Can my landlord charge me twice for carpet cleaning?
First, find a tenant’s-rights organization in your state, or if you can’t find one, Legal Aid, or the State Attorney General’s Office. You may find help in the phone book – the traditional one from the Baby Bell, which often has a Consumer Resources section. Someone will have a booklet outlining what’s legal in your state and town, and may be able to help with legal services. If you left the apt in really poor condition, never vacuumed carpets, left big nasty spills, etc., then pay up. They should be able to use the Restoration Fee as they see fit, but to use it for painting, and ask you to pay for carpet cleaning, is complete and utter BS. You’re a student, get other student tenants on your side, and see if the University will go to bat for you. Take pictures, lots of them, to document that the apt. shows only ordinary wear & tear. Write a clear and polite letter stating that you have paid for restoration, and do not intend to pay again, and that you expect a full refund of your depos
Then I think this is pretty straightforward: they’re out of line. This isn’t in your lease, and you and Lions’ Crossing both know it; interpreting “keep the property clean” as “hire a shampoo-carpet service” is egregious. Send a nasty (i.e., very formal, legal-sounding and scary) letter saying so, making clear that you fully intend to leave the apartment clean, as you had promised, but refuse to follow their extremely picky instructions for doing so; let them know that they’ve really tied your hands and tried to force you into accepting an expense to which you certainly hadn’t agreed when leasing the apartment; and, most importantly, mention the phrase “small claims court.” You might– might– have to go so far, but unless they’re complete idiots who like to waste their time, they’ll see the light. You don’t say where you are in the country, but it shouldn’t matter; you haven’t signed on for this, and shouldn’t have to pay for it. When I lived in Boston, I moved into an apartment that
Caddis is just being a grumpy old man. You can’t withhold something you legally owe them. Ami, what you need to do is get to someone higher up in the hierarchy … not the building manager, but someone in charge of the management company. You need to ask them exactly where it spells out that it’s your responsibility to pay for wear and tear to the facilities. EXACTLY where it says you need to shampoo and where they are going to charge you for painting. In MOST states (and your profile AHEM! isn’t filled out, nor did you say what state you lived in!), the landlord is responsible for normal wear and tear, and this is spelled out exceptionally clearly in landlord/tenant law sections of your state statutes. You are free to say “Fuck you!” if they are in violation of those laws no matter what you signed.
Well, it sounds a little weird to me. In fact, I don’t know if I would’ve agreed to the ‘restoration fee’ in the first place. I mean, it says they may, not will, use it for the stated purpose. Fishy. However, in the end, it seems to me that you have two options in this situation; the careful and the easy. The easy first: 1) It doesn’t say that you have to shampoo the carpet. So don’t. Ignore the letter, clean the carpet as best you can, and leave. If they bug you about it, tell them you’re not required to. If they say you won’t get your deposit back, write them a nasty little letter telling them you’re taking them to small claims court. That should make them return your deposit; so long as your carpets are clean (I’m assuming they don’t really need shampooing) they really most likely won’t care enough to hassle you. Management companies have too much shit to deal with to sit around arguing about whether someone should shampoo a clean carpet, so you’ll almost certainly be in the clear.
Call your local housing advocates/tenant’s rights organization and they’ll tell you exactly what is and is not legal. Where I live, those clauses in the lease (requiring restoration fees or cleaning fees) are explicitly illegal, as all of that is covered by the security deposit (which can only be dinged outside of “normal” wear and tear). They’re included in leases left and right, and most people pay them, but they’re against the law and you’d never know it if you didn’t do the research. So… chances are, your landlord can’t do what they’re doing and you can take them to court. Luckily, our local courts tend toward tenants.
