Carpet replacement in a rented flat

Toiletduck

Hi,

They have already told us that if they have to do it themselves they will charge us extra to move the new tenants bedroom furniture as carpet fitters will not do this and they will also charge us for inspecting the newly fitted carpet.

Potentially there are other issues they could be awkward over if they wanted, we had to fit curtain poles as the flat did not come with any, rather than remove and make good the holes we left them in place for the new tenants. Also as we have now combined two places we had a lot of excess furniture, the new tenants verbally agreed (in the letting agents presence) to taking anything we didn’t want – mainly to get their hands on the sofas. Unfortunately (for them) some friends wanted the sofas and when we told them this they asked we remove the other items which was then impossible as we had already moved out.

Furthermore the veneer front to two of the kitchen cupboards has come away and split, at the check out they were happy that this was simply wear and tear to low quality cupboards but as you can see if they wanted to there is enough there to try and retain the full deposit whether justified or not.

Hence my wanting them to put in writing we will receive a full refund on the deposit if we pay for the carpet.

Cheers

andy

SuzieSue wrote: »

Perhaps I don't understand what you are saying, but how can they inflate the costs to £545 when you have a quote saying that to replace the carpet will cost £250?

Toiletduck

Hi yes we are in the DPS scheme. I think the formula I used to calculate those numbers is from another scheme? Does the DPS have something similar?

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

For a cheapie carpet in a rental property you'd be lucky to get five years of useful life out of it. Let the landlord arrange a replacement and dispute any deduction for "having to pay for people to move the new tenant's furniture and paying for subsequent inspections of the carpet". They're just trying to frighten you with that sort of blackmail.

Whatever you do, do not arrange for this carpet to be replaced yourself outside of the deposit.

Can you please confirm whether your deposit is registered with one of the three approved schemes?

SuzieSue

Toiletduck wrote: »

Hi,

They have already told us that if they have to do it themselves they will charge us extra to move the new tenants bedroom furniture as carpet fitters will not do this and they will also charge us for inspecting the newly fitted carpet.

andy

Ok, so have the new tenants already moved in? So are you saying if you got the carpet fitted yourself, you would move the tenants' furniture yourselves?

BitterAndTwisted

I thought you said that they had responded in writing, albeit by email?

You've left other damage and you know that you risk being charged for every single possible thing if you muck them about but if you choose to replace the carpet at your own expense you'll be £250 plus the whole deposit down.

Please, get them to replace the carpet and dispute all other unjustified charges if you disagree with them. I really don't think that they'll get away with charging you to move other people's furniture (£25?) and most certainly will not get away with charging you to inspect the ruddy thing one it's been laid.

Toiletduck

Potentially yes, sounds crazy to me. If they have not yet moved in we certainly havent been given a deadline to fit a carpet before anyway.

SuzieSue wrote: »

Ok, so have the new tenants already moved in? So are you saying if you got the carpet fitted yourself, you would move the tenants' furniture yourselves?

sequence

They can't charge you for inspections, or moving furniture.
They are just saying this to scare you into paying because they know the DPS will only award them a pitiful amount towards the carpet.

If they go to the DPS with such ridiculous claims, they'll more than likely be awarded nothing!

Toiletduck

Yes we do have it cofnirmed twice in an email response that the carpet is the only contentious issue. Would this stand up if they then tried to make deductions after we pay for the carpet?

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I thought you said that they had responded in writing, albeit by email?

You've left other damage and you know that you risk being charged for every single possible thing if you muck them about but if you choose to replace the carpet at your own expense you'll be £250 plus the whole deposit down.

Please, get them to replace the carpet and dispute all other unjustified charges if you disagree with them. I really don't think that they'll get away with charging you to move other people's furniture (£25?) and most certainly will not get away with charging you to inspect the ruddy thing one it's been laid.

SuzieSue

Toiletduck wrote: »

Potentially yes, sounds crazy to me. If they have not yet moved in we certainly havent been given a deadline to fit a carpet before anyway.

So, surely the answer is for the LA to arrange and pay for the fitting and then for you to move the furniture yourselves.

I don't have anywhere near the experience as some of the other posters (eg Bitter and Twisted) who are replying to you, but I would have thought that moving furniture to have a carpet laid is reasonable as it is often included as part of a quote, but charging you to inspect it shouldnt' be.

BitterAndTwisted

You could use it as very compelling evidence when you forward it to the deposit-scheme's arbitrators.

Don't forget that when they attempt to charge you for the replacement carpet you will only have to compensate the landlord for however many years of use you've deprived them of. I'd dispute the charge whatever it was and get the landlord to come up with the original receipt, and maintain with the arbitrators that the thing was very cheap-looking and cannot therefore have had a useful life of more than five years, tops.

evoke

An email is a legal document. I wouldn't worry about it. Get the carpet replaced and get your deposit back and stop making things complicated!