Question about floors and damage (apartment, tenant, square foot, deposit)

[angelkitty2224]

Okay so I have been renting this apartment for about two years now.

I own rabbits, which my landlord knows about, and they are on the lease. I was never charged a "pet fee" that many landlords do charge.

I put down special foam to try and protect the floor in the bedroom, with the landlords permission, to keep the floors, which were very old and damaged when I originally moved in. Well recently one of my bunnies has been tearing up the flooring and it spurred me to move it and replace with a different kind of protector.

Well apparently the flooring I had originally put down over the laminate wood flooring did more harm then good. Some urine trickled between the cracks and damaged the flooring beneath it. Badly in some areas.

I know we are definitely going to lose the deposit because of this but I want to know if we are going to be charged with further fees, since this does not qualify as normal wear and tear, even though the flooring was in pretty bad shape upon moving in.

I mean the apartment has plenty of other problems and repairs needed, some that are pretty severe, but they can't be done when we are living there. Basically our building is ancient, and falling apart. Tis why our rent is super cheap.

But we just want to be prepared for what may come in our future. >.<

[sskkc]

Check the tenant laws in your state, but we had a similar situation once in a rental, in Colorado.

We had two cats when we moved in. With the LLs permission, we got a dog from the pound a couple months later. First day, she peed on the carpet - a very old, stained carpet. We cleaned it up right away, but the next day, the cats urinated on the same spot. We cleaned it again. After about a week of the animals taking turns peeing on the carpet DAILY, we called professionals, they cleaned it, treated it... and the animals did it again. So, we pulled up the carpet, had the under floor treated and laid down some laminate/temp flooring for the remainder of our lease.

At the end of the lease, the property manager stated we had to replace the carpet throughout the home, because it was so old it was no longer made (13 years) and wouldn't be a perfect match. Law stated that they could only charge us for the remaining life of the carpet damaged, not new carpeting costs and not for the entire home (it was a 20 x 20 room - only room on that floor of the home that was carpeted). So, after doing my research and learning that carpet had a 5 year warranty and an expected lifespan of 10-12 years, they ended up not charging us a dime for it. Now, if she had just charged me $500, chances are, I wouldn't have challenged the amount of the deposit being returned. But $3000, which was 3x the deposit... well, I just responded by mailing her a copy of the law, plus the letter from HER carpet guy with information about the carpet's warranty and lifespan

My advice is to Google tenant laws and your state

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Your rabbits did the damage. You'll probably have to pay to have the floors refinished. About $4 a square foot where I live. I don't know what it will cost where you live.