Three months of rent is a large sum to leave in someone else's account, and in Denmark that is the legal maximum a landlord may hold as a deposit. Whether it comes back in full is settled long before the final statement arrives — mostly by what was written down at the start, what was photographed at the end, and whether anyone attended the inspection.
This is a checklist for the person doing the moving, written with the situation outside the big cities in mind: a landlord who owns one or two properties, no letting agent in the loop, and a rent tribunal in a municipality you may have to deal with entirely through Digital Post. It sets out what the deposit legally is, who is obliged to hold a move-out inspection and who is not, what to do in each of the last three months, and where to go when the money simply does not arrive.
A move is also two rents in one month, which is why people arrive at moving day with nothing spare. Small side income closes part of that gap — apps such as I am Beezy pay you for time spent viewing content, and the amounts add up quietly over the notice period.
What the deposit legally is, and what it is not
Two amounts are commonly taken at the start of a tenancy, they are governed by different logic, and mixing them up is the reason many tenants misjudge what they are owed.
Deposit and prepaid rent are separate things
Socialministeriet sets out both limits on sm.dk: "Udlejeren kan kræve et depositum, der svarer til højst tre måneders husleje", and in addition "Udlejeren kan ved lejemålets indgåelse desuden kræve lejen forudbetalt for et tidsrum op til tre måneder." The deposit is security. The prepaid rent is rent — it is meant to cover the last months of the tenancy, so it is not something you get back in cash, it is something you stop paying at the end. Look at your contract now and check which line is which.
What the deposit may be used for
The ministry describes it as security for the costs arising when the tenant moves out — unpaid rent, heating and reconditioning costs of that kind. It is not a general fund the landlord may draw on for improvements, and it is not compensation for the property being older than when you arrived. Every deduction should point at a specific cost, with an amount and a reason.
When it has to come back
The rule is stated plainly: the landlord repays the deposit when the tenancy ends, after deducting what the tenant owes. In practice the deposit returns by ordinary bank transfer to the account you give the landlord. NemKonto plays no part here, because it is the account the public sector uses to pay you and not a channel private parties use, so give your landlord account details directly and in writing.
Does your landlord have to hold a move-out inspection?
This is the question that most changes your position, and the answer depends on how many homes your landlord rents out — which is exactly why it matters more in the countryside than in Copenhagen.
The rule, and the threshold inside it
Socialministeriet states the obligation as follows: "Ved fraflytning af en beboelseslejlighed skal udlejeren, der udlejer mere end én beboelseslejlighed, under lejerens medvirken udarbejde en fraflytningsrapport." A landlord letting more than one residential flat must draw up a move-out report with the tenant taking part. A landlord letting a single home is outside that requirement, which is a common situation outside the towns.
The report and its fourteen days
Where the obligation applies, the ministry adds that the report is handed to the tenant at the inspection, or sent to the tenant no later than 14 days after it. Read it before you sign anything on the day, and if you disagree with an entry, write your disagreement on the document itself rather than agreeing verbally to sort it out later. A report you signed without comment is difficult to argue with afterwards.
If your landlord is not covered by the rule
Ask for a joint walk-through anyway, in writing, and propose a date. If the landlord declines, do the inspection yourself with a witness and a camera on the day you hand over the keys. An inspection you organised on your own, dated and witnessed, is far stronger evidence than a recollection offered three months later. Send the photographs to the landlord the same day so the date cannot be disputed.
| When | What happens | What you should hold afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Move-in | Condition recorded, deposit paid | Move-in report, photographs, receipt |
| Notice given | End date fixed in writing | Written notice and its acknowledgement |
| Handover day | Inspection, keys returned, meters read | Signed report with your comments, meter photos |
| Within 14 days | Report sent if not handed over | The document itself, with its date |
| After the final statement | Deposit repaid, less deductions | Itemised statement and the transfer |
The checklist, from three months out to handover day
Nothing here is difficult. It is all timing, and the tenants who lose money are almost always the ones who started in the last week.
Three months before you leave
Re-read the lease and find the clause about the condition in which the home must be returned, because that clause — not custom, not what a neighbour says — is what you will be measured against. Locate the move-in report and the photographs from the day you arrived. If you never received a move-in report, note that fact now: its absence works in your favour when a landlord claims that damage is yours. Give notice in writing and keep proof that it was received.
