I just found a better house and because I don`t want to cause any inconvenience I wrote to her that we would be leaving the premises on January 1st (1 month`s written notice basically) and she says that because our contract won`t end until February 28th, she will keep my £2000 deposit. The question is that she only has a contract that I signed and that ended on 28.02.16. What are my rights? Can it keep the deposit on the basis of these criteria? Thank you hello, we have a tenant who owes £5,000 in rent arrears, and we have just found that the contract was not signed by the tenant. (This is done by friends of a family who is thus done on trust). In this case, the rules of the law prevail over the contract, unless the difference is in your favor as a tenant.