Moving Out of a Rental in Wales

A contract-holder under a periodic standard contract ends it by giving the landlord notice of the date they will give up possession, and that date may not be less than four weeks after the day the notice is given. The Act requires the notice to be in writing. Hand it over or post it to the landlord's address, and keep a copy.

A fixed term contract is different. The Welsh Government says you will not normally be able to end one early, unless it has a break clause, and the same four week minimum applies to a break clause notice.

If you leave on or before the date in your notice, the contract ends on that date. If you are still there after it, the landlord can make a possession claim on that ground, so do not give notice until the new place is certain. Any rent you have paid in advance for a period after the contract ends has to come back: the supplementary terms require the landlord to repay it within a reasonable time.

Where a house is let to several people on one joint contract, one sharer cannot end it for everyone. Under section 130 of the Act, a notice to end the contract given by some but not all of the joint contract-holders is treated as a withdrawal notice: the person giving it leaves the contract, and the contract carries on for the rest. The Welsh supplementary terms set the minimum period for that notice at one month, not four weeks.

The person leaving must also give the other sharers a written warning at the same time, with a copy of the notice attached. So a sharer moving out has to tell the house as well as the landlord, and a whole house that wants to leave together needs every contract-holder's name on the notice.

The supplementary terms set out what a contract-holder must do on leaving. You must remove everything that belongs to you and anyone living with you, put the landlord's property back where it was on the day you moved in, and return all the keys you held. Unless the landlord agrees otherwise, you must not leave the home without a supplier of electricity, gas and water.

The first of those duties is the one that shapes the move. Furniture left behind is a breach of the contract, and the Welsh Government's guidance ties getting the deposit back to keeping to the contract's terms. So anything not coming to the new place needs to be cleared or given away before the keys go back. The terms are in the supplementary provisions regulations.

Where the landlord provides an inventory, you have 14 days to comment on it, and if the landlord receives no comments in that time it is deemed to be accurate. At the end of the contract that is the document the home is judged against, so a mark you did not note at the start is hard to argue about at the end.

Photograph every room on the day you leave, after the last load and before the keys go back, from the same angles as the inventory where you can.

A Welsh landlord has 30 days from receiving a deposit to protect it with an authorised scheme and give you the scheme's information, including how the deposit is repaid at the end of the contract and how disputes are settled. The Welsh Government says you should get it back if you meet the terms of your contract, do not damage the property and pay your rent and bills, and that it usually takes 5 to 10 days.

If it does not come back, contact the deposit scheme your landlord used. If the landlord did not protect it properly, a court can order the deposit returned and the landlord to pay between one and three times its amount. The Welsh Government's deposit guidance for tenants sets out the steps.

The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019 lists what a landlord or agent can make you pay. Beyond rent, a security deposit, a holding deposit and bills such as council tax, utilities, a TV licence and broadband, the main permitted charge is a payment in the event of default, meaning late rent or a breach of the contract. A check-out or admin fee is not on the list.

Even default payments are capped. For late rent the limit is zero for the first seven days after the due date, and after that interest at 3% above the Bank of England base rate on the amount still unpaid. For a lost key or a changed lock the limit is the actual cost, as shown by an invoice or receipt.

Walking out and posting the keys through the door does not end the contract. If a landlord believes a home has been abandoned, the Act requires a warning notice and a four week warning period, and inquiries, before the landlord can end the contract and take the home back without going to court.

Four weeks' notice in writing is the cleaner route, and it gives you a fixed date to book the move against.

The date in your notice is the day the home has to be empty, not the day you start packing. Book the van for a day or two before it, so there is time for the last clean, the photographs and the keys. If you are leaving a student house at the end of term, book as soon as the notice has gone in.

A room of boxes and a few bits runs from £85 to £150, a one bedroom flat from £180 to £300 and a two bedroom flat or house from £260 to £430.