Legal time period for apartment deposit return

Hi

I would like to know the legal time period before which the landlord must repay the caution deposit. my landlord is holding it for the past 3 months after handing over the keys. There were no damages and i got the protocol signed by him. he is keeping it to check the heizung and electricity, but how long he can take this excuse i dont know.

anybody has idea.

cheers.

6 months.

You silly bugger you could have done the electricity yourself.As to the heating costs there are normally a coloured thing on your radiators.1 side is the usuage from last year and the other side is what you have used this year.You could have saved yourself all the hassle by doing this visually on a comparison basis

Hi m_p,
I'm not sure what the law says, but it would make sense if they were to hold back enough to satisfy any expected additional payment on your house's yearly expenses until the end of the normal settlement cycle. They probably won't have all the numbers for 2008 until mid-2009. Unfortunately, everybody has been having increasing after-payments for the last few years, especially because of rising energy costs, so this would provide them a reason to retain more than you think they should.
If they're reasonable, you can to try to get them to estimate just how much they need to keep, and ask them to refund at least the balance now.
If they're not reasonable, they just might be counting on you to lose interest in the hassle and give up once you've moved away.
Regards, Jim Walker

This has been discussed before, it's a FAQ indeed. See my detailed post.
Good luck!

Thanks guys, the FAQ was indeed great. I will try once again if no favourable answer then i will switch to Mieterverein.
I took all the meter readings for heating and elctricity and it was very meagre as i stayed only for 2 months. I coudnt do more as these things were under Owners name.

thanks guys...cheers, khan