What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
Background:
I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with a couple and their two cats. We had a good relationship with the landlord and had never caused any problems for him. Upon moving out I did a walk through with the landlord and he stated that he wanted to get a few repairs done, and that the room of the couple who owned the cats needed professional steam cleaning to get the smell of cat urine out of the carpet, but said the rest of the apartment was in good shape. He provided no written checklist of what he was going to get done.
21 days later I leave a message about not receiving the deposit and he calls me back the next morning saying he mailed it the previous day. Today (23 days after we've moved out) I get the deposit in the mail with a $1900 charge to re-carpet the whole apartment as well as a note saying that the carpet was 3 years old and there was a 15% deduction from the cost. Also he failed to include the interest that should have been added to the deposit being how we live in San Francisco.
Questions:
If the carpet is 3 years old and has an expectancy of 10 years shouldn't it be a 30% deduction instead of a 15% or am I missing something? Also shouldn't he have contacted us about being charged for the new carpet beforehand?
Shouldn't he have just replaced the carpet in the one bedroom instead of the full apartment?
Doesn't the fact that the deposit was given to us past the required 21 days after we had moved out nullify any right he has to even deduct anything from the full amount?
With the deposit he sent us a copy of a QUOTE not a RECEIPT. We have a right to ask for a full detailed receipt, right?
On top of all of this, we all clearly remember him telling us the carpet was 3 years old when we moved in, and being how we lived there for a little over a year would now be even more of a deduction. Do we have the right to ask for a receipt of the original purchase of the carpet?
Background:
I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with a couple and their two cats. We had a good relationship with the landlord and had never caused any problems for him. Upon moving out I did a walk through with the landlord and he stated that he wanted to get a few repairs done, and that the room of the couple who owned the cats needed professional steam cleaning to get the smell of cat urine out of the carpet, but said the rest of the apartment was in good shape. He provided no written checklist of what he was going to get done.
21 days later I leave a message about not receiving the deposit and he calls me back the next morning saying he mailed it the previous day. Today (23 days after we've moved out) I get the deposit in the mail with a $1900 charge to re-carpet the whole apartment as well as a note saying that the carpet was 3 years old and there was a 15% deduction from the cost. Also he failed to include the interest that should have been added to the deposit being how we live in San Francisco.
Questions:
If the carpet is 3 years old and has an expectancy of 10 years shouldn't it be a 30% deduction instead of a 15% or am I missing something? Also shouldn't he have contacted us about being charged for the new carpet beforehand?
Shouldn't he have just replaced the carpet in the one bedroom instead of the full apartment?
Doesn't the fact that the deposit was given to us past the required 21 days after we had moved out nullify any right he has to even deduct anything from the full amount?
With the deposit he sent us a copy of a QUOTE not a RECEIPT. We have a right to ask for a full detailed receipt, right?
On top of all of this, we all clearly remember him telling us the carpet was 3 years old when we moved in, and being how we lived there for a little over a year would now be even more of a deduction. Do we have the right to ask for a receipt of the original purchase of the carpet?