about my landlord?

[hatesponge]

I probably am, but anyway...

Currently live in rented house. Lease ends on 31 Jan. The letting agents rang me a few weeks ago to ask about various things, including when I'd be moving out. I said to them obviously lease ends on Sun, but I hoped to move out by last weekend, or if not by this Saturday at the latest. They asked if I would drop the key off to them when property was empty & I had moved out, which I agreed.

So today landlord phones/emails me with messages to the effect of ' I must know when you are moving out, and I must be there when you move out to 'check you out' of the property

I know the agents have told him about the above discussion. I'm not living in a hotel and quite frankly with all the hassle of moving quite the last thing I want to do is go through some 'checking out' (whatever thats meant to mean) rigmarole with him. I suspect he will try and retain some of my deposit. However I dont want to be put on the spot by him over this, or persuaded to agree anything/have him point out every little chip of paint etc.

On that basis am minded to tell him simply that I'm giving the keys to his agents, as I agreed with them and as he's aware. AIBU?!

I don't think YABU, if there is a letting agent then you should be dealing with them and not the landlord directly, thats what they get paid for isn't it?

We've never set eyes on our tenants and I have no intention of doing so when they move out either.

I'd refer back to the letting agent and ask them to deal with it.

If you are concerned about the deposit you should ensure that the agents are there to check out the property before you leave. If not and you are later accused of leaving the place in a state or having caused dammage, you have no evidence. If the agent won't do it then better the LL is there than no one but thats what the agent is for.

You should have an inventory which details the state of the property when you moved in and which can then be reviewed byt the agent or landlord when you move out. For your own protection I would advise that you have someone from the agents view the property before you leave it to confirm the state of repair. Or you could take some photos of the property when you move out so you have evidence of its state or repair. In fact best thing is to always take pics when you move in and when you move out.

Regarding your deposit, if you moved in after April 2008 then your deposit should be held in a third party agency account which will repay you in full unless the landlord makes some claim about it. If the landlord does make a claim then the third party company will come and check details to validate it and confirm what is a resonable amount. If the landlord has not put your deposit in one of these accounts he/she has broken the law.

In general it is common practise to 'check a tenant out' of the property to evaluate whether deposit should be repaid in full or not.

i am telling you this as a scrupulous landlady, i am aware there are many landlords wgho are not so straight.

I second what Cheepz says.

You really should be there to be "checked out" as you should have been "checked in" and provided with an inventory by the letting agent.

If there is then a dispute then you can deal with it at the time, and if there is anything not as is you should be given the chance to rectify (if there is no one waiting to move in we always give the tenant 48 hours to rectify anything) otherwise it could delay the return of your deposit.

I see what you're saying however there was no checking in either by landlord or agent. The day I moved in, I just went to agents office and picked up keys. I expected to be able to do the same when I move out.

There was/is no inventory either.

However, the deposit is held in an account.

I will be taking photos of the property. But what I dont want is my landlord - who I know has no idea what the house was like when I moved in as he was living outide the UK for tax reasons then - going round the property with me. If he has any issue with the state the house is left in, then as far as Im concerned he can raise it as a dispute and give me a right to reply. I dont need to see him fact to face to do that, nor do I want to.

face to face sorry

and just to add, there havent been any viewers round so as far as I'm aware there's no-one waiting to move in.

I would also feel uncomfortable about this situation and am dreading it when it comes to us moving out of our rental.

After all, when you sell a house nobody comes to 'check you out' when you leave!!! It's just another example of tenants being second class citizens IMO

Say you are unsure when you will actually be leaving and so you will be dropping the keys off with the letting agent. Just tell him he can write or phone if he has any issues he wants to discuss with regards to the deposit.

I would arrange to meet the agent first thing Monday and go through the empty flat.

moomoomalarky tenants are not second class citizens. Is it too much to ask that a tenant leaves a property in the condition it was found in, fair wear and tear allowed for. I know there are some unscrupulous landlords out there, as there are unscrupulous tenants. We have always been fair with our tenants even a family that left the property filthy (and I mean filthy) dirty, I gave them 48 hours to clean the place which they did and they got their full deposit back.

hatesponge If there is an agent involved and you have agreed to hand the keys over to them then I would do so. Maybe this guy thinks he is going to try and pull a fast one on you, if you have never dealt with him before, don't start now

moomoo - I do know what you mean, this doesnt happen when you sell a house.

Think am going to go for the not sure when precisely I will be leaving approach...which is true because it really depends how long all my cleaning etc takes!

LIZS- unfortunately I will be at work 250 miles away on Monday so meeting the agent then would not be a possibility

HavetoWearHeels - entirely agree property should be left in original condition, wear and tear yes, dirty no. Hence why I will be spending all day tomorrow cleaning walls/windows/paintwork, shampooing the carpets and Mr muscle-ing the oven

i have had to deal with landlord before, but not face to face iyswim. would prefer to keep it that way

Maybe check your tenancy agreement? The agreement I use states either the Agent or Landlord does the checking out process.

hatesponge happy to have you as a tenant anyday . Some tenants seem to think it is acceptable to not clean for the whole tenancy period and expect you to do it for them

Agree with most of the above, as a landlord and tenant lawyer I would recomend that someone is present to do a check out, even if you didn't do a check in.
Its very difficult to defend any allegations, even if there is no check in, once you have left the property.
If you really can't then photos are a great idea as is giving a room by room description. Send it to the agents/landlord once you have gone with a letter stating hope you agree.
One other point, if you don't want to move out yet you don't need to. your fixed term tenancy becomes a periodic and the landlord would need to serve/issue upon a section 21 to take possession.
best of luck