Leaving the property

We need at least two months’ written notice from all tenants (email is fine) that you do not wish to renew the tenancy, along with the reasons why. We will then agree with your landlord what they would like us to do with the property. Usually this means we will start marketing the property to find further tenants.

Most of our tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies, which means that both you and your landlord make a firm commitment for the term of the tenancy. This means you can only leave the tenancy early if both you and your landlord agree.

Given the complexities of this, we have a separate page covering what you need to know.

Once notice has been served (i.e. either you have told us you want to leave or your landlord has told you they want you to leave) we will write to confirm the notice and the date of the last day of your tenancy. You will need to make sure you vacate the property on or before this date.

We will arrange a check-out meeting, usually on the last day of your tenancy.

See our section below –  ‘What will I need to do before check-out’.

Sometimes your circumstances may change and you may decide to stay in the property. In this case you will be responsible for all of the abortive charges including advertising and marketing costs incurred since you gave notice. You will also be responsible for the refund of any costs incurred by the landlord as a result of work to find new tenants (if applicable).

We would also need to consider the impact on any people who had agreed to move into the property, who may be homeless as a result of your change of mind.

Therefore, if you can, let us know as soon as possible, so we can agree with your landlord what they want to do.

It is important to allow enough time to ensure the property is returned in a condition which is no worse than that shown on the inventory, other than allowing for reasonable wear and tear.

Essentially if something can be cleaned off, it is not wear and tear.

Our tenancy agreements require that the carpets are cleaned to a professional standard at the end of your tenancy and that the property is at least as clean as shown on the inventory from the start of the tenancy.

Many of the deductions we make from deposits are where this has not happened, e.g. carpets have not been cleaned to a professional standard or there is other cleaning to be done such as ovens and removing limescale.

To prevent this we offer a check-out cleaning service which means you do not have to do any cleaning or worry about whether the home is clean enough when you leave! All you have to do is remove your belongings and leave the rest to us.

We will arrange a convenient time to carry out this procedure which normally takes about an hour. We will go around the property together noting any items which are not the same as they are shown on the inventory.

We will then take meter readings with you and take the keys back, at which point we take responsibility for the property.

Please note that once we have completed this meeting and you have checked-out you will not be able to re-enter the property, so any cleaning or remedial works must take place before.

After the Check-out meeting we will assess the costs for addressing the issues identified, e.g. replacing missing items, repairs, compensation for damage, cleaning etc. We then explain and agree these costs with both you and your landlord.

• Any unpaid rent or charges
• Any Maxine Lester charges for services you have requested
• Unpaid Council Tax and utility bills to the last day of your tenancy. We will need a valid UK forwarding address or proof all bills have been paid to the last day of the tenancy, otherwise we retain £250 of your deposit in lieu of the assessed costs of these bills to avoid your landlord meeting these costs
• Any damage to the property, fixtures and fittings or appliances.
• Cleaning to return the property to the same standard as shown in the inventory agreed at the start of the tenancy
• Cleaning all carpets to a professional standard

If you do not leave when you are scheduled to, apart from the fact you are likely to be denying someone else a home they expect to be able to move into, you are likely to then be subject to legal proceedings, ultimately resulting in bailiffs evicting you and a County Court Judgement against you for any unpaid costs. If you think you may not be able to leave then get in touch with us as soon as possible.

After we complete the check-out visit we will identify whether there are costs which need to be met from your deposit. We will then aim to agree these costs with both you and your landlord as soon as possible, returning the balance of your deposit to you.

Our aim is to return all of your deposit to you, as that is a sign you have looked after your landlord’s property.

In 2019 we returned the full deposit to 37% of our tenants.

The average deduction from the 63% of our tenants who had deductions was just £194, of which £79 was for cleaning. Where people used our checkout cleaning service there were no deductions for cleaning.

On average we concluded all deposit discussions in 6.8 days.