Carpet (apartment, lease, tenant, rental)

[Charms28]

I just moved in my apartment in Albany Oregon, this building is really old of old so the carpet has been there since they bailed the place and they shampooed it and everything it's still dirty and it smells really bad like old cigarettes and nasty damp mold or something it's unbearable and I told her that I'm allergic to cigarette smoke this is my first night here and she tells me that they won't change the carpet or give me another apartment. My eyes are very itchy and it feels like I have asthma. Can someone tell me what's my options should I have the health department come in and inspect the place. What are my rights as a tenet.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Call a professional carpet cleaner and have the rug cleaned again, by someone who has a truck mounted carpet machine with a powerful extractor. Pay for the deodorizing treatment.

Sorry, but that smell didn't magically appear after you moved in, so it smelled when you looked at the apartment and accepted it. Some one did clean the carpet. The departing tenant or the landlord? No matter. You saw it and you accepted it in the condition it is currently in.

It won't cost you too much to have a good company get it clean and stink-free. It might still be stained, but you can buy inexpensive area rugs to cover it (after it is completely and totally dry). Personally, I don't treat my tenants that way, but you can not make the landlord do anything about it, so if you want to live there, stink free, I suggest you invest in the professional cleaning.

Be sure to get lots of photos of the move-in condition and have the carpet cleaner make a note on his receipt that the carpet smelled bad.

If the carpet is that old in such bad condition, if it has to be replaced after you move out, you only get charged prorated costs, which should be close to nothing. Still, document everything.

In Oregon, if the carpet was cleaned before you move in, and it says so in your rental agreement, the landlord can charge you for professional carpet cleaning after you move out. Just be prepared for it, so you don't have to come back asking if the landlord can do that.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Adding this: if you really can not stand it, Oregon has a law that allows you to break a lease by paying a lease breaking fee. Believe me, it would be a whole lot cheaper to have the carpet cleaned than to pay the lease break fee and move.

[nightcrawler]

buy another carpet of your choice, whats the big deal.
i think this is your best bet and its a win win for you and the LL.

[ContraPagan]

Didn't you look at the place before signing the lease?? The time to address that sort of thing is BEFORE you sign a binding agreement, not after. That way if the landlord refuses to address the issue, you just say ix-nay and go look somewhere else.