Moving out of your public housing home

When you decide to move out, you must give us 3 weeks notice, leave the house clean and attend a final inspection.

You’ll follow the same steps to move out if you’re:

• ending your Housing ACT tenancy
• transferring to another Housing ACT home
• swapping your home with another Housing ACT tenant (mutual exchange).

1. When you’re planning to leave

You must:

• Tell us in writing at least 3 weeks before you plan to leave. You can fill in and email us the Notice to vacate form [PDF 469kB].
• Continue paying rent for the last 3 weeks
• Give us your new address and contact details.

2. Moving out

Remove all your belongings and rubbish.

Clean the house and do any maintenance or repairs you’re responsible for.

Your home should be in the same condition as when you moved in, except for normal wear and tear.

3. After you move out

You must:

• Get the carpets professionally cleaned and give us the cleaning receipt showing this has been done.
• Call your housing manager to book a final inspection.

4. Attend the final inspection

You must attend the final inspection.

At the inspection we’ll:

• check that the property is clean and in good repair
• compare the home with the condition report you filled in at the beginning of your lease
• let you know about repairs or cleaning that you still need to do.

You will get a copy of the inspection report.

If we need to do a second inspection

We’ll give you time to clean and do any repairs or maintenance before we inspect again.

You will have to pay for the costs to repair damage to the property if it is more than normal wear and tear.

5. Return the keys

When your tenancy ends you must:

• Return your keys to Housing ACT.
• Fill in the Surrender of keys form [Word 62kB]. If you cannot do this, you can get another person to do it for you.
• Give us an address where we can send you the final paperwork.

We will also send you a bill for:

• maintenance, repairs and cleaning you did not do
• any rent you owe.

6. Get a refund

If your rent or sundry account are in credit, you may get a refund after we take out:

• maintenance or repair costs
• other money you owe us.

If a tenant dies

There’s a different process for ending the tenancy and moving out after a tenant dies.

Learn what to do when a public housing tenant dies.

Contact us