I`m about to give our former tenants an accounting of the deductions from their security deposit. My deadline according to Alberta law is on Monday.
We just had the carpets professionally cleaned by a professional company specializing in stain removal. There are 2 separate rooms and a flight of stairs with stains that are permanently set. About 4 of the stains are red and the carpet professional says they could be Kool-Aid. The fifth stain was caused by vomit (somebody got too drunk) and in their efforts to clean it up, they set the stain and damaged the carpet pile. It isn`t really that obvious a stain from a distance but is when you are near the stain itself.
So our dilemna is...... what to deduct from the security deposit. The carpet is high quality, stainmaster that is so easy to clean spills from IF it is done immediately and properly (eg. blot, don`t scrub). This wasn`t done and the stains are now permanently set. The red ones are all small but pretty noticeable.
The security deposit is $1500. To replace the carpet would cost that much and more. Would the LTB support us if we did keep the deposit to offset the replacement of the carpet which was only 1.5 years old when they moved in.
Or should some of this count as `normal wear and tear`? OR,,,,, should we see what our insurance company will do? OR what their insurance company will do. They had tenant insurance for their own property so unlikely it will cover the replacement of the carpet.
Can we charge for both the carpet cleaning service ($187) which will wind up being an unnecessary expense if the carpet winds up being replaced. We had to do it though to find out first that the stains were permanent.
Would love some help with this one as we must finalize the security deposit return (or not!) by Monday.
Terry
We just had the carpets professionally cleaned by a professional company specializing in stain removal. There are 2 separate rooms and a flight of stairs with stains that are permanently set. About 4 of the stains are red and the carpet professional says they could be Kool-Aid. The fifth stain was caused by vomit (somebody got too drunk) and in their efforts to clean it up, they set the stain and damaged the carpet pile. It isn`t really that obvious a stain from a distance but is when you are near the stain itself.
So our dilemna is...... what to deduct from the security deposit. The carpet is high quality, stainmaster that is so easy to clean spills from IF it is done immediately and properly (eg. blot, don`t scrub). This wasn`t done and the stains are now permanently set. The red ones are all small but pretty noticeable.
The security deposit is $1500. To replace the carpet would cost that much and more. Would the LTB support us if we did keep the deposit to offset the replacement of the carpet which was only 1.5 years old when they moved in.
Or should some of this count as `normal wear and tear`? OR,,,,, should we see what our insurance company will do? OR what their insurance company will do. They had tenant insurance for their own property so unlikely it will cover the replacement of the carpet.
Can we charge for both the carpet cleaning service ($187) which will wind up being an unnecessary expense if the carpet winds up being replaced. We had to do it though to find out first that the stains were permanent.
Would love some help with this one as we must finalize the security deposit return (or not!) by Monday.
Terry
