Tenant/Landlord carpet dispute (Chicago: real estate, rental, how much)

[Magog66]

Hi all. We just moved out of our rental home after 3 years . Per our lease I had to have it professionally cleaned along with the carpets done professionally. Even agreed to foot half the bill for painting a bedroom to a neutral color even though it wasn't in the lease to do so. So after moving our furniture out and having the carpets done ( better than $500 cost) there are definite wear patterns / heavily soiled areas that aren't coming clean, frankly they look like crap. I had them come out again and it really didn't do anything . They are obviously going to have to be replaced . Carpet guy said theres nothing more he can do that its just what it is, heavily worn and nothing can be done. Second opinion ( Stanley Steamer) said essentially same thing. I know this is going to come down to he expects me to pay to replace the carpeting even though both carpet guys have said thats just wear and tear. I don't know how old the carpets were when we moved in. Am I responsible to help with the replacement cost? Or because in 2 different professionals eyes, it is just normal wear Im not obligated? Im aware of the useful life/ depreciation thing.It was in good shape when we moved in. No pictures unfortunately. Any advice?

[SWAChicago]

The carpet is part of the home, and is the sole responsibility of the landlord. Unless theres some ordinance of the town your in the says otherwise, this falls on the landlord. If s/he disagrees, your security deposit should NOT be in jeopardy. The only other thing I can think of is if the lease specifically addresses any carpet issues, then you are not on the hook for this. If landlord is totally unreasonable, consult with a real estate attorney. Good luck!

[Magog66]

Thanks for the reply . Our lease runs through May and we moved out April 1. So we paid April's rent with the idea that he can just keep our security as rent for May ( yes I know we aren't supposed to do that) and that with basically 30 days in April for us to resolve any costs that would have come out of our security we would already be square by April 30 . That way I can decide whats fair and how much Im willing to pay towards anything he thinks we should be responsible for instead of him deciding and taking it out of security. So far between the carpet cleaning, house cleaning, agreeing to half the cost of repainting a bedroom that wasn't stipulated we would do, a junk guy to get rid of stuff ( though I could've left all the junk in the garage until the town does spring cleaning in May and gotten rid of it for free) we are over $1000 in leaving costs and Im sure he's going to expect a landscape spring clean up as well which is 300 to 500. Problem is he lives out of town and he's having his realtors be the go between who also happen to be his personal friend. Based on the phone call the realtor and I had where he mentioned how unhappy the landlord was with the photos and face time call he saw of the carpet, I can see this is going to be a typical whats normal wear and tear carpet dispute. My wife who just wants to be rid of the place once and for all said offer $500 as our share and be done with it. Im guessing in the back of his mind he's thinking he will just charge it off against our security which isn't going to happen for the reason I mentioned above, I feel we are being more than fair with what we've done so far , Not sure Im going to even offer the 500. Ill want to get receipts for how old the carpet is, what kind and how much it cost him to put it in when he did it. My share would probably be considerably less than 500 if we used the depreciation / expected life formula. Ill keep you posted as Im expecting a call today form them asking how we're going to deal with it.

[SWAChicago]

To quote from our real estate book for Illinois, "The tenant does not have to make any repairs but must return the premises in the same condition they were received, with allowances for ordinary wear and tear." The fact that you've had 2 separate cleaners come out to clean is above and beyond your responsibility.

Perhaps another Realtor on here can chime in, but unless you damaged the carpet (pet urination, tears, etc), or damaged the walls, you don't need to worry about that since that's considered wear and tear. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't offer that $500.

I'm curious about the outcome. Good luck sir!

[Magog66]

Originally Posted by SWAChicago

To quote from our real estate book for Illinois, "The tenant does not have to make any repairs but must return the premises in the same condition they were received, with allowances for ordinary wear and tear." The fact that you've had 2 separate cleaners come out to clean is above and beyond your responsibility.

Perhaps another Realtor on here can chime in, but unless you damaged the carpet (pet urination, tears, etc), or damaged the walls, you don't need to worry about that since that's considered wear and tear. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't offer that $500.

I'm curious about the outcome. Good luck sir!

I think the issue is going to be as always, what defines ordinary wear and tear. He'll say that it wasn't like that when we moved in ( and to be fair it wasn't) and in just 3 years the carpet is worn down so bad that cleaners cant get it clean and it has to be totally replaced? It'll be an interesting argument for sure. You can obviously see where our furniture was and where the wear patterns are still in the carpet. I don't know what else he would need to see. I can understand being upset about having to foot the bill for probably 1500 in new carpeting that he wasn't expecting but to me thats the price of doing business. He's trying to fix this place on the cheap. . He has ugly borders up that he is having scraped and the walls painted ( never mind that we lived there for 3 years without complaining about them , now that he wants to re rent or try to sell he's reluctantly addressing that finally) but he still leaving half the rooms in the house unpainted so you have half fresh new paint and half old. looks like ****. Back deck needs to be power washed and repainted and he's not doing that ( $1800 according to the painters quote).Im no expert but on every house show I see first thing people do is repaint everything and put new carpet in when trying to sell. he has until the 30th of this month to iron out any issues with me as Im not answering the phone or replying to emails after that date. That will have given him 30 days to hash things out with me and if he hasn't done it by then then thats his problem.