Deposit - Landlord Forum thread

Deposit by Anonymous on October 31, 2009 @00:38

I had a tenant move out end of september. I sent the demand for damages for to them detailing the damages. I charged them for the carpet in the one bedroom that needed replaced, it was new when they moved in and I charged them for the orginal cost from purchasing it last year. The dining room and living room was 4 years old and it had excessive stains over 12 of them and about 27 cigarette burn holes. Far as the cleaning charge went it named everything that was cleaned including the cold air return openings, I have pictures of the filth in them. I charged for carpet cleaning for the other rooms that had odars in the carpet and one that had stains in it very bad.

Today I got a letter from a lawyer that they paid, I know they took the pictures and the demand for damage form to him. Anyways he asked if I could send a copy of the demand for damages letter to him. He said tenants are entitled to receive their deposit back minus any damages that exceed normal wear and tear. He says what he knows is that I am charging for carpet replacement for one of the rooms and carpet cleaning for the rest of the rooms and air duct cleaing. He said he would like the receipts for the work done in order to properly assess my demands, and further more wants documents detailing the last time I had the carpets cleaned prior to them moving in.

I didnt know I could pro-rate the carpet since it was 4 years old and only charged for the cleaning, and I sent a long with the pictures a picture of a door kicked off the hinges but forgot to include that charge and then I found a broken window the other day when I opened a blind.

Is it too late to include those charges for the carpet replacement,door, and window? And do I send a copy to him of the demand letter? and if I can charge for the damages do I write up a new demand letter? I have pictures showing the condition of the carpet and I kept several pieces of the carpet showing the stains. And I also had a lady that came through to see the house and she wanted to leave due to the odar, she said she would tell anyone about the odar and stains if they called her but she will not go to court, she seen the house after the carpets were cleaned but before they were replaced. The deposit was $715 but the damages amounted to $1365. What should I do?

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Re: Deposit by Ohio Landlord (OH) on October 31, 2009 @00:38	[ Reply ]
This story is my post.

Re: Deposit by OH LL (the first) (OH) on October 31, 2009 @12:37

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You should have prorated the carpet charges:
-charging for 4/5 or 6/7 of the ruined bedroom of carpet (depending on whether you use 5 or 7 yrs for depreciation. Most LLs use the replacement costs when they calculate depreciation, and they use 7 years.)
-charging for 1/5 or 3/7 of the dining room & living room carpet
-got a carpet cleaner's statement to say the carpet in the rooms above was beyond cleaning and was ruined. Also to attest to the smell in other carpet and why it was necessary to clean it. But you say you have photos so this should be good to prove it was ruined.
-charged for the cleaning of any other carpet in the house
-had someone else clean ducts so you could charge for their labor costs (most OH judges won't allow your own labor charges, although some magistrates do)
-the carpet was clean at move in wasn't it? You have photos from move in to show it was clean? They needed to leave it like it was when they took possession.

I would send an amended return to them to show the depreciation figures for the carpet. I would send it to the tenants, not the attorney. Since you did not charge for the other items (other carpet and window), I would show these as damages and list that you did not charge for them since you did not discover the damages until after the statement had been sent. Even after you depreciate the carpet, the damages should exceed their deposit. So there should be no need to sue you since they would have nothing to gain. If they sue you in court, counter sue to claim the other damages.