---

Posted by Kris on January 30, 2001 at 14:19:20:

In Reply to: Carpeting - pre-existing damage posted by Jil on January 29, 2001 at 10:23:14:

Dear Jill... local laws very greatly so you can call the Rochester office of the state Attorney Gerneral at(716) 546-7430 to find out for sure. If nothing else they should be able to point you in the correct direction. In general the only thing a landlord has to do is make sure the place is habitable. This means that cosmetic details such as carpet are not required to be maintained on a scheduale. Some cities do require painting to be done between each tenant, but painting seems to be the only acception to the cosmetics not required rule of thumb.

Did you document the existing damage in the carpet (move in checklist or pictures) that shows you / your cats did not do all of this damage? Can you honestly say your cats have not urinated on the carpet? Cat urine is impossible to completely remove and sometimes requires that the landlord totally rip up all of the carpet, the padding, and even the sub-flooring. The bill for that would be significantly greater than $1500.

If you did not document that the carpet was already damage when you moved into the place, it is going to be difficult to prove your landlord is charging you too much. If you did, you have a case if this goes to court (ie you refuse to pay the bill). Personally, if I were your landlord I would only charge you for half of the carpet replacement (assuming you destroyed it completely) since it was already half depreciated (I personally only expect carpet to last a max of 10 years). If your cats had done damage to the sub-flooring that would be an entirely different matter.

: Anyone with any ideas would be greatly appreciated! I live in Rochester - I gave my landlord my month's notice Jan. 4th. He showed up in my apartment Jan 15th with a bill for $1500 for carpeting. He wants me to pay for wall to wall carpeting through the entire apartment (700+ square feet) because he states that my cats destroyed it. The thing is that the carpet is at the very least 5 years old and has been leased to at least 7 tenants in that time. I refused to sign the Pet Agreement because I did not want to be liable for all the damage that the previous tenants did. Also, he stated that the reason he did not replace the carpet was because he wanted to do it after I left which I said was fine by me. Now he's trying to get me to pay all the costs. Everyone here thinks that landlords have to replace carpeting every so often but I can't find anything documented.

Follow Ups:

---

Note: Posting is disabled in all archives
Post a Followup

Name    : 
E-Mail  : 
Subject : 

Comments:
: Dear Jill... local laws very greatly so you can call the Rochester office of the state Attorney Gerneral at(716) 546-7430 to find out for sure.  If nothing else they should be able to point you in the correct direction.  In general the only thing a landlord has to do is make sure the place is habitable.  This means that cosmetic details such as carpet are not required to be maintained on a scheduale.  Some cities do require painting to be done between each tenant, but painting seems to be the only acception to the cosmetics not required rule of thumb.

: Did you document the existing damage in the carpet (move in checklist or pictures) that shows you / your cats did not do all of this damage?  Can you honestly say your cats have not urinated on the carpet?  Cat urine is impossible to completely remove and sometimes requires that the landlord totally rip up all of the carpet, the padding, and even the sub-flooring.  The bill for that would be significantly greater than $1500.

: If you did not document that the carpet was already damage when you moved into the place, it is going to be difficult to prove your landlord is charging you too much.  If you did, you have a case if this goes to court (ie you refuse to pay the bill). Personally, if I were your landlord I would only charge you for half of the carpet replacement (assuming you destroyed it completely) since it was already half depreciated (I personally only expect carpet to last a max of 10 years).  If your cats had done damage to the sub-flooring that would be an entirely different matter.


: 
: : Anyone with any ideas would be greatly appreciated! I live in Rochester - I gave my landlord my month's notice Jan. 4th. He showed up in my apartment Jan 15th with a bill for $1500 for carpeting. He wants me to pay for wall to wall carpeting through the entire apartment (700+ square feet) because he states that my cats destroyed it. The thing is that the carpet is at the very least 5 years old and has been leased to at least 7 tenants in that time. I refused to sign the Pet Agreement because I did not want to be liable for all the damage that the previous tenants did. Also, he stated that the reason he did not replace the carpet was because he wanted to do it after I left which I said was fine by me. Now he's trying to get me to pay all the costs. Everyone here thinks that landlords have to replace carpeting every so often but I can't find anything documented. 


Optional Link URL:  
Link Title:         
Optional Image URL: 

---