I live in Washington State.
I recently moved out of a duplex that I rented for 18 months. I got a partial refund from my security deposit today and one of the charges listed was.
"Carpet was not professionally cleaned or completely vacuumed - $125"
Whether the carpets were completely vacuumed is up for dispute, but I made the mistake of not signing anything at the walkthrough, so she can say what she wants and I can't prove or disprove it.
I assumed that carpet cleaning between tenants was standard and not something that I would be charged for. Especially for professional cleaning. Also, the carpets were not professionally cleaned prior to our moving in (again, not something I got in writing)
There is nothing in our lease agreement that stated we were to professionally clean the carpets prior to moving out. There was also nothing in the lease stating that there was a nonrefundable carpet cleaning fee.
I've looked through WA RCW and read the entire Landlord Tenant literature. I can find nothing specifically referring to carpets, unless it's considered under "normal wear and tear".
edit* for clarification
I don't expect to get the carpet cleaning fee back, I'm just interested to know what the law on this is since I can't find an RCW that pertains to this particular issue.
I recently moved out of a duplex that I rented for 18 months. I got a partial refund from my security deposit today and one of the charges listed was.
"Carpet was not professionally cleaned or completely vacuumed - $125"
Whether the carpets were completely vacuumed is up for dispute, but I made the mistake of not signing anything at the walkthrough, so she can say what she wants and I can't prove or disprove it.
I assumed that carpet cleaning between tenants was standard and not something that I would be charged for. Especially for professional cleaning. Also, the carpets were not professionally cleaned prior to our moving in (again, not something I got in writing)
There is nothing in our lease agreement that stated we were to professionally clean the carpets prior to moving out. There was also nothing in the lease stating that there was a nonrefundable carpet cleaning fee.
I've looked through WA RCW and read the entire Landlord Tenant literature. I can find nothing specifically referring to carpets, unless it's considered under "normal wear and tear".
edit* for clarification
I don't expect to get the carpet cleaning fee back, I'm just interested to know what the law on this is since I can't find an RCW that pertains to this particular issue.
Last edited: