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Old 12-08-2014, 01:32 PM
 
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I have been living in a rental for 4 years. I am about to move out but the vertical blinds are damaged. Must I pay for replacement. What other costs can come out of my deposit if I leave the place clean. The carpet is also no good anymore. It was white.
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Old 12-08-2014, 03:15 PM
 
Location: Bella Vista, Ark
77,772 posts, read 104,081,702 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rherrin61 View Post
I have been living in a rental for 4 years. I am about to move out but the vertical blinds are damaged. Must I pay for replacement. What other costs can come out of my deposit if I leave the place clean. The carpet is also no good anymore. It was white.
golly that is a tough one. I would think, after 4 years the landlord would not expect the place to be in perfect condition and those vertical blinds can break pretty easily. Ours are about 8 years old, in our bedroom so rarely touched and they still have slats missing. As for the carpet, that is a different story. Whether is is white or black, if it was in good condition when you moved in, you might be resposible for at least cleaning it. If it is worn, again, it will depend on the condition when you moved in and what your lease agreement says. Normal wear and tear like some paint damage and a little dirt is to be expected.
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Old 12-08-2014, 04:20 PM
 
Location: Pasadena, CA
10,084 posts, read 15,758,726 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nmnita View Post
golly that is a tough one. I would think, after 4 years the landlord would not expect the place to be in perfect condition and those vertical blinds can break pretty easily. Ours are about 8 years old, in our bedroom so rarely touched and they still have slats missing. As for the carpet, that is a different story. Whether is is white or black, if it was in good condition when you moved in, you might be resposible for at least cleaning it. If it is worn, again, it will depend on the condition when you moved in and what your lease agreement says. Normal wear and tear like some paint damage and a little dirt is to be expected.
I believe the law is that the owner can only charge you the amount of "reasonable" wear and tear. If the carpet is cheap-o and the damage is not out of the ordinary they can charge you a little bit but not the entire cost of replacement. Blinds you probably have to replace but those are not really that expensive unless you had really nice ones. It all depends on the landlord though, some won't care about charging you for little things like that and others will try to gouge you at every corner.
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Old 12-08-2014, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Boise, ID
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If the slats have just broken off, I wouldn't charge for that, they are pretty brittle and break off often. If the mount is broken or missing, I would charge for that.

As for the carpet, first off, white carpet in a rental is pretty stupid on the landlord's part. But unless it was super cheap apartment grade carpet, or wasn't new when you moved in, you'll likely have to pay at least a prorated cost to replace, if it is, in fact, "no good".

Carpet has to be prorated over the expected life. We put 10 year carpet in our houses. Apartments usually use 3 or 5 year carpet. So if it was 5 year carpet, and was new when you moved in, you might owe 1/5th of the replacement cost. If it was 10 year carpet, but was 3 years old when you moved in, and you lived there 3 years, it was destroyed 3 years ahead of schedule, so you might have to pay 3/10ths of the replacement cost.
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Old 12-08-2014, 10:55 PM
 
28,107 posts, read 63,374,410 times
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Here's the deal on my blinds.

I buy quality blinds with a lifetime guarantee... if the mechanism wears out they are replaced at no charge.

Thing is if there is a problem... almost 99% of the time the tenant has damaged them and I charge for damage.
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Old 12-09-2014, 04:11 AM
 
10,746 posts, read 25,858,805 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rherrin61 View Post
I have been living in a rental for 4 years. I am about to move out but the vertical blinds are damaged. Must I pay for replacement. What other costs can come out of my deposit if I leave the place clean. The carpet is also no good anymore. It was white.

You used the term 'damage' so that tells me you damaged them and this isn't 'wear and tear'. So I'd expect your landlord to charge you something. As Ultra said, some landlord use quality blinds with a long life expectancy and if they can prove they used those (as well as the date of install) they can charge you for them.

I've had vertical blinds in my home for over 10 yrs and a house full of kids...they never got damaged..did slats come off? Yeah, and they'd snap right back in.


How old is the carpet? What grade is the carpet? The fact that you say 'it was white' tells me it's not anymore and it's probably hasn't been probably taken care of.

I also doubt you're in a complex, they usually uses beige or tan carpet that ages out at 5 yrs. You'll probably get charged something for the carpet... all depends on the life expectancy the manufacture gives it and the landlord has to depreciate it from that.
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Old 12-09-2014, 11:09 PM
 
Location: Silicon Valley
18,812 posts, read 32,248,860 times
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Why don't you ask your landlord to do a pre-move-out inspection and give you a list of what you have to do to get your full deposit back? In CA the landlord has to offer you this option.
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Old 12-12-2014, 10:14 PM
 
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Did you ever clean the carpet? Or did you just ruin it?
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Old 12-13-2014, 01:55 AM
 
Location: Silicon Valley
18,812 posts, read 32,248,860 times
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Here's a good article by the CA Dept of Consumer Affairs about what can be taken out of a deposit, and depreciation for carpet, etc.

California Tenants - California Department of Consumer Affairs
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Old 12-13-2014, 01:58 AM
 
Location: Charlotte, NC
4,761 posts, read 7,785,073 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rherrin61 View Post
I have been living in a rental for 4 years. I am about to move out but the vertical blinds are damaged. Must I pay for replacement. What other costs can come out of my deposit if I leave the place clean. The carpet is also no good anymore. It was white.

I'll give the benefit of the doubt here. If the blinds are damaged because of sun exposure, they got brittle and broke off, no problem. If they were broken off because someone was too lazy, or impatient, to open them to enter or exit a sliding glass door, you're paying.

White carpet. Oh, let me count the ways how this is a bad thing. It's not necessarily bad for you, OP. It's just stupid as all get out if this was a rental from the start. Well, unless it was ridiculously cheap carpet.

White carpet will obviously show more dirt than a beige or brown carpet. This is to be expected and I would call it normal wear and tear. Now, if there are cigarette burns or serious black stains on the carpet, that isn't normal wear and tear. Red stains are bad since they don't come out. Just some slight discoloring and traffic patterns are acceptable.

In the worst case, the carpet could be depreciated over 10 years and you could be held responsible for the pro-rated life of the carpet, so you won't eat the entire cost. This also assumes it was new when you moved in the property. The downside is that you don't get to make the call on whether the carpet is no good, or if it has/had useable life left in it based on the lifespan of the carpet. An upshot is that the landlord will have to provide prof of the age if he goes after you for replacement and you challenge it. He'll lose in court if he can't provide proof, unless you really screwed it up.

My advice to you is to call Stanley Steemer, or any carpet cleaner, to come see what they can do. You can probably get a free estimate. Be proactive here. Don't give the landlord a reason to replace the carpet and bill you for it if you can help it.
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