Moving out of a flatshare and reclaiming deposit

Hello everyone, I know this topic has been covered, but I have some specific quesitions that have not been asked:

In the middle of August my contract will expire and a day later I will fly back home. I have been reading some posts about moving out and I am quite scared. I rented this place only for six months and I am subrenting it from the original tenant, who is working in Austria but, I do not why, she was not allowed to rent the place to a third party -or so she said. The rent I pay is "warm" and the deposit I paid 30 euros more than a month's rent that were given in cash to the tenant and not put into a joint bank account.

So the landlady said she will be here in August the 15th so that she can give me my deposit back (and I can give her the keys). However, I am quite afraid that she won't give me my deposit on time (or dont give it at all) and that I have to go back home before having the money -since she can keep it for some time. The place is as she left it (with some minor scratches on the wooden floor, but I suppose they are normal "wear and tear" since I never wear shoes inside the apartment) but my flatmate (who is German), also thinks that she wont give the deposit back, "because she just looks like that kinda people", she said.

I know it sounds dumb, but reading all the stories about moving out, I want to know what should I do in case everything goes wrong: Wait until she says that she wont give me back my money before I head back home (or never) and loose it? Do not pay the last month's rent and have it taken from the kaution? I have liability insurance that covers me in case I cause any damage to the property of a third party, if that is of any help.

I would appreciate if you could give me some advice on this.

Mariana

What kind of choice do you want? You already booked your ticket for the next day so it's really up to the renter to decide whether or not to give you the money back -- you're gone after that with presumably no legal recourse.

Whether you're on the lease or not is irrelevant for legal matters -- you have a contract with the renter and she has to adhere to those contracts.

Do you have proof that you paid her the deposit? Do you have proof you didn't cause the scratches on the floor?

Not paying the last month's rent would be a dicky thing to do with no proof that the woman is going to stiff you -- there's enough bad juju in the world why create more?

I would say see what happens and if you don't get the deposit back then just assume you paid a little extra each month for rent.

... and I guess you didn't get a receipt either?

It's actually a bit of a complicated situation. If I've understood it correctly, you've rented the flat from the main tenant, whom I assume you are referring to as your "landlady" at the start of the third paragraph. That she has told you she's not allowed to sub-let, is quite likely to be true, tenants are required (usually) to get the landlord's permission to sub-let and, for obvious reasons, it is often refused.

If this is the case, I would expect that under German law your contract with her may well be void, in which case you won't get very far trying to take her to court. On the other hand, if it turns out that the contract is recognised, then as a (de facto) landlady, she has six months in which to pay back your "Kaution". By that time, you're long gone and trying to go to court from outside the country is likely to be either ridiculously expensive, or impossible.

As I see it you've got a simple choice, either be nice, as KäptnKnitterbart suggests and hope that your flatmate is wrong, or be a little shit and hang onto the last months rent and cut your losses.

You're the one who's got to look herself in the mirror afterwards, so it's your decision and we can't really do much to help.

Hey, guys, thanks for your input.

Just to clarify: in the contract we signed (of which I have a copy) it states that I gave her the deposit. But, as RMA already pointed out, the contract may be void since she was not allowed to sublet the apartment. So, can I do something with that? Maybe threaten her to tell the landlord that she has been subletting the apartment without permission?

Please, at least give me the benefit of doubt: I do want to pay the rent and make everything right and not paying the rent is a desperate measure that I do not want to do, especially since everything may be ok. I understand that she has the right to take the caution if something is wrong in the apartment. However, I do not think this is the case. Additionally, she never told me that she could keep my deposit for 6 months after I moved out (I should have figured that out on my own before giving her the money, I know), but she knew I was a newcomer in the city and now that I found that out, I think that she tried to take advantage of that to her future benefit -especially since I told her from the beginning that I was going to go home as soon as I move out, so disputing money from overseas will be a little less than impossible.

Keep your opinions coming, please.

Look stop messing around and tell her you are taking the last months rent out of the Kaution.If she turns up and does not give you the rest of the money then keep the key.If you do not trust her´then its the easiest way out for you.Whats she gonna do anyway hijack the bloody plane

well first of all the contract is not completely void and all money gone even if she wasn't allowed to sublet in the first place, so of course you have a right to get your money back.

So all she did was not telling you that she can legally hold the money for 6 months and suddenly you get all paranoid and try to run with your money? That does sound kind of shitty to me.
Why don't you just tell her that you'll leave the next day and that she should give you the money in cash on that day, otherwise she'll have to transfer the money to wherever you're living which might cost her a couple of euros. I don't think there will be a problem if she instantly agrees to that.

Exactly, if she immediately agrees, then everything will be perfect for both of us (I am totally sure that I have not damaged anything in the apartment). However, if she does not agree, I will be without my money and with no chances of getting it back

I don't understand why you immediately assume that if you don't get your deposit back on that one particular day, then you'll never get it. If you've had no trouble so far with this person, then why wouldn't you get your deposit back sometime within the next six months?

I would go with the above suggestion of telling the person that they can either give you cash now, or else she'll have to pay extra for an international money transfer later. Seems fair, even considerate in a way, yet not completely hardball and shouldn't lead to any ill feelings.