Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in North Carolina
I'm being charged $1080.38 for carpet replacement. This is for the entire apartment. I took pictures of the rooms prior to move out due to previous issues I had with the complex and there are no visible damages. The carpet was new when I moved in and was a year old. They are stating the damage is not visible in pictures but there was rust from a cage in one room and some urine in another and that they contacted a cleaner and it was unable to be cleaned. They stated the other rooms were fine, but it's their policy to replace the entire carpet and not just a room (even though this is not stated anywhere in the lease). I am willing to meet in the middle and to pay for the two "damaged" rooms but not the entire job because they were admittedly fine and I was not contacted until three weeks after they had replaced it. I asked if my pet fee was applied and was told it was only a fee for the privilege of having a pet and does not apply to pet damages (I also paid additional rent per month for the "pet privilege" and therefore feel the fee should be applied). Is that acceptable? Do I have to pay for all of the carpet? Shouldn't the pet fee be used towards repairs since I was also paying rent for my pets?
1 Answer from Attorneys
The pet fee depends on your lease. It can be applied or not applied to damage as the lease requires. Pets unfortunately require the landlord to do extra cleaning just after normal wear and tear before damages are considered.
As for the carpet you can only be charged for the damage you caused. If they want to replace all of the carpet, fine, but then they can only charge you for what you caused unless you specifically agreed to a replacement of the entire carpet in the lease.
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