Son has just started his second year in your typical per-bedroom lease property (4bd/4bth unit). Name of the property owner not critical, but let's just say his complex is part of an "American campus".
During the summer, management decided that the "common area" carpet needed "replacement", and are billing residents for the full cost of new carpet. When my son moved back in a few weeks ago, he didn't even notice the difference (partly because he lives in the bedroom downstairs where there is no carpet - the common carpet is upstairs between the bedrooms of the other guys). The old carpet was certainly not damaged in any way nor did it have stains, etc... just normal wear and tear for carpet that was no-telling how old a year ago when they moved in. I've since learned that a LARGE number of residents near his are being billed for carpet replacement in the same fashion.
It seems a pretty blatant case of the property owners doing routing carpet replacement after X number of years and billing the residents to recoup the costs! My understanding is that the kids are not responsible for normal wear and tear, and even if there were stains etc..they could only be possibly liable for one year divided by the age/service life of the carpet; corrrect? Again, there were no stains, etc..and no documentation from the property to show otherwise - they did all of this while the residents were home for the summer!
In most cased like this, residents are fighting for a return of their deposit after they've moved out. In this case, my son and his roommates are still living there, and are expected to pay the "carpet replacement fee" by the end of this month.
Before I tell the property to shove it, am I missing something here? If the management tries to stick to their shaky ground, they will levy late fees beginning 1 Oct and could threaten eviction etc.. No, seriously, their automated system has already spit out such a letter; just ridiculous.
This one is NOT about the money; it's about the principle of not being taken advantage of and keeping my foot in the ground when a huge management company tries to run roughshod over its tenants. It would be a good fight/learning experience for my son, but I want him to concentrate on his tough semester of Calc II and programming courses - hence my involvement. thanks; sorry for the length
During the summer, management decided that the "common area" carpet needed "replacement", and are billing residents for the full cost of new carpet. When my son moved back in a few weeks ago, he didn't even notice the difference (partly because he lives in the bedroom downstairs where there is no carpet - the common carpet is upstairs between the bedrooms of the other guys). The old carpet was certainly not damaged in any way nor did it have stains, etc... just normal wear and tear for carpet that was no-telling how old a year ago when they moved in. I've since learned that a LARGE number of residents near his are being billed for carpet replacement in the same fashion.
It seems a pretty blatant case of the property owners doing routing carpet replacement after X number of years and billing the residents to recoup the costs! My understanding is that the kids are not responsible for normal wear and tear, and even if there were stains etc..they could only be possibly liable for one year divided by the age/service life of the carpet; corrrect? Again, there were no stains, etc..and no documentation from the property to show otherwise - they did all of this while the residents were home for the summer!
In most cased like this, residents are fighting for a return of their deposit after they've moved out. In this case, my son and his roommates are still living there, and are expected to pay the "carpet replacement fee" by the end of this month.
Before I tell the property to shove it, am I missing something here? If the management tries to stick to their shaky ground, they will levy late fees beginning 1 Oct and could threaten eviction etc.. No, seriously, their automated system has already spit out such a letter; just ridiculous.
This one is NOT about the money; it's about the principle of not being taken advantage of and keeping my foot in the ground when a huge management company tries to run roughshod over its tenants. It would be a good fight/learning experience for my son, but I want him to concentrate on his tough semester of Calc II and programming courses - hence my involvement. thanks; sorry for the length