What to include in notice to vacate rental property?

BoC163

Looking for a bit of advice, we've given verbal notice to our private landlord but would like to give written formal notice even though he said this wasn't necessary.

We've lived in the house for 8 years and paid a deposit of one months rental on taking up the tenancy. We had no written rental agreement or inventory although a few years after when requested we were provided with a generic rental agreement.

Luckily our landlord has been on the whole reasonable over the years, he has walked through the house with us and agreed that we just need to leave the house in a clean state. I did point out the minor repairs that we had requested in the recent past but accepted that it would be better to leave for him to rectify after vacating the property.

I am however concerned that once we have vacated he may retract on some of the verbal agreements (he is the type who likes to squeeze out every penny he can!) and so would welcome any advice on what I should include in the letter especially regarding return of our deposit?

sooz

The main thing is to get the dates right.

On what day did your rental start, and on what day is your rent due?

If, for example, it started on the 3rd of a month, and you always pay on or by the 3rd, you must give notice on or before the 2nd of a month, to expire on the 2nd of the following month. This is because your rental calendar month runs from the 3rd to the 2nd, and a new rental month starts each 3rd.

Does that make sense?


With no inventory, and after 8 years, you should get your entire deposit back, as there is 8 years of wear and tear on everything. This is not your fault, and you should not be charged for it.

You might therefore want to include something to that effect in your notice.

How about...


We are giving you one month's notice that we will be leaving the property on ......................................

We've enjoyed living here for the last 8 years, and look forward to receiving our deposit back promptly.

clutton_2

did he give you an inventory when you moved in ? if he did not - he cannot make any deductions at all, as there is no yardstick against which to measure 8 years worth of damage/wear and tear.

have you got a receipt for your deposit ?

BoC163

Thanks for the advice, no we didn't get a receipt for the deposit but I still have the cheque stub (but then again getting him to produce receipts for work done on the property could prove even more of a challenge to him!)

We've already discussed with him the remaining rent due and will probably propose deducting it from the deposit, don't know why but my gut feeling is that unless everything is clearly written down and no objections voiced by him we might come unstuck!

As I said we've overall been more than satisfied on our stay here which was alot longer than originally intended, when retrospectively we could've brought on many problems by naively taking on a tenancy that relied on verbal agreements only!

clutton_2

with such a long tenancy i am sure that with some careful and friendly discussions that you can resolve things ... good luck