Do Not Leave Without Telling Someone
When looking to move out of your apartment, it is your legal
obligation to give the landlord notice of your intent to
leave. This should be in the form of a written notice.
The letter should include your name, the unit you are occupying,
and the date when you are going to move out. You should also
include your future address so your landlord will know where to
send your security deposit after you move out.
When Should You Give Notice?
If you have a written lease, it will usually tell you when
you must give this notice. If you do not have a written
lease, you must give notice 30 days in advance of when you plan to
vacate. One thing to keep in mind is that these periods of
time are counted from the day rent is due.
Do not forget to contact your utility companies to make sure
that your phone, cable, gas, electric, and water have been
disconnected if the utilities are your name or that of your
roommate’s. Furthermore, you should contact your bank, any
lenders and companies/organizations that send you regular
correspondence and provide them your new address.
Cleaning Your Rental
Before you move out, make sure your clean your apartment
thoroughly. You are required by law to make sure your rental
is in decent condition upon vacating. Remove any furniture or other
items that belong to you or your roommates.
If you do not clean your rental, you risk losing all or part of
your security deposit. You may even suffer a lawsuit if you
left your rental in a particularly bad state. The landlord
may deduct from your deposit for the cost of a professional
cleaning crew to do the job you could have done for almost
nothing. If new tenants are moving in right after you, the
place needs to be reoccupied immediately. Your cleaning at
the end can make things easier for everyone – including
yourself.
Now is not the time to penalize the landlord for the condition of
your apartment when you moved in. Move-in problems should
have been dealt with at the beginning of your lease term. At
this point, you just want your move-out experience to be as smooth
as possible and to get back all of the security deposit money you
paid initially.
Inspect Your Rental Beofre Leaving
While you are required by law to clean your rental you
should also inspect your apartment for your own protection.
Before you turn in your keys, send a letter to your landlord asking
him/her to inspect the apartment with you. After the
inspection, ask the landlord to sign a note that says you left the
apartment clean and undamaged. If you cannot get him/her to
do this, then you should have a friend inspect your
apartment. The friend should take photographs, and sign and
date them. This will help you in case you have trouble
getting your deposit back. The hope is that you did a similar
inspection when you moved in. If you did then your final
inspection should reflect only what happened while you lived there
– not any pre-existing defects or repair problems. The
written inspection is one of the few ways you can protect your
security deposit and yourself from a possible lawsuit for property
damage. Written inspections can always be strengthened by the
presence of disinterested witnesses, photographs, and
videotapes.
If you and your roommates completed a Check-In sheet and were
able to get your landlord to sign it right before your moved into
the rental you should now use it as a reference for comparing any
new damage that may have occurred during your time in the
rental.
Returning Your Keys
Returning your keys may seem like an obvious step in moving
out of your apartment, but there are a few things you should keep
in mind. The first thing is to be sure that you hand over the
keys by the end of the lease; if you do not, the landlord might
continue to charge you rent and/or charge you for a lock
change. Also, it is best to give your keys back in person, so
there is no doubt that your landlord received them. By this
point, you should also have given your landlord, in writing, your
forwarding address where your security deposit can be sent.
This address should be given to your landlord in person or sent by
certified mail.
Getting Your Deposit Back
By the time you move out, you should provide your forwarding
address, in writing. Then the landlord must either return
your security deposit (with interest) or give you a complete list
of damages they claim you did to the property and money you still
owe under the terms of the lease within 30 days after the end of
the lease. The remainder of the deposit and any list of
deductions must be sent to you by registered or certified mail.
The landlord cannot charge for damage caused by ordinary wear
and tear. Examples of wear and tear include faded paint on
walls, loose tiles in the bathroom, window cracks caused by winter
weather and leaky faucets.
If after 30 days the landlord has not returned your security
deposit, you can file a complaint against the landlord in Small
Claims Court. If the court finds that the landlord wrongfully
refused to return the deposit, the court must order the landlord to
pay the tenant double the amount of the deposit if it is not
returned at all or double the amount that you believe the landlord
wrongfully deducted from your deposit. The court may also
award you reasonable attorney’s fees if you hired an
attorney.