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Somebody else's property · IV

A landlord

The permission you need at the end of a tenancy is not permission to leave. It is a sign-off afterwards, given by somebody looking at a room your furniture is no longer standing in, and that is a different thing to plan for.

The wardrobe was hiding something. The question is only whether you see it before the clerk does.

What a check-out move involves

Check-out timing The move scheduled against the inventory appointment, with a gap left.
Empty-room pass A walk through each room as it clears, before anybody else sees it.
Communal protection Halls, stairs and lift cars covered where the building is shared.
Right-sized vehicle A van and two crew where a full lorry is not warranted.
Landlord furnishings Left in place unless the landlord instructs otherwise in writing.
Storage between For the gap between a fixed end date and a flexible start one.

Leave a gap before the inventory

The single most valuable scheduling decision available, and it costs nothing. Put space between the removal and the check-out appointment so that the marks appearing behind the furniture are yours to deal with rather than the clerk's to record.

Book the clean into that gap as well. A clean performed around furniture is not a clean, and an inventory report will say so in plain language.

Photograph every room as it empties

One picture per room, taken the moment it is clear and before anybody cleans. It takes a few minutes and it is the only contemporaneous evidence you will ever have of the condition you left the property in.

Deposit disputes turn on that and on the check-in inventory and very little else. A dated set of empty-room photographs settles most of them before they begin.

Furnished lets, and what is not yours

A large share of London tenancies are furnished, and a crew cannot tell your sofa from the landlord's. Where furnishings belong to the landlord they stay unless we have written instruction otherwise, and we will ask rather than assume.

If you are taking something the landlord supplied, get it agreed in writing first. It is a short email and it prevents a genuinely awkward conversation.

When the two tenancies do not meet

Constant in London, and not a planning failure. A tenancy ends on a fixed date and the next starts when a landlord says. Goods are collected, listed as they load, and delivered when you actually hold keys.

A landlord

Questions about a landlord

  1. 01

    How big a gap should we leave before the check-out?

    Enough to clean properly and look at the empty rooms without hurrying. Book the removal, then the clean, then the inventory appointment, in that order.

  2. 02

    Will you clean?

    We sweep through and leave the rooms clear. An end-of-tenancy clean to inventory standard is a specialist job and it should follow us rather than overlap.

  3. 03

    Can you take furniture the landlord provided?

    Only with the landlord's written instruction. Furnished lets are common in London and moving somebody else's furniture on an assumption causes real problems.

  4. 04

    Do we need a full removals vehicle?

    For a one- or two-bedroom tenancy, usually not. A van with two crew handles most of them. The survey settles it rather than a guess over the phone.

  5. 05

    Can you work at a weekend?

    Often, and tenancy handovers frequently need it. Ask early — weekend slots go first and a managed building may restrict move hours as well.

  6. 06

    Our new place is not ready. Now what?

    Storage, listed at collection. It is the ordinary answer to the ordinary gap between a fixed end date and a flexible start.

What kind of address is it?

Both addresses, and what kind of building each one is. That second answer tells us how many people have to agree before anything can happen.

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