Lesson 3 of 3 · 5 min
Notice, deposit back, and disputes
Leaving well is a paper exercise: written notice, a joint inspection two weeks early, and a trail so complete the landlord has nothing left to argue with.
Leaving without losing your deposit
Two months before
Re-read the notice clause, then give notice in writing
Email or WhatsApp counts if the agreement allows it. A phone call proves nothing later.
Two weeks before
Ask for a joint inspection and share your move-in video
Surprises surface now, while there is still time to fix or contest them.
Handover day
Return the keys against a written acknowledgement
Note the metre readings again and settle pending bills — those are fair charges.
After handover
Follow up for the deposit in writing, citing the agreement's return timeline
A written trail is what a legal notice — and a court, if it comes to that — rests on.
Sort it
1 / 4
The landlord wants to keep part of your deposit for this. Fair charge, or worth contesting?
Full repainting after you lived there four years
If the deposit does not come back, escalate in writing: first a follow-up note citing the agreement, then a lawyer's legal notice — which often works by itself.
Where your state has adopted the Model Tenancy Act, rent courts exist for exactly this. Elsewhere it is the civil court or, in some states, older rent-control machinery. Small amounts frequently get settled the moment a lawyer's letterhead appears.
Check yourself
1 / 3
Kabir asks
You ring the landlord two months before moving out and say you are leaving. Is that notice?
Done reading?
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