If you are planning to move house, you are probably excited to get into your new place and start to make it feel like your home. However, you shouldn’t get too excited and rush ahead with your plans.
You need to focus on your current home or apartment and make sure it is up to the agreed standard for when you return the keys to your landlord. If it isn’t, then you might find you don’t get your whole deposit returned to you in full.
Want to make sure you get that complete deposit back? Here are some steps you should take.
Don’t Stick Things To The Walls
One of the most important things to remember is that you shouldn’t use any adhesives to stick posters and other things directly onto the walls. These can be very difficult to remove once you move out. Even if you do manage to remove them, you will find that they will stain the wall. The only way you can deal with these stains is to paint over them to cover them up. However, your landlord might still notice them and could charge you for them, which will be taken out of your deposit.
Repair Furniture
If the home or apartment was furnished when you moved in, you need to take could care of all the furniture items. Have you scratched or chipped some pieces? If so, don’t panic. You can use touch up wood markers on wooden furniture to remove any visible scratches and chips. You can also remove any stains from materials by wiping them down with a solution made of baking soda and warm water. If anything is damaged beyond repair, you might be better off completely replacing it.
Fill In The Final Inventory
When you moved into the property, your landlord will have provided you with an initial inventory. This will have been a list of all the items that were in the flat. For instance, any furniture, kitchen utensils, and appliances will be mentioned. You will need to fill out another inventory as you move out. Make sure you list everything that you are leaving in the flat and what quality it is in. Try and ensure that the list matches the original inventory – if something is missing, then you might find that the landlord takes the cost of it out of your deposit.
Spring Clean
Your landlord can also charge you for the cost of any extra cleaning he needs to do once you have moved out so that he can prepare the property for the next tenants. To make sure that he doesn’t need to do any cleaning at all, you should spring clean the property just before you move out. Make sure that there isn’t a speck of dust anywhere and that you don’t give your landlord an excuse to clean up after you!
It can be very upsetting when you don’t get your full deposit returned to you, especially if you need the money as a deposit on your next place. Don’t let that happen to you!
This is a collaborated post.
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