;
(e)the tenancy deposit scheme is not available to all landlords, including those living outside of the Northern Ireland jurisdiction but operating in Northern Ireland, and their tenants.