End of lease, inventories and deposit, handled from abroad

Ending a lease from abroad works on one condition: follow the sequence and keep evidence at every step. The tenant’s notice opens the notice period, the check-out inventory is drawn up jointly, the key handover sets the starting point of the legal deadline for returning the deposit, and the regularisation of service charges closes the exercise. Kept properly, this paperwork spares you a flight back home: botched, it manufactures disputes you will settle from afar and at your own expense. This guide complements the pillar guide to letting your property from abroad.

What is the timetable for the end of a lease?

Everything begins with the notice. A tenant who wishes to leave notifies their departure by registered letter or through a bailiff: the notice period then runs, for a length that depends on the type of lease and the situation. On receipt, date the letter, note the effective end date and open a moving-out file, the first piece of your timeline.

Next comes the check-out inventory, on the date agreed between the parties or, failing that, recorded under a regulated procedure. Then the key handover, which must leave a written trace: without a certain date, the deposit-return deadline does not clearly start and disputes thrive. Finally, the deposit is returned within the legal deadline, justified deductions attached, and the regularisation of service charges closes the file within the period allowed after the closing of the accounting year.

Two habits of the absent landlord: warn your proxy or your partner property manager early to secure the inventory date, and ask the managing agent for the documents needed to settle the charges, since their arrival conditions the final statement.

The move-out is also prepared on the tenant’s side. A preparation letter, sent before the effective date, sets expectations and creates a record: it recalls the inventory date, the list of keys to return, the meter readings to expect, the day-to-day upkeep required and the need to leave the home in the condition provided for in the lease. This simple email defuses a good share of the last day’s friction, and it proves, where needed, that the tenant had been informed.

How do you organise the check-out inventory without being there?

The check-out inventory is a joint document: it is drawn up in the presence of the tenant, or their representative, and of someone representing you, a mandated relative, a professional proxy or the partner property manager. The written mandate is the foundation: it names the person, the mission and the date, and protects you if the document is ever challenged.

On site, method matters more than presence. Each room is compared with the check-in inventory, meter readings are noted, the keys returned are listed, and everything is photographed. One distinction decides everything: fair wear and tear, that is, normal ageing, is not attributable to the tenant; damage is. A carpet tired after years of use cannot be retained, a cracked tile can.

If the tenant fails to attend despite properly served notice, an inventory can be drawn up under the procedure provided for that case, then served on them: proof of the summons then becomes as important as the document itself. This is precisely the kind of visit a control visit with a photo report can document, room by room, for anyone without a relative available on site.

How do you return the security deposit from abroad?

The legal return deadline runs from the key handover, and it is short: from abroad, you anticipate it by preparing the restitution letter before the move-out even happens. Three scenarios: the deposit is returned in full, the letter records it and the transfer proves it; sums are deducted, the letter details them one by one, with quotes or invoices attached; the balance is in your favour, and the tenant is then called upon by letter.

Lawful deductions fall into three categories: damage noted at check-out, tenant repairs the tenant failed to carry out, rent or charges still owing. Nothing else: no improvement works, no wear and tear, no flat-rate retention. Every sum retained must be backed by a document, failing which the retention becomes fragile in the face of a challenge.

A useful clarification: the legal return deadline can be extended when the check-out inventory shows differences against the check-in one, the time needed to gather the supporting documents. This margin is not decreed, it is earned through a solid file: photographic comparison, properly drawn-up quotes. And if the tenant owes you sums beyond the deposit, the claim follows its own route, by letter then, if necessary, by formal notice.

In practice, from your country of residence: make the transfer keeping proof of it, send the letter by a traceable means, and archive everything in the moving-out file. The regularisation of charges rests on the managing agent’s and suppliers’ supporting documents: request them as soon as notice is received, they condition the final statement and its solidity.

Which disputes come up most often?

Three disputes dominate the end of leases. Contested damage, first: the tenant sees wear, the owner sees damage. Prevention lies in the methodical comparison of both inventories, photograph by photograph, room by room. The regularisation of charges, next: an inaccurate statement, missing supporting documents, a missed deadline. The answer is a charges file kept up to date all year, not only at the end. Tenant repairs, finally: a home returned without the expected day-to-day upkeep, paintwork neglected, garden abandoned, equipment mistreated.

Faced with a lasting disagreement, always try the amicable route: written exchanges, documented comparison, possibly conciliation before the commission competent in letting matters. Failing that, the evidence kept decides. Hence the single rule of this guide: at a distance, a step without evidence is a step lost.

What evidence should you keep at each step?

The table below sums up the sequence, the requirement attached to it and the evidence to archive:

Step	Deadline or requirement	Evidence to keep
Receipt of notice	Notice period according to the lease type and situation	Registered letter and acknowledgement of receipt
Check-out inventory	Agreed date, joint procedure	Signed report, photographs, meter readings
Key handover	Certain date, start of the legal deadline	Handover receipt, list of keys returned
Deposit return	Legal deadline from the key handover	Restitution letter, quotes and invoices, proof of transfer
Regularisation of charges	Legal deadline after the closing of the accounting year	Detailed statement and managing agent’s documents
Making good	Quote approved before the works	Quotes, invoices, before-and-after photographs

This moving-out file is built as you go, never after the fact: each piece is filed the moment it is produced, and the whole set passes without effort to your proxy, your partner property manager or your adviser should a dispute arise.

The tenant’s departure closes the lease, not your obligations: the rents received still have to be declared. That is the subject of the neighbouring article, tax on rental income for non-residents: rules and filings. For all letting topics, also browse the Letting & returns category of the journal.

Every lease ending has its own friction points, depending on the property, the tenant, the history. The personal study offered by French Realty lets you anticipate yours with your dedicated contact, identifying in advance the steps to delegate and the evidence to require.