Here is the order to do it in.
Giving notice: the right reflexes
Start by rereading your lease: it sets the notice period and the date from which it runs. Then three reflexes:
- Put it in writing. Give notice in writing, by registered post or email with acknowledgement. A verbal agreement cannot be proven.
- Check the effective date. Some leases start the notice on the first of the month: a letter sent on the 2nd can cost you a whole extra month.
- Work your move-out date back from the notice, not the other way round, especially if a new home is waiting for you.
If several of you are on the lease, talk to your housemates and the landlord early: one person leaving changes things for the others, and it is best to settle what happens next in writing.
The check-out inspection: the key to your deposit
What the landlord expects is simple: the home back in the state it was handed over, fair wear and tear excepted. What happens at that inspection decides your deposit.
One month before, ask for a pre-inspection (voorinspectie). Many landlords agree, and it is the single most profitable step in the process: you get the list of expected fixes, with time to do them yourself rather than pay the landlord's rate.
On the day, do the inspection with the landlord, photographs in hand, and insist on a written, signed report. Compare it with the check-in report: that document is your protection, and the reason you photographed everything on arrival.
The recurring points:
- Holes in walls: filled and repainted in the original shade.
- Floors: if you laid one, the lease says whether it stays or goes.
- Cleaning, including behind appliances and in ventilation grilles.
- Garden or balcony, returned in order.
- Keys: all of them, including the bike store and the letterbox.
Getting your deposit back
It all comes down to the check-out inspection. To get your deposit back smoothly:
- Hand back every key and have the check-out report signed on the day.
- Give the landlord your bank details and new address in writing.
- Chase in writing if the refund is late, attaching the check-out report and your photos.
Keep everything: lease, check-in and check-out reports, dated photographs, correspondence, proof of the deposit payment.
The last twenty days: the paperwork
- Meter readings on the day you leave, photographed and sent to your energy and water suppliers.
- Cancel the contracts: energy, internet, contents and liability insurance. Respect their own notice periods, often a month.
- Change of address with the municipality if you stay in the Netherlands; deregistration (uitschrijven) if you leave the country. This step ends your local obligations.
- Health insurance: it can be cancelled on production of your deregistration. Do not forget it, or the direct debits continue.
- Tax: a departure return (the M-form) is usually required for the year you leave.
- Post: a redirection service exists, and tell your bank, employer and the authorities.
- Local taxes: waste and water charges are assessed on your situation on 1 January; a partial refund is sometimes possible when you leave mid-year.
Selling or handing on what you leave
The Dutch second-hand market is very active, and the end of a tenancy is the best moment to sell. Two routes:
- Handover to the next tenant (overnamekosten): floor, curtains, kitchen, sometimes furniture. Draw up an itemised list: the next tenant remains free to accept or not. Whatever leaves with you is a question of moving your belongings.
- Ordinary resale on the second-hand platforms, started three to four weeks before you go.
Whatever is neither sold nor taken goes out as bulky waste: collection is booked with the municipality, it is free, and dumping without an appointment risks a fine.
Leaving, and already looking for what's next? Let's talk about your move: we line up the exit and the search for the next home with no gap in between.
In summary
A clean exit rests on three documents: written notice sent at the right moment, a signed check-out report compared with the check-in one, and a proper deregistration with the municipality. Everything else (cleaning, meters, cancellations) follows from that calendar.
