Landlords charging for a carpet cleaning when there is nothing in the rental agreement that says so...

Question

now in the lease that i have, it states that we must pay first last and a security deposit for the place that we are in now. thats fine, but when i went to give the landlord notice that we were moving she told me that she was going to charge me to have the carpets professionally cleaned and that she would return the rest of the deposit that wasnt used. in our rental agreement, it states that the securtiy deposit will be retruned in whole if no repairs have to be paid and taht we didnt have a cleaning deposit. i am wondering what i can do or say to her that will make it so i get the whole amt of $650 back. the carpets are BRAND NEW, only 10 months old and they have no stains or anything on them. i used many rugs and a very beautiful area rug to protect the floor. the contract also states that we wont be responsible for normal wear and tear.... pls help

Answer 1

Take pictures right now of all the carpets in your apartment before the carpet cleaning takes place.

They should not charge you for a carpet cleaning unless the carpet cleaners come back stating that there is an excessive cleaning fee.

Then if they decide to charge you for it, keep the pictures, and sue the b*****s.

Answer 2

Sounds like normal wear and tear to me. In my state, the judge can award 3x the amount of the security deposit to the tenant if the landlord doesn't pay it back without good reason.

Answer 3

Show her the contract (bring a copy in case she tries to tear it up). Tell her you want the entire amount or you'll take her to small claims court, where you''ll win and then she'll have to pay for your court costs, too.

Answer 4

Like the previous person said, if you want to clean it yourself it might be less expensive.

I don't know what state you're in, but you could also remember to try looking it up within a Landord-Tenant book at your nearest law library.  Some law libraries may not open to the public, so you may want to check that before you visit.  Hopefully, everything is resolved before it gets complicated.

Good luck

Answer 5

If you left the carpet clean, you don't have to pay for it.  Tell this to your landlord nicely and explain that since it is not in the contract, she should not have you pay for that.

However, she might argue that you should and so on.

You have to decide whether the argument is worth it.  Sometimes the best policy is to be quiet or offer her to steam clean the apartment yourself.  You can rent an inexpensive steam cleaner at the grocery store and be done with it.