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that really is a powerful smell to people that are not used to it. i find it repulsive personally, but then again.... i was never exposed to much of it growing up. but being fined 100 $ for it? thats insane. he should have the place professionally cleaned and it will be fine. open the windows! wow. and hes choosing a small amount of $ because he knows that it isnt worth going to court over....slumlord!
I agree it is a small amount and not worth my time, but my wife is now jobless and is more than motivated to go to court for this
She took it as a matter of pride to clean out the house and she is really pissed. Also, we are just clawing back after a bout of joblessness and we are not really in a position to write off amounts, small as they might be.
Also, the law states that the landlord has to repaint on his own dime before letting to another tenant. So, why am I asked to pay for this?
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes and hope you bounce back. However I do not think paint alone will solve this stench issue if the odor is embedded in the kitchen cabinets which it most likely is I hope there is no forced air heating or central air cause then the odor will be lingering in the vents. Unless the owner is planning on repainting the cabinets inside and out but this is very uncommon thing to do. Face it, you left an odor clean it up or pay the piper. Since your wife is jobless I would recommend she take care of the odor instead of wasting time filing complaints. Are you not taking care of the issue because you both feel that the odor is irremovable by conventional means?
Sorry to hear about your misfortunes and hope you bounce back. However I do not think paint alone will solve this stench issue if the odor is embedded in the kitchen cabinets which it most likely is I hope there is no forced air heating or central air cause then the odor will be lingering in the vents. Unless the owner is planning on repainting the cabinets inside and out but this is very uncommon thing to do. Face it, you left an odor clean it up or pay the piper. Since your wife is jobless I would recommend she take care of the odor instead of wasting time filing complaints. Are you not taking care of the issue because you both feel that the odor is irremovable by conventional means?
1) We would have cleaned up but this "curry smell" thing came out of the blue. We had the walkthrough at 9.30pm on apr 30th and he moved in that very night (bachelor guy). We have no second chance.
2) He is not going to spend on cleanup. That much is clear. He just wants money out of us.
I cannot believe this thread has lasted so long, or that there are (apparently) so many peopel who think that it is OK to charge for a "curry smell" from cooking Indian food.
Put bluntly: a tenant is not liable for ordinary wear & tear on an apartment (hence the new paint / new carpet stuff). Kitchens that people cook in often (surprise!) smell like the food being cooked for a period of time afterward. Some foods may leave a stronger odor for a longer period of time than others. Big deal. Cooking is an ordinary and reasonable use of a kitchen, and a leftover odor of spices or whatever is not something that a landlord can collect money on.
I said it before and I'll say it again: he just wants to ding you for $100 because he thinks it's not worth your time to fight. If your wife is unemployed, there's no reason not to fight this. Drag him to small claims court (or landlord tenant court) and watch the judge laugh in his face when he tries to explain why he's holding back $100 for "curry smell".
But chances are, when he sees you are serious about going to court over this, he will cave in and give you the money back.
Again all those clueless people with their pretentious outrage putting in comments without any actual experience.
Seriously Lusitan, why dont YOU try to rent to a tenant who cooks heavy spicy curry but do not clean up daily. Once they move out, lets see if you still hold the same opinion ok?
This has nothing to do with racial prejudice, so get over yourself already.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lusitan
I cannot believe this thread has lasted so long, or that there are (apparently) so many peopel who think that it is OK to charge for a "curry smell" from cooking Indian food.
Put bluntly: a tenant is not liable for ordinary wear & tear on an apartment (hence the new paint / new carpet stuff). Kitchens that people cook in often (surprise!) smell like the food being cooked for a period of time afterward. Some foods may leave a stronger odor for a longer period of time than others. Big deal. Cooking is an ordinary and reasonable use of a kitchen, and a leftover odor of spices or whatever is not something that a landlord can collect money on.
I said it before and I'll say it again: he just wants to ding you for $100 because he thinks it's not worth your time to fight. If your wife is unemployed, there's no reason not to fight this. Drag him to small claims court (or landlord tenant court) and watch the judge laugh in his face when he tries to explain why he's holding back $100 for "curry smell".
But chances are, when he sees you are serious about going to court over this, he will cave in and give you the money back.
Seriously Lusitan, why dont YOU try to rent to a tenant who cooks heavy spicy curry but do not clean up daily. Once they move out, lets see if you still hold the same opinion ok?
This has nothing to do with racial prejudice, so get over yourself already.
Did I mention racial prejudice?
Does the lease forbid cooking with curry? How about garlic? What about making fried chicken every night?
Give me a break. If the lease doesn't forbid use of select normal cooking ingredients, the landlord has no right to withhold money because the kitchen smells like curry.
Just like if the lease permits smoking, and then the apartment reeks of smoke, you're not going to be able to charge the tenant to deal with the smoke smell -- that's the price you pay for allowing smoking per the lease.
