End of Tenancy - How long does the check-out process take?

Tenant Discussion
1

Hello there,

I always like to read this forum as the community is constructive and informative. It’s also good to see different viewpoints but to be honest, I hoped that I wouldn’t need to create a new post ever.
Well, I’m afraid my time has come, and I would like to ask for your advice in the case below. (sorry it’s not short, but I would like to share all the points at least from our view)
Our previous tenancy had a 1.5 years duration, and we were happy to renew the contract for another year in March. Our landlord asked for a new break clause after 6months due to some ongoing personal issue. That was absolutely fine by us. At the end of May, he told us that he has to sell the apartment asap.
The marketing started by mid-June, which was 3.5 months earlier than our contract end. We wanted to be as flexible as we can with the viewers, we cleaned the flat properly and left it before the appointments. We were/are working at home and there was/is a pandemic out here, so we tried to schedule the viewings only for the weekends.
In return, we hoped that he could release us slightly earlier if we found the property earlier. We have a cat and we were afraid that the predicted second wave of the COVID would make the searching almost impossible in September. Although we found a new property by mid-August, we understand that he wants us to pay a full amount for Sept too. We moved out by the end of August, and they could have full-time access since this time.
That was the point when they started to ignore our emails, we asked to close the outstanding actions as soon as possible as we have no interests in the flat anymore. We were waiting for feedback for almost a whole months, then we scheduled a cleaning service by 27 Sept as this was the end of our tenancy. That time we just received an email from the landlord that he does not want us to use the XY cleaning company but nothing else.
No answer to our notification about status update. Although we mentioned that we are waiting for them as the cleaning is done and all the bills and the rental fee are paid for September.

Last week we visited the agency in person. In theory, they have started to look after it last week, but it still just silences into our direction.

Are there any regulations on the timing of the checkout? We couldn’t find anything in our contract regarding this topic.
We wish to close this as soon as possible and get back our deposit.

Thanks,
Zsanett

2

Sorry your landlord has not dealt with this well. If your tenancy ended on 30 Sept then that was only a week ago and they normally have 10 days to deal with the deposit, so if you don’t hear anything by this time next week, I think you just have to keep pressing both the landlord and the agent. If it really drags on then speak to the deposit scheme and ask how you can make a single claim.

3

Hi David,
Thanks for your comment.
I have read about this 10 days allowance regarding the deposit, I just thought it would be in place after the inventory check, once we have an agreement with the LL about the possible deposit deductions.
Generally, I agree with you, they are still on time. Just the silence makes me worry.
For example, we are still waiting for the agency/landlord to let us know, how we can give back our keys or to who as he didn’t want us to give it back to the agency.
With this post, I would like to be prepared by the time I will give them a call early next week.

4

Come back and ask more questions if the dont deal with it properly.