I’m going to give a slightly more positive message than Benji, which hinges on my interpretation of how your deposit has been dealt with from a purely legal-admin point of view.

So you give back the keys on, say 1st Dec. You agree to allow the deposit money to be used as the final month’s rent money, say up to 1st Jan. The house sits empty over Christmas.

The lanlord is expecting a new tenant to move in from 2nd Jan who then lets them down, so they decide to come after you to prevent them suffering a stop in their income.

So if I’ve got that right, lets roll back to late November, when you’re asking what happens if you leave early.

At this point the landlord would have done an inspection for damages. I’ll assume there were none, otherwise the landlord would have asked you to pay for damages from the deposit and make up the final month’s rent. So he is doing the final inspection prior to termination of the tenancy.

So legally speaking, the deposit money is released to you on 1st Jan. You immediately give up an amount of money equal to the deposit as payment of the final amount of rent due. I know the money never passed physically through your hands, but this is what happened from a legal perspective.

The deposit money can only be accessed by the landlord at the end of the tenancy. By accessing the money they have done an action which shows they have accepted the tenancy is over. A landlord is not able to access the deposit money during a tenancy in order to make up arrears.

QED: If they have accepted the tenancy is over then they can not ask for payments under it.

Even if the landlord admits accepting the keys it doesnt mean hes agreed accepting surrender of the tenancy. The clause in your agreement about the landlord accepting keys might cover it but I doubt it.

Maybe try to negotiate?

(I assume you are in England/Wales and it is a normal Assured Shorthold Tenancy).

yes the deposit was returned but i agreed for the land lord to use the money for last the period of the month i left i have nothing writing only verbal agreement but it dose state im my agreement that if i leave the property and if the keys have been accepted by the landlord then the land lord accepts surrender of the property. thank you for the quick reply

Has your deposit been returned? It would be difficult to argue he hadnt accepted surrender if the deposit was returned.

I do strongly agree with your opinion, I’ve moved away from the flat round my mother’s house to see what will happen and I don’t get asthma attacks and feel aboslutely fine.

Today I’m in our old flat and started noticing new mould growth on our wardrobe that’s standing 15 centimeters from wall… Sad thing is that agency e-mailed me that landron knew about condensation and mould and she didn’t said nothing to us when we moved in. Sitting on sofa I can smell the damp which makes me fill sick :(

Yesterday I had meeting with Citizen Advice and a gentelmen over there contacted our councill in regard of enviromental officer coming over to our property – when he said to council that agency told me they won’t do anything with dampness and mould lady on the phone just laught and said “they obviously know we are very bussy …” I’m waiting till next week for a phone call from council to arrange a visitation. They have to contact landlord in order to be allowed to visit the property and I’m thinking that if she’ll get this phonecall she will think about resolving problem without any 3rd parties involved as this could make her some problems. HOPEFULLY she will think about this and release us after 6 months.

Also gentelman called organisation called Shelter just to ask why there are no clausures about landlord being responsible for internal repairs in our tenancy agreement and just to make sure that our agreement is constructed as it suppose to be but lady said it seems to be ok.

I just wish that this could finish now and save me the headake and stress that we are going through.

Will keep up to date with the case.

Thanx Wicky

Thanks for your post. Don’t trust the agent man. If he’s telling you mould is normal he’s bulls****ing you.

None of my houses have any mould in them.

Asking you to pay for re-advertising fees on a property which may be sub-standard to the point where it’s effected your health is a bit rich. Feel free to resist being ripped off.

There is an expectation that notices of vacation are offered by tenant or landlord around payment days. So if you’ve always paid on 5th and you’ve just given notice for vacation on 5th March then that’s fine. Landlord is either trying it on or being dizzy over the dates.

If Environmental Health compelled the landlord to do works to the house then it was most likely a problem with the building which made the mount, not your lifestyle. Assuming you’ve kept the written correspondance, say you’ll get the issue into the dispute resolution service of the deposit holder the landlord has used. They’ll see the writing on the wall and return a full deposit.