Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I moved out of an apartment. I didn't clean the carpet before I left, I figured that they would just deduct a cleaning fee for doing it for me. Turns out that the manager wants to replace the carpet in the apartment. She is claiming that the carpet is ruined and that I had a pet which is totally wrong, my wife hates animals inside the house plus we have a new born. The manager claims that the stains on the carpet wont come out. I talked to a carpet cleaning guy and he says that all stains come out. We moved on 07/31/09 today is 08/10/09 and she hasn't had the carpet cleaned. On 08/11/09 she stated that she would have a estimator come out and take measurements on the carpet to have it replaced ( without having first cleaned).

My questions is, what steps can I take to basically take her donw.


Asked on 8/10/09, 9:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Larry L. Doan Law Office of Larry L. Doan

The California Department of Consumer Affairs has a booklet called the "California Tenants" booklet. According to this, if the tenant has damaged the carpet beyond repair, then one common method of calculating the deduction for replacement prorates the total cost of replacement so that the tenant pays only for the remaining useful life of the item that the tenant has damaged or destroyed. So, if the carpet is pretty much near or at the end of its useful life, you cannot be charged much at all. You can read the booklet online at: http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/landlordbook/sec-deposit.shtml

Look under the section "SUGGESTED APPROACHES TO SECURITY DEPOSIT DEDUCTIONS". It has a subsection dealing with carpets and drapes.

Larry L. Doan, Esq.

https://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/attyPages/liem.html

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Answered on 8/11/09, 2:06 am


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