You've been living in an apartment for the last few years. Your life has been settled there for sometime now, and you call that place home. A new job, a better opportunity, asks you to shift to another location. Now, moving out your entire life from that apartment is surely going to take some time, isn't it? You need to take care of a lot of things, from informing your landlord to dealing with your new one. Like I've said before, it is very easy to know how to vacate your apartment. Actually moving out of one, is a different story. Given below are a few simple steps, which will tell you how you need to go about things. Read on...
Things You Should Know While Vacating Your Apartment
Before we start reading more on moving out, there is some free advice I would like to share. Check your lease agreement from page one. There are a lot of clauses that you might not remember. If you are married, you might have signed tenancy by the entirety. Take out an hour and just read through the entire agreement, to avoid issues later.
Take Care of the Formalities
The first thing you need to do while vacating your apartment is to inform your landlord. The lease agreement you sign before shifting in, includes a notice period for vacating the apartment. Don't just tell him, but give him a notice of intent to vacate the apartment. You have to inform the landlord those many days in advance, keeping in mind the rental period, which is different for different people. To be on the safer side, give double the intimation. If you lose your copy of the rental agreement, there will be one with your landlord. When you inform him about the vacating, also remind him about the deposit amount he will have to refund to you. Start finishing these formalities one by one, as if you move out of the city / state, you don't have to keep on coming back again to complete related work.
Pack Stuff and Shift It
Simultaneously, as you are finishing off the paperwork, start packing your stuff. Packing is not easy. It takes a lot of time and energy out of you. To start off, divide all you belongings into two groups. Let one group be the stuff you will be taking with you, stuff that you need. The other group will include stuff that you don't need. Give away this stuff as soon as possible, and reduce another task. This will also help in emptying the apartment. Now you are left with only what you need. Divide this again into breakables and stuff that isn't fragile. Accordingly, pack everything and arrange for it to be taken to your new apartment. Once your belongings are in place, you will be left with less work to do.
Clean the Apartment
This is one of the most important details you should remember. Cleaning the apartment is the job of the residents. If you have rented a university apartment, you need to read this more carefully. The campus charges you for any items that are found missing and damaged. You will have to pay for these before you vacate. The list of these items and the prices you will need to pay are all mentioned in the lease agreement. Take a copy and make sure you have everything in place. If not, try to find what is missing. If replacing is an option, do it!
Now that you know how to vacate your apartment, make sure you start off right. First, concentrate on the paperwork and then proceed to the rest. Formalities take time, so be prepared to handle some irritation. If you are shifting into an apartment you have recently rented, make sure the formalities of that one are complete too. You don't want to be left with no place, do you?
