Leaving a flat share is a different job from moving house. The belongings are tangled up with other people's, the deposit has several names on it, and the actual volume of stuff is far smaller than anyone expects. Here is how to untangle all three.
Working out whose stuff is whose
The kitchen is the battleground. After a few years of shared living nobody remembers who bought the blender, the big saucepan or the decent knives. Three questions settle most of it: who paid for it, who actually uses it, and who wants it enough to pack it. Anything that fails all three goes to the charity shop.
For bigger shared purchases such as a sofa, a TV or a kitchen table, there are only three clean outcomes: one person buys the others out, you sell it and split the proceeds, or it stays for whoever replaces you. Agree which, and put the agreement in the group chat so it is written down somewhere.
Post a list of what you intend to take a week or two before you go. It surfaces disputes while there is still time to resolve them, rather than at the door with the collection booked.
Protecting your deposit
In England and Wales, a deposit on an assured shorthold tenancy must be protected in a government approved scheme within 30 days of the landlord receiving it. There are three schemes: the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. You should have been told which one holds yours; if you were never told, ask now, because it affects how the money comes back at the end.
If you are leaving a joint tenancy before it ends, the deposit usually stays where it is and your share is settled privately between you and the person replacing you. Agree the amount and the handover in writing before they move in.
Either way, protect yourself at check out: dig out the inventory from when you moved in, clean your room and your share of the common areas, and take date stamped photos of everything on your final day. Fair wear and tear is not something you can be charged for, but you want evidence of the state you left things in.
The one van load myth
The default picture of moving is a hired van, because that is what moving a household looks like. A flat share room is not a household. Strip out the furniture that belongs to the landlord and what is actually yours is usually ten to twenty boxes, a few bags, maybe a bike and one or two pieces of furniture.
Hiring a van for that means booking a whole vehicle, and a whole day, for a load that would fit in the corner of it: driving, loading, fuel, parking and returning the van, all for one room's worth of belongings. The per piece alternative matches the actual job: £15 per piece for shipments of 5 to 10 pieces, £12 per piece from the eleventh piece onwards. You send exactly what you own and nothing you do not.
Kerbside or Assisted from a flat share
Kerbside (from £199) means everything is at the front door of the building when the van arrives. In a flat share that is usually fine: recruit a flatmate for twenty minutes of stair work and buy them a coffee afterwards.
Assisted (from £349) means we carry from your room, which earns its keep on a third floor walk up or when there is furniture involved. A desk or a chest of drawers (£45) brings a two person crew, as does a bike (£59).
Timing around the Wednesday run
London collections are on Wednesdays, and your destination area has its own weekly run day, so line the collection up against your tenancy end date. If your tenancy ends midweek or at the weekend, the tidy options are the Wednesday before, living out of a bag for your last few days, or, if a flatmate is staying on and agrees, leaving your packed and labelled boxes with them for collection the following Wednesday. Decide early; the end of the month is when everyone else in London has the same idea.
Leaving well
Flat shares have long memories, so close everything down properly. Photograph the meter readings on your last day and settle your share of the final bills. Take your name off the council tax and any utility accounts, and sort out who inherits the broadband contract, because it is in somebody's name and that somebody should not be you once you have gone. Set up Royal Mail redirection for anything you forget.
Hand your keys back and get the handover acknowledged in a message. Then let the Wednesday van do the heavy part while you leave with a rucksack, a clear conscience and your deposit intact.