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Tips on how to avoid paying fees to apartment
I am going to be moving out of my apartment this summer. We have lived in our two bedroom apartment for 5 years. I am starting to get a little worried about what they are going to charge us when we move out. Unfortunately our dog has done some damage to the carpet. She liked to eat pens as a puppy so there are some ink stains and for some reason a month ago she started digging in the carpet. This is not throughout the apartment just in a couple spots in our living room. My question is: is there any way we can prevent them from over charging us? I do expect to pay something but I don't want to get robbed on this.
I have heard that they can only charge you a percentage for how long the carpet was guaranteed for. If that is so how do I find this out? Will the apartment be honest with me? Also we found out that they have started updated some of the new apartments with hard wood floors instead of carpeting. If that is the case should we still have to pay for the carpet?
Re: Tips on how to avoid paying fees to apartment
If they're going to upgrade to wood floors, I think it's up to them to be nice and not charge you. You're still responsible for the damage, unfortunately. Hope it all goes smoothly!
IMO, after five years...possibly longer if it wasn't new when you moved in...the value of that carpet is zero. But it has been my experience that complexes, especially if it is a big one and/or part of a large investment firm, are very corporate about it and will subtract something from the security deposit just because they can.
How will you know if they are fair and honest with you? You don't necessarily. Of course, each apartment complex can be different. However, I generally find complexes are fair...if a bit overpriced...for their damage accounts. But nothing crazily out there for costs. You are also well within your rights to request proof of the damage costs, ie receipts for material, labor invoices or an accounting of labor hours used if labor comes from in-house.
Have you tried removing the ink stains with a carpet cleaning product? Even purified water can often do the trick. Just make sure it is purified by reverse osmosis (should list this on the bottle), to ensure at least 90%+ of the hard minerals are removed.
Hard water is drastically less effective than pure water, so tap water generally won't work and bottled waters are actually completely unregulated, other than they have to be safe to drink. Companies can literally bottle tap water and sell it that way, if they wish. But at least if it lists the purification process as reverse osmosis, you know the water is about as pure as it gets.
As for the dog digging into the carpet, is it possible to kind of fluff up the carpet and comb it a bit to minimize the look of the damage? And this behavior started a month ago? How is it that they know the worst time to start causing destruction, lol.
It depends on the apartment manager. I was in my last apartment for 5 year. Carpet wasn't new when I moved in, but was still in good condition. There were some stains on carpet when I left, but after that length of time they expected it would need replacing anyway, so they didn't charge me for it at all and I got my whole deposit back.
DH's was in his last apartment for 10 years. The carpet had been new, but was thoroughly trashed when he left. Again, they assumed 10 years was lifetime of an apartment carpet. He had some other minor damages also, but they said after 10 years they expect significant wear and tear and they returned his entire deposit.