A friend lost most of a deposit to a "cleaning fee" that appeared from nowhere. It's made me nervous. How do you protect yourself so the deposit actually comes back?
Photograph and timestamp absolutely everything on move-in day now, video walkthrough included — non-negotiable habit ever since a similar scare of my own.
The mystery cleaning fee is apparently extremely common — I’ve now heard this exact story from three different people separately.
I get the move-in condition report physically signed by the landlord in person now, rather than just submitted or emailed. Closes a loophole I only learned about the hard way.
Adding all of this to my own move-in checklist, thank you.
Ask which deposit protection scheme your deposit is registered with, if your country has them. Ours wasn't registered at first, and asking the question politely was enough to get it sorted.
We'll be renting for our first year in Spain, after forty years of owning, so I'm reading this very carefully.
Rajesh, I didn't know to ask that. Checking tonight.