Getting the rental guarantee back: the procedure introduced in 2024

The rental guarantee is the single most common source of complaint at the end of a Luxembourg tenancy, and the 2024 reform addressed it directly. The maximum was reduced from three months to two, and a restitution procedure was introduced with specific timescales and a sanction where the landlord does not respect them. The remedy exists. Whether you need it depends almost entirely on what you did at the beginning of the tenancy rather than at the end.

What changed

• The maximum guarantee is two months' rent for leases concluded from 1 August 2024. It was three.
• A restitution procedure now applies when the tenant leaves, with defined modalities and a sanction where the landlord does not respect the timescales set by the law.

The second point is the more consequential. Previously a landlord who simply did not return the deposit left the tenant with the choice between an expensive procedure and writing off the money, and a departing tenant leaving the country generally chose the second. A defined timescale with a consequence changes that calculation.

The document that decides the outcome

The entry inventory, the état des lieux d'entrée, determines what happens at the exit. Everything else is commentary.

• It should be detailed, room by room, describing the condition of walls, floors, joinery, sanitary fittings, appliances and, in a furnished let, every item of furniture.
• It should be dated and signed by both parties, with each holding a copy.
• It should be accompanied by photographs, taken on the day, with the date recorded.
• Meter readings belong on it, photographed.

If you are handed a one-page document saying the apartment is in good condition, do not sign it as it stands. Add what you observe, in writing, before signing, and photograph everything the same day. A tenant who spends ninety minutes on the entry inventory has effectively already won the exit discussion.

The distinction that governs deductions

The line is between normal wear, which is the ordinary consequence of living somewhere and is not chargeable, and damage, which is.

• Normal wear: paint that has faded or dulled over several years, minor marks on walls in circulation areas, worn seals, carpet compressed under furniture, limescale in a hard-water area.
• Damage: holes, tears, burns, stains that were not there before, broken fittings, missing items from the inventory, and anything caused by an obvious failure to maintain.
• The passage of time counts. The condition expected after six years is not the condition expected after eighteen months, and a landlord charging for a full repaint after a long tenancy is charging for a renewal that was due anyway.

The eight weeks before you leave

• Check the notice period in your lease and serve notice in writing with proof of receipt.
• Re-read the entry inventory and walk the apartment with it in your hand.
• Do the small repairs yourself. Filling and touching up holes with a matching paint costs a fraction of a contractor's invoice, and unmatched touch-up paint is worse than the hole.
• Clean properly, including the oven, the extractor filter, the shower screen and the windows. Cleaning is the most commonly charged deduction and the most easily avoided one.
• Replace anything you broke with an equivalent rather than waiting to be charged for it.
• Return every key: apartment, building entrance, letterbox, cellar, garage, bike store.

The exit meeting

• Attend it. A tenant who hands the keys to an agency and leaves has no input into the document that decides the deduction.
• Bring the entry inventory and the entry photographs.
• Take final meter readings and have them recorded.
• Agree in writing what is being deducted and why, before you leave the building. A signed exit inventory with an itemised list is far better than a vague acknowledgement.
• Do not sign something you disagree with. Sign with a written reservation instead, describing the point of disagreement.
• Give a forwarding address and a bank account that will remain open. The commonest practical failure is a closed account and a bounced transfer.

Where an annual reconciliation is pending

In a building where the charges are settled annually, part of the guarantee may legitimately be retained until those accounts close, which can be some months after you have gone. The way to handle this is to agree it in writing at handover: the amount retained, the reason, and the date by which it will be settled. An open-ended retention with no figure and no date is what turns into a dispute.

If the money does not come back

• Write, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, setting out the amount, the date of handover and the request for restitution or an itemised justification of any deduction.
• Keep it factual. The letter may end up being read by someone deciding the matter.
• The 2024 procedure provides a sanction for non-compliance with the legal timescales, which is the point to refer to.
• The commune's rent commission and, beyond it, the justice of the peace are the routes where the matter is not resolved. Tenant associations in Luxembourg also assist members with this specific problem.

How the guarantee is held

The form the guarantee takes affects how easily it comes back, and it is worth choosing deliberately rather than accepting whatever is proposed.

• A blocked bank account in the tenant's name, released on the joint instruction of both parties. This is the cleanest arrangement, because the money is not in the landlord's hands and neither party can release it alone.
• A bank guarantee issued by your bank in the landlord's favour. No capital is tied up, but the bank charges for issuing it and will usually require the amount to be secured in some form.
• A transfer directly to the landlord, which is the weakest position for a tenant and the one that produces the most difficulty at the end. Where it is unavoidable, make sure the lease records the amount, the date and the account.

Whatever the form, keep the proof. The transfer confirmation, the bank's letter or the account statement. A guarantee you cannot evidence is a guarantee you may have to argue for, and the argument happens at the least convenient moment, when you are already in another country.

Three questions we are asked

My lease from 2022 has a three-month deposit. Is that valid?

For a contract concluded before 1 August 2024, the previous rules apply to that lease. The reduction to two months applies to leases concluded from that date.

Can the landlord charge me for repainting?

For damage, yes. For the ordinary ageing of paint over a long tenancy, no. The relevant questions are how long you lived there, what the entry inventory recorded and whether the work exceeds what maintenance would have required in any event.

What if I am already abroad when the dispute arises?

It is much harder, which is the argument for settling everything in writing at handover and for leaving both a functioning bank account and a reliable address. Appointing someone in Luxembourg to receive correspondence is worth considering if the sum is significant.

How we handle this

We conduct a photographed entry inventory on every letting we manage, and the same document is used at the exit. It is the least glamorous part of the job and the one that prevents the most arguments.

Current availability is on our rentals page .

It is tempting to assume that what changed is automatically positive, but a serious property guide should also test the opposite case. For the question raised by “What changed”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

For the distinction that governs deductions, note what you can see, what you can measure, what you need to ask and what would be expensive to change. For the question raised by “What changed”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

A useful way to test the document that decides the outcome is to run a normal-day scenario. For the question raised by “The document that decides the outcome”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

For the eight weeks before you leave, note what you can see, what you can measure, what you need to ask and what would be expensive to change. For the question raised by “The document that decides the outcome”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

In getting the rental guarantee back: the procedure introduced in 2024, the section on how the guarantee is held should end with a test the reader can actually perform.