And the owner is just going to have to chalk this up to a cost of doing business and paint the walls, seal the cabinets, and air the place out if he doesn't like the smell.
Wow what a long thread. There is fair and there is legal. Legally he may not have a right to the $100 but in terms of fairness, $100 is nothing towards getting rid of that curry smell. I love indian food. In fact I just had indian tonight for dinner but that curry smell is impossible to get rid of. When my wife and I were house hunting we saw many houses which were south asian occupied and every one of them had an overpowering curry smell. Some worse than others but it got to the point where we stopped looking at houses which were indian occupied. It's not really a matter of race. The fact is cooking with indian spices creates a tremendous odor which is almost impossible to get rid of and is also impossible for some to live with. When i reheat my chiken tikka masala leftovers my microwave stinks for a week. I love the taste but that odor is really annoying. Spending all that time to fight over $100 to me doesn't make much sense. $100 to try to get rid of that odor is more than fair. The time it would take to fight this might be better spent job hunting. Just my 2 cents...
I cannot believe this thread has lasted so long, or that there are (apparently) so many peopel who think that it is OK to charge for a "curry smell" from cooking Indian food.
Put bluntly: a tenant is not liable for ordinary wear & tear on an apartment (hence the new paint / new carpet stuff). Kitchens that people cook in often (surprise!) smell like the food being cooked for a period of time afterward. Some foods may leave a stronger odor for a longer period of time than others. Big deal. Cooking is an ordinary and reasonable use of a kitchen, and a leftover odor of spices or whatever is not something that a landlord can collect money on.
I said it before and I'll say it again: he just wants to ding you for $100 because he thinks it's not worth your time to fight. If your wife is unemployed, there's no reason not to fight this. Drag him to small claims court (or landlord tenant court) and watch the judge laugh in his face when he tries to explain why he's holding back $100 for "curry smell".
But chances are, when he sees you are serious about going to court over this, he will cave in and give you the money back.
Actually, it is. Normal wear and tear does not include lingering odors that hinder your ability as a landlord to re-rent. You are expected to return the rental property in the same condition it was given to you (minus "normal wear and tear" which are dings in walls, not 2 inch holes...appliances in basic and good working order, not door of ovens hanging on by one hinge or a fridge full of mold...if there were no cockroaches in the rental when you moved in, there should be none when you leave...if there were no holes in the carpet and you had a party and let your party goers put their butts out in the carpet....guess who is responsible for that? And it doesn't matter how old the carpet is..the value at time of ruin will be taken into consideration by the judge...and the list goes on.)
Even if you allow pets, the tenant still has a responsibility to maintain the property. There's no unspoken "ok" to let animals scratch doors up, scratch up carpets, chew on doors/cabinets or mark their territory over and over again inside the property where the first 3 feet up from the floor of sheet rock is soaked with cat/dog pee. Now THERE'S a NASTY smell that will NOT go away until remediated by removing and replacing the sheetrock. Not a cheap fix either.
$100 is NOTHING to take care of the issue at hand (from past and personal experience) and I thought, could just be me, that a receipt of the cost of whatever process is necessary to remediate the odor needs to be given to the tenant when the security is returned minus $100. As a landlord, that's how I do it. As the OP I would ask for proof of "removal of curry smell" and if it is refused to be given, then he has a case.
Wow what a long thread. There is fair and there is legal. Legally he may not have a right to the $100 but in terms of fairness, $100 is nothing towards getting rid of that curry smell. I love indian food. In fact I just had indian tonight for dinner but that curry smell is impossible to get rid of. When my wife and I were house hunting we saw many houses which were south asian occupied and every one of them had an overpowering curry smell. Some worse than others but it got to the point where we stopped looking at houses which were indian occupied. It's not really a matter of race. The fact is cooking with indian spices creates a tremendous odor which is almost impossible to get rid of and is also impossible for some to live with. When i reheat my chiken tikka masala leftovers my microwave stinks for a week. I love the taste but that odor is really annoying. Spending all that time to fight over $100 to me doesn't make much sense. $100 to try to get rid of that odor is more than fair. The time it would take to fight this might be better spent job hunting. Just my 2 cents...
I agree with this post. This is not about race, but the type of food being cooked causing an odor that's hard to get rid of. The OP could be American, Italian, Black, German or whatever cooking curry, there's still a problem with the lingering odor. So let's not get into the race thing here. Your race did not stop you from renting in the first place.
Now a landlord has to try and rent this place with an odor that some find offensive? OP has to be more considerate to those who might not like the smell of curry. Some people tend to be arrogant and don't consider others feelings. As mentioned above and my previous post, when house hunting, I refused to look at houses that had bad odors in them. One was enough.
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