Last Months Rent / Deposit

Hello I wondered if you could offer some advice. We had a 6 month contract (the landlord live in the UK and said that a UK rental agreement was ok as he did not live in Spain) on the house we are renting in Spain and as required gave the him our required 2 months notice to quit. However since then our landlord has become aggressive towards us and threatened to beat me up, all rent and bills are paid up to date but I got very angry because my phone was switched off. I am worried that he is not going to return our deposit at the end of the contract even though there is no damage to the property and its is much cleaner state than when we moved in. I would prefer for him to keep the security deposit instead of paying him the final months rent and them paying the utility companies myself at the end of October. Do I have any right to do this, or should I just pay the rent as usual and hope he returns the deposit?
Many thanks

Hello,

The contract you signed in the UK is valid in Spain.

You should not stop paying your rent as if you do, you would be considered to be in breach of contract, which would block all possibilities to file any kind of claim in connection with the rent. However, you can certainly stop paying; it is entirely up to you.

The correct path would be to pay the rent, and once the contract expired and you had vacated the property, wait for a few days until the utility bills had arrived so your landlord could return the deposit after having charged the pending utility expenses.

To minimize the risk that the landlord keeps your deposit, I recommend you that you are both present at the dwelling the day the contract ends and keys are returned, and that you sign a document serving as contract resolution that expresses the dwelling is returned in the same conditions as when rented and that the landlord has nothing to claim in the future. Also, it must indicate the landlord returns the deposit keeping a small sum to pay for the utility expenses and other repairs or replacements you have agreed. If you sign that document you would not lose much in the event the landlord did not return the remaining amount from the deposit.

Regards,