Damaged wallpaper in rental house

[neva1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I have rented this house last year and I am on the last few months of my lease. During my time as a tenant I have taken in a feral kitty off my porch (pets are allowed by my lease so it is not an issue) who turned out to be quite a destroyer

When I moved in, the wall paper in this house was and still is in horrible shape. Papers coming off the seams some areas were stripped etc and they are all recorded on the initial walk-thru papers. In 3 or 4 major location, my cat used the wallpaper which split off the seams as her personal scratching post. I know it is my responsibility to fix the issue. Problem is, the wallpaper is older than Jesus in this house and 4 locations damaged have different wallpapers , none of which is available through any known wallpaper outlets.

Am I required to change the whole wallpaper on these walls, even though the rest (untouched by my cat) area of these wallpapers are in very bad shape ? Or something similar pattern/texture will be sufficient to replace the damaged paper with ?

 

[FarmerJ]

Does your lease give you consent to make alterations or repairs ? Unless it grants you consent to make repairs you do not have the right to replace the wall paper even if its as old as Moses so you are free to talk to your landlord now since the wall paper may well not have any more useful life and at least talk about maybe you removing the wall paper (consent in writing ) Your free to suggest to the LL that even with out the cat damaging it the wall papers useful life is gone and letting you remove it would speed things up for them to paint. If your LL says no then plan on taking pics of where the seams on the wall paper are coming apart & cat damage and plan on having the pics for court if you need them after you have moved.

 

[Sloop John D]

Normally you're not responsible for wear and tear that results from general use of a rental property. Your cat scratching up the wallpaper wouldn't count as general wear and tear, but you shouldn't be liable for any damage that wasn't caused by your cat or that was already present when you moved in.

There's usually also a limit for the useful life of something. For example, paint on walls is expected to need replacing every 2 - 3 years in CA. That means even if you caused some damage to the paint that goes beyond wear and tear, once the 2 - 3 year period has passed you're no longer responsible for it, because it's assumed to need replacing anyway.

I'm not sure what the useful life of wallpaper is in CA, but I would guess that it's in the same neighborhood as paint.

If that wallpaper has been on the walls of the rental space for more than 3 years, there's a chance that you won't be responsible for replacing any of it, even if your cat tore it to pieces.

 

[neva1]

Does your lease give you consent to make alterations or repairs ?

It is a boiler-plate lease agreement and I don't believe it gives me any modification rights as there are no extra stipulations recorded on it.

If that wallpaper has been on the walls of the rental space for more than 3 years, there's a chance that you won't be responsible for replacing any of it, even if your cat tore it to pieces.

There's no doubt that, the wallpaper is more than 10 years old. I am not a picky person and did not even mention the status of the walls when I fist saw the house. It was good for my purpose and the next day I signed the lease. Few days later, before I moved in, landlord gave me the walk thru papers and told me to go ahead and mark what I see and mail them back. Which I did and 10 months into my lease I have not heard anything back from them, refuting the status of the house, wallpapers or otherwise.

where can I exactly find the usable life of wallpapers in the state of California, so that I can print and keep a copy next to my lease agreement, for the lease end ? I searched the web for tenants rights etc but couldn't fond anything related to wall or floors covering lifetime. If someone can point me to such a resource, I'd be grateful.