Are you about to move out of your house? Whether you’re moving in with The One or moving into your first house post-uni halls, moving out of the old place is a bitch. Especially when it comes to getting your security deposit back.
Seeing as we’ve been screwed over before (I was once given the option of painting my entire room in half an hour or paying them £180 to do it for me, I went with the latter), we thought we’d get a few tips on how to leave the place in a good enough state that you’ll get your hard earned cash back. Martin, a landlord in South East London, filled us in what what we need to do.
How it looks overall depends on how long you’ve been there
According to Martin, how ship shape the empty house is left depends on how long the tenants have been living there for. ‘If they have only been there for six months and the house appears trashed then that would be different to factoring in five years of "fair wear and tear" into the condition’ Martin explains. However all of this is dependent on what happened when you moved in though. ‘Again it all depends on whether the agent or I had done a proper inventory upon move-in, with photos. If there is no inventory, then the landlord can only really charge for issues that are clearly taking the piss.’
Treat the place like you’d treat your parents’
‘If it is students or yuppies renting from me then my mindset is “would this person have done this in their parents' house?”’ Says Martin. ‘If the answer is “no” then why should they expect me to accept it? A few blue tac marks are fine, but chewing gum walked into the carpets, for example, would be pushing the limits of even the Royle Family.’ Martin also gives a handy hint to help you out with this; ‘You can remove chewing gum with a freeze spray by the way, scraping it off when frozen.’ If you’ve smoked inside check for damage from that too. ‘Cigarette burns are also a danger zone for your deposit,’ he says.
Blu-tack is OK. In limitation
‘If the whole place is freshly painted then blue-tac marks can be irritating, but shouldn't cause expense unless they pepper the whole wall. I would suggest using Flash Magic Eraser rather than trying to touch up the paintwork – a bad touch-up job is no better than the marks they cover. Any other marks on the walls should be washed off – ketchup and coffee up the walls is not going to predispose a landlord towards clemency!’
You can leave the odd thing behind. Depending on what it is.
Don’t panic too much if you bought a fancy armoir on Gumtree and now you can’t get it down the stairs, ‘Stuff left behind; if it is a few, fire safe bits of furniture then that's fine.’ Explains Martin. ‘If it's obviously rubbish, however, then get a Hippo Bag from B&Q and dump it that way – I don't expect to have to cover the cost of rubbish removal (which is getting increasingly expensive with EU landfill regulations). Metal things can just be left on the pavement and someone will pick them up in no time.’
Remember the obvious
‘Rent and keys: unpaid rent is an obvious deposit deduction. Not handing keys back is less obvious but must be done to avoid the cost of replacement locks.’ DUH GUYS.
Now all you need to do is figure out what you're going to spend your reclaimed security deposit on. Oh right, your rent. Score.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.