Who pays for carpet cleaning when you move out?

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Do you the tenant pay for carpet cleaning or does the owner pay for cleaning the carpets;

Kts-law says landlord is not required to pay for carpet cleaning as long as there are no holes on the carpet or health hazards.

As we know carpets don’t last forever. The IRS 2022 publication 521 has guidelines as to depreciation. After depreciation period that might motivate the owner to change the carpet. The owner could also think that if the carpet is at the end of the depreciation period why not have you pay for it and they still get the tax break. Who is to stop them from doing that?

Do you really need to have holes to have to replace the carpet? Many times you can get a carpet installer and just repair the tears or holes in the carpet. It is putting a new patch on an old carpet.

 

The real problem is when you have ripples on the carpet. When these ripples are in the middle of the carpet it means that the carpet is delaminated, which means the backings have become separated because of wear and tear or improper cleaning like too much water or too much heat. When you have delamination then the glue has pulverized and that can make its way to the surface of the carpet where you inhale it when you walk on the carpet, that is a hazard but you can't see it. If you ever see a carpet installer change a carpet there will be a lot of beige dust and it comes from the carpet. If you have a rug that was made from a carpet is actually a carpet you will see that there is dust under it and even if you vacuum you can never get rid of it. Once again this will become airborne and you will inhale it giving you allergies or breathing problems especially if you are sensitive to fine dust.

Also many owners don’t hire the best carpet cleaners if they do at all. Many times I get called by the new tenant because they want the carpet to look cleaner and they tell me the owner said they had it professionally cleaned. Most of the time the carpet was either not cleaned or it was a mow and blow job. So it is not clean. What I do is clean an area have it video recorded by the tenant and send it to the owner where I show just how dirty the carpet is.

Also the cheap carpet cleaners are going to do a fast job because that is what they got paid for. That means they don’t spend enough time to loosen the dirt and grease from the carpet and remove it .

They also don’t remove the water during carpet cleaning because they are doing a fast job so then you have mold on the carpet and mildew begin to grow and then odors are more noticeable.

However, a carpet will have wear and tear because of walking or having furniture on the carpet . That is what they call normal wear and tear.

 

But some is not normal. Like red stains from drinks coffee yellow or other color stains natural or synthetic color stains. Also if you drag furniture and rip the carpet that is negligent carpet is not made to drag furniture on it, it will tear or have fibers melt because of friction. Having cat urine or dogs that urinate on the carpet is also going to damage the carpet. Urine will cause poor air quality and bacteria in the carpet.

After a tenant moves into a house with carpet those problems could already be present but maybe it was well covered up by cleaning methods but after a month they will show up because the problem was never gone, you just didn’t see it or smelled it because it takes time for the pet odor deodorizer to evaporate and then you smell the bad odor, or the dirt that was only steam cleaned and not thoroughly scrubbed will come back and now they will blame it on the tenant because you’ve been there for a month and of course it must be yours.  

The best way to find these problems is take pictures with a cell phone any areas that look different should be looked at closer or smelled. If there is a deodorizer it is trying to hide something.  Using a moisture detector will find urine much better than a UV light and your nose will confirm it. UV light will show anything with optical brighteners glowing and it could be or not be pet urine, it could just be laundry detergent.

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