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I am moving from an apartment complex in wilmington and are about to enter a dispute with the landlord over damages to the carpet. While i do not contest the face that the carpet was damage in a single room and deck I do have issues with the estimate. I am from out of state and not well versed with the tennant law and I am appealling to the CityData Community for help.
1) Are tennants allowed to comeplete the repair work themselves? The carpet is cheap polyester contractor grade. The quote I am getting for the agent I feel I could recarpet the entire apartment which is about 1200 sqft. I was at home depot and while they did not have the exact style and color they said the stuff was cheap contractor grade and was less than the lowest grade carpet he had which was $1.39 per sqft. The landlord was pretty insistent on doing the repair, I need to review the lease but they can have a stipulation that they must do all repair work of that nature?
2) If I construct an estimate of my own that is lower and resonalbe can I contest the estimate given. I only have part of the estimate but i feel they are going to try and run up the bill. I already got a partial estimate for some deck carpet which is only a rectangular 6x16 area at almost 500 dollars on stuff I know I have seen at about 33 cents a sqft at Home Depot. I know labor is where they can get you but they need to be resonable correct?
3) Any advice on where I could hunt down this carpet that seems to be the standard in apartments everywhere?
I wanna fight this I acknowledge damage but I do not feel its ok to rob me blind. Anyone have any tips?
So let me get this straight. You damaged the carpets and now you think the landlord should allow you to buy some carpet from Home Depot and put it down yourself? None of this is going to fly with the judge. Just pay up for the damage you caused and be more responsible next time.
Most places require a security deposit, and a separate deposit for pets. Is there a security deposit involved? What is the damage caused by?
Are you taking the landlord to court, or vice versa?
You need to at least review your lease agreement.
Generally there is typical "wear and tear" that can be expected with all rental units and there are laws that protect tenants.
Contrary to other posters, all may not be lost with you obtaining your own estimates. For example: If your former landlord has an extremely high estimate and you have no estimates of your own, then you may leave a court with little to go on but that one estimate.
I am not an attorney but this seems like a situation hopefully y'all can work out and avoid court.
Another thing to consider is carpet age. If you lived in the apartment for two years and the carpet was already three years old when you moved in, then you shouldn't be responsible for all of the damage/cost of entire carpet replacement. However, if the carpet was brand new when you moved in and the LL deemed it uncleanable, then you very well may be responsible for full replacement.
This is weak because you don't say what the landlord wants compared to what you think it should cost. You are asking us to give you help without knowing if your request is fair.
So that and how long you've lived there are important. I think if I ever live in an apartment again I'll take before pictures though when I moved out they just noted how old the carpet was and that it was never cleaned in more than 5 years and let me off the hook.
The landlord has every right to charge to replace the entire carpet so it matches.
If you really think it is sky high too expensive then forget the do it yourself estimate (no court is going to buy in to that) and instead hire a professional for an estimate. Or three to get an average. No one is going to want to do that because they know they won't be hired for the job.
I do not have all the information as of yet. I should have by end of week. Based on the quote for part of the job I felt the entire estimate will come in high as well. I am curious to see what the threshold is to warrant a fight. I am sort of scared of being hit with attourney fees since that could erase anything I win. I was going to do an average of a professional installers. Given how crappy the material is there is plenty of fat in the estimate.
I am just curious to know if it makes sense to go to battle over this. Has anyone had success? Doesn't sound promising at this point.
I do not have all the information as of yet. I should have by end of week. Based on the quote for part of the job I felt the entire estimate will come in high as well. I am curious to see what the threshold is to warrant a fight. I am sort of scared of being hit with attourney fees since that could erase anything I win. I was going to do an average of a professional installers. Given how crappy the material is there is plenty of fat in the estimate.
I am just curious to know if it makes sense to go to battle over this. Has anyone had success? Doesn't sound promising at this point.
You can't tell us now how much the estimate from the landlord is?
In my first apartment, I damaged the carpet. I spilled make up that left a stain. I couldn't get it out no matter what I did.
When I moved out, they kept the security. She said if I wanted it back, I could replace the carpet myself, but I was in no position to do that.
She said she didn't think it would even come out if Stanley Steamer came out to clean it, but to this day, I have a feeling they would have been able to get it out.
This isn't worth it over what is relatively a small matter. You will lose your money (not to mention sanity) in legal fees. How much was your security deposit? If the damage is that bad, they'll keep the deposit -- and I believe you're within your rights to ask for an itemized estimate of any funds due above that amount.
Also -- what was the carpet's condition when you moved in? New, new(ish), old, stained, what?
All in all, this just isn't worth what it's going to cause...not to mention what it's going to cost.
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