Published on Wednesday, 15 December 2010
If your lease contract is due to expire in the next month, you should inform your building manager that you will be vacating the unit. You should write a moving out letter to make things official though. If you have a great relationship with the manager, you could also request for a recommendation letter so you can get another unit much easier especially if you are still a student.
To get the whole security deposit though, you should clean up the place before you leave. You should also take out the nails you have punched into the walls. If there are holes, you should patch them as well. Otherwise, the landlord or the manager can charge you for the repair and the cleaning expenses. After you clean up and make the repairs take a picture of the place before you leave. This will be your proof that you left the unit in a good condition. It would even be better if you take photos of the condition of the place when you first got there. This would help you prove you left in the same condition as you got there.
It usually takes about a month before you can get the security deposit though. So if you are moving you cannot depend on it as your security deposit funds because it won't be released yet.