The final weeks
Deal with the small repairs you can genuinely do: filling and touching up where you drilled, replacing broken fittings with equivalents, cleaning the extractor and the seals. Get quotes for anything larger and compare them with what the landlord is likely to charge, since arranging the work yourself is often cheaper than having it deducted. Book the removal so you have the keys for a full day after the last box leaves, because a rushed handover is where the disputes start.
Handover day
Photograph every room empty, in daylight, including the inside of cupboards, the oven and the bathroom. Photograph every meter with the reading legible, and note the date. Hand over every key, including the ones you had cut, and get a written receipt for them. Leave a forwarding address and a bank account for the repayment, in writing, in the same document. Then read the report before signing and add your comments directly on it.
Where do the disagreements start, and is it wear or damage?
Almost every deposit dispute reduces to one argument: whether a mark on a wall is the ordinary consequence of living somewhere or damage you must pay for.
Start from the contract, not from fairness
What the lease says about reconditioning at the end of the tenancy decides the framework. Some agreements require the home to be returned newly decorated, others only require it to be clean and undamaged, and the difference is measured in a month's rent or more. If you cannot tell which yours is, that is itself worth asking the rent tribunal about before you spend money on painting you may not owe.
Photographs are the whole case
The move-in photographs and the move-out photographs, side by side, settle most arguments without anyone having to interpret anything. Keep them at full resolution and in a place that survives a phone being replaced. Where you have a move-in report, the comparison is even simpler: a defect recorded on arrival cannot be charged to you on departure.
Meters and final bills
Heating and electricity are among the costs the deposit may be used against, so a missing meter reading turns into an estimate, and estimates rarely favour the person who has left. Photograph the meters, report the readings to the supplier and to the landlord on the same day, and keep the final statements. If you are moving out mid-period, ask explicitly how the settlement will be calculated and when it will arrive.
| Evidence | Taken when | What it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| Room photographs, empty and lit | Move-in and handover day | Charges for pre-existing marks |
| Meter photographs | Handover day | Estimated final bills |
| Signed report with your comments | At the inspection | Silent acceptance of a claim |
| Key receipt | Handover day | Rent charged past your end date |
| Written account details | Handover day | Delay blamed on missing information |
Bridging the double-rent month with I am Beezy
The hard part of a move is rarely the deposit itself. It is the overlap: the new deposit is due before the old one comes back, and for a few weeks a household is paying twice.
How it works
I am Beezy pays you for viewing content — videos, articles, adverts — with the earnings going to the payment method you already use. Over a three-month notice period, that is a small amount arriving regularly at exactly the point where the budget is stretched by a deposit you have paid and one you have not yet recovered.
The figure, in kroner
The reference range on the platform is 5 to 15 euros a day. Denmark uses the krone, and its currency is neither in the euro area nor floating: Danmarks Nationalbank runs a fixed-exchange-rate policy inside ERM II at a central rate of 746.038 kr. per 100 euro, within a band of ±2.25 %, unchanged since January 1987. Converted at that central rate, the range is roughly 37 to 112 kr. a day — an order of magnitude for planning the overlap, nothing more.
If the money does not come back
Silence is the usual failure mode, not refusal. Treat it as a process rather than a confrontation, and it resolves more often than people expect.
Write once, properly
Send one written request with the end date of the tenancy, the amount paid as a deposit, the account it should be transferred to, and a deadline. Ask for an itemised statement of every deduction. Keep it factual and keep a copy. Most landlords who have simply not got round to it will act on a dated letter, and the letter is also the first document a tribunal will want to see.
The rent tribunal, its fee and the appeal window
Socialministeriet confirms that there is a huslejenævn in every municipality in the country, and that it decides the disputes that arise between residential tenants and their landlords in private rented housing. The ministry lists a fee of 361 kr. per case, and a higher fee of 602 kr. for cases about pre-approval of rent — figures as published on sm.dk and checked in August 2026, and they are adjusted over time, so confirm the current amount before you file. If either party wants to appeal the decision to the boligret, that must be done within four weeks. Everything from the municipality will reach you through Digital Post, so make sure you can open it with MitID from wherever you have moved to.
A deposit is not really recovered at the end of a tenancy — it is protected at the beginning, by the report you kept and the photographs you took. Read your reconditioning clause early, insist on a dated inspection whatever the size of your landlord, photograph everything on the day, and know that the municipal tribunal exists and is inexpensive. And if the real problem is surviving the month when two deposits are outstanding at once, a small daily amount from I am Beezy is one way to make the overlap manageable.
