16.1 At the end of your tenancy, you must hand your home back to us in accordance with the following provisions of this part. Remember that your home includes any garden area (see paragraph 1.8).
16.2 You must:
- return your keys to us
- give us vacant possession by not allowing anybody else to remain in occupation of your home
- leave your home in good condition
- leave your home clear of rubbish and all your personal property (see paragraph 16.5).
16.3 If you do not, we will re-charge you the cost of us putting things right. The amount of the re-charge could just be the cost of changing the locks. But if your home is in poor condition or somebody still occupies it, the re-charge will be a lot more. In these cases, the re-charge may cover the equivalent of the rent for the delay in being able to re-let your home and the costs of court action.
16.4 You may be entitled to compensation for improvements that you have carried out under paragraph 10.2. We can give you details of qualifying improvements and a claim form. There are time limits for claiming.
16.5 We are entitled to throw away any personal property (furniture, clothes, and other belongings) left in your home. We will:
- throw away immediately any personal property that is perishable, not practical for us to store or of no obvious value
- store any other personal property for up to one month
- if we have a forwarding address for you, write to you confirming that you may collect the personal property from storage during that month, provided you pay storage costs.
Remember that the main obligation is on you not to leave any personal property behind. We are not responsible for checking the value of it or keeping it safe.
Nothing will be kept for more than a month.
