Landlord charged us WAY too much for carpet repair. How can we get $ back?

mattsk42 · #1 09-14-2011, 08:14 AM

*EDITED for actual amounts, sorry!*

Basically, we payed 1095 deposit and 500 pet deposit. Our dog dug a hole through the carpet in the corners of ONE door. Two chunks of carpet missing in the corners by the door. They are about 6 square inches missing.

Downstairs, we scratched INTO, not on top of a laminate wood flooring in two 6 inch by 1cm lines. (not very big)

Well he charged us 1244 to replace ALL of the carpeting (about 300 sq. ft.) and 702 to "refinish" the wood floor. (about 150 sq. feet)

So we don't get any deposit back.

Can it possibly cost that much in such a small place? Also, how can we dispute this?

OK, so second question (after seeing replies #2-7 below): We paid 1595 total, but he wants to charge us an ADDITIONAL 351 to cover the costs. Is that fair?

MJ5150 · #2 09-14-2011, 08:28 AM

$950 for the carpet is steep. Did he provide you a receipt of the work?

-Mike

fenderhutz · #3 09-14-2011, 08:35 AM

Yup. Ask for time and materials receipt.

If he did the work himself you might be SOL because he could charge a premium and make it look good on paper.

Other option is to get a quote for 300 sq ft of carpet and labor and to get a floor refinished for those spots. Deliver a copy of the quotes asking for money back in difference.

jonathan_matos5 · #4 09-14-2011, 08:43 AM

i imagine a couple hundred is labor for carpet layers and the wood floor refinish people. did they actually replace all of the carpet and refinish all of the laminate floor? you may be sol in this case. most apartments do not clean the carpets between tenants if they are soiled or damaged they just replace them with the cheapest available beige carpet. good luck

Johnny Alien · #5 09-14-2011, 08:56 AM

While that is high I am not to sure that it's not on par with what some people would charge for carpet and labor. I got a small section installed (smaller than what you stated) and it cost way more than I expected and it was cheap carpet. Regardless there is not much you can do. If the carpet and floor is damaged they will take 100% of the deposit. That is how those situations usually work.

Tracebassplayer · #6 09-14-2011, 08:58 AM

You can't patch carpet and make it look right or last. If someone damaged your house you'd want it "as was", right. That means replacing that entire piece of carpet.
Same with the flooring. Except that you can replace the damaged piece but You have to remove all the adjoining pieces from the wall out to the damaged area. That's labor intensive.
That said... he can not upgrade the carpet at your expense. Not withstanding color, It has to be the same carpet or grade of carpet.

And I am in no way defending the landlord, btw. We all know most will try to get out ahead forsaking fairness.

gttim · #7 09-14-2011, 09:52 AM

$3 a square foot for carpet? About right, if not cheap. I know most installers used to charge $2.25 a yard for re-install. They have to rip out old carpet, and most likely pad, and install new carpet. Add price of new carpet. Sounds like you got a good deal. And, as pointed out above, it all has to be replaced.

mattsk42 · #8 09-14-2011, 10:00 AM

OK, so second question (after seeing replies #2-7 above): We paid 1500 total, but he wants to charge us an ADDITIONAL 300 to cover the costs. Is that fair?

MJ5150 · #9 09-14-2011, 10:08 AM

Your math in post #1 comes out to $1,550 for the repairs. Where is the other $250 charge coming from?

-Mike

6jase5 · #10 09-14-2011, 10:18 AM

I got burned (pun intended) on a $1200 stove "repair" for a $1500 stove that we had told the landlord wasn't working for months before the end of our lease and we even had the emails. He "wasn't able" to do the final inspection with us ironically. After we moved out he trashed it by pouring beer in to hot top burners and baking god knows what in the oven burning it all over, took us to court, and we had to pay out from the deposit. In 12 months we never even used the oven as my roommate and I were on tour, never had a party, etc. We found out that he trashed it as he bragged to a neighbor not knowing that we were friends. Went back to the court and even called a lawyer....nope, no help, would have cost more money to fight it.

I "heard" that "someone" put his suv on blocks one night and took all 4 wheels. I heard that.

fhm555 · #11 09-14-2011, 12:20 PM

Welcome to the world of renting with pets. Haven't done it in many years, but when I did it was a given the landlord would find a reason to keep both deposits if possible, but always wound up keeping the pet deposit for (claimed) carpet cleaning, (non existent) smell removal, etc, etc. Far as I could tell, the pet deposit should have just been called a one time pet upcharge because no matter how clean I left a place, I never got my pet deposit back. I had a tiny little cat who never tore up anything and always used her litter box, but I never got a pet deposit back.

