Beaverton, OR asked in Landlord - Tenant for Oregon

Q: Do we pay full amount of carpet damages even though lived for 4 years 7 months?

The landlord states that there was "cat urine" in living room and on stairs so they had to replace carpet in these areas. Mind you, these are high trafficked areas in our apartment. They did not replace the 2 upstairs bedroom carpets. We lived there for 5 months shy of 5 years. Lease states "Tenants shall bear all actual costs to return unit to a reasonable condition. This includes full cost to replace all carpet/pad/installation due to pet damage." Upon move-in we looked at an apartment which was not the one we moved into. When we moved in, they stated they moved us into this apartment since it had dark carpets and previous tenant had pets in as well. The carpet cleaner that they hired cleaned upstairs bedrooms on 5/9. Living room and stair carpet ordered on 5/8.

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1 Lawyer Answer
Gregory L Abbott
Gregory L Abbott
Answered
  • Landlord Tenant Lawyer
  • Portland, OR
  • Licensed in Oregon

A: There are at least 3 issues here - whether the landlord should or did try to have the replaced carpet cleaned before deciding to replace it; was the damage caused in part or whole by the prior tenant's pets instead of or in addition to yours; and how old was the carpet that was replaced? Carpet, like everything else, has a life span. We can argue about how long that life span is, but for the sake of illustration only, let's say rental carpet lasts 10 years before needing to be replaced, and let's say you are responsible for damaging the carpet to the point it needs to be replaced before that 10 years. If, when you moved out, the was say 8 years old, then at the most, you should be responsible for paying 20% of the replacement cost since the landlord got 80% of the lifespan out of the carpet. To charge you 100% would be a windfall benefit to the landlord and he would have gotten 8 years of its use free of charge to him. So what IS the lifespan of carpet? Ultimately it is whatever you and the landlord agree it is or what a Judge or Jury says it is. However, if a Judge or Jury has to decide, whichever of you loses will owe the other's court costs and attorney's fees - and they will most likely dwarf the carpet cost so both sides have a vested interest in reaching an agreement. Your lease provision might complicate things some but I think you have solid arguments that it does not change the requirement that the landlord only charge you the depreciated amount for repairs. Good luck.

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