Chebass88 · #12 09-14-2011, 12:24 PM

Sorry to hear about this. We just left an apartment where the landlord wanted to rip out all of the carpet and return to hardwood floors. No damage to carpets!

ADbassman · #13 09-14-2011, 05:09 PM

Definitely get an itemized receipt of the work that was done to fix the apartment. It's very illegal for your landlord not to provide that. Of course, their response is likely to trump up the charges, but that's pretty typical of the industry. In my opinion, by and large landlords are on the same level as used car dealers for being the scum of the earth.

UncleFluffy · #14 09-14-2011, 05:13 PM

How long were you in there? Depreciation on a carpet is something like 5-7 years, so if you were there longer than that they can't charge you for replacement, and if less they still have to take depreciated value into account.

(I had a landlord try that on a place I'd been in for 6 years, and I threatened to report them to the IRS if they claimed that the carpet was worth more than the depreciated value they'd been claiming on their tax returns. Not surprisingly, they backed down immediately.)

**Pacman** · #15 09-14-2011, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleFluffy

How long were you in there? Depreciation on a carpet is something like 5-7 years, so if you were there longer than that they can't charge you for replacement, and if less they still have to take depreciated value into account.

You live in a different state. Are you familiar with South Dakota real estate law?

James Hart · #16 09-14-2011, 07:52 PM

I'm knee deep in over 25k worth of tenant damage AND they stiffed me on over 8k worth of back rent. I've been almost a year doing all the work myself without rental income in the mean time.

I will never again be a 'nice guy' landlord... never again!

UncleFluffy · #17 09-14-2011, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pacman

You live in a different state. Are you familiar with South Dakota real estate law?

Fair point.

The tax issues and depreciation periods are Federal, but landlord-tenant law is state-by-state.

edit: If asking doesn't work, the next step - if you think the hassle is worth it - is Small Claims Court

hbarcat · #18 09-14-2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattsk42

OK, so second question (after seeing replies #2-7 above): We paid 1500 total, but he wants to charge us an ADDITIONAL 300 to cover the costs. Is that fair?

The question is: Is it legal. If he is just trying to squeeze an extra $300 out of you for spurious reasons then simply ignore him. The worst he can do is take you to court and the worse that can happen is the judge could rule against you and you'd have to cough up the $300. But there is a chance that the judge could rule against the landlord (you can counter-sue for a small filing fee) or even come up with some other ruling (split the difference or even make the landlord return some of your deposit based on whatever is the law in your state). In any case, it's unlikely the landlord will go through the hassle of taking you to court for a paltry $300. Just politely ignore his requests demanding you pay him.

It's really up to your best judgement based on the exact circumstances of your situation. What he's charged you already seems kind of steep but not completely unreasonable. Suppose you got a couple of estimates to do the exact same work and you brought them to small claims court. If they were significantly less than what the landlord charged you then it's possible the judge could find in your favor or even order the landlord to return some of your deposit. But you can't accurately predict the outcome and it's all up to the discretion of the judge.

mattsk42 · #19 09-15-2011, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Your math in post #1 comes out to $1,550 for the repairs. Where is the other $250 charge coming from?

-Mike

Edited it for the actual amounts now.

BurningSkies · #20 09-15-2011, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James Hart

I'm knee deep in over 25k worth of tenant damage AND they stiffed me on over 8k worth of back rent. I've been almost a year doing all the work myself without rental income in the mean time.

I will never again be a 'nice guy' landlord... never again!

+1

Our landlord has been very hands off. Which is fine for us, given I've done all the upkeep and stuff (painting the place, re-tiling the bathroom, etc). but downstairs it didn't work so good. The old tenant lived there for 35 years and did no cleaning or upkeep. He never called in a repair, and they never did an inspection.

I'll post pictures later of what damage was done...but it was extreme. At some point the plumbing stopped working and it was decades ago. There was a leak from upstairs (our place) long before I moved in, and he never told anyone...until the bathroom ceiling and wall caved in.

We got the city building inspectors to come in (the dude was a hoarder), and they told the landlord to evict and renovate or they'd condemn. The renovations were a year+ and in the neighborhood of 35 thousand dollars by the time they had demo'ed and rebuilt everything.