Ex Landlord trying to make me pay for replacement carpets

franklee

buggy_boy wrote: »

The issue here is if the carpet was in place then whatever condition it was in you could easily argue that there is no value and the tenant would pay nothing, the problem is the tenant as removed and destroyed the landlords possession, if a kitchen was 10-15yrs old and the tenant decided to remove all the doors and throw them away without permission this would be unacceptable....

buggy_boy wrote: »

Well it depends, you cant smash a window and then say the windows are 20yrs old and have no value...

You do this by apportionment depending on he expected lifespan of the item and the age it is now.

Carpet typically comes with advice on expected lifespan depending on the quality of the carpet and where in the property it's laid. A medium to low quality carpet would be near or past the end of it's life after just the 7.5 years of the OP's tenancy yet they were already well worn when the OP moved in. So allowing for say at least 2 years to get scuffed up they are likely ten or more years old. Value zero.

A window is expected to last much longer. If it was say expected to last 40 years then a tenant smashing it after 20 years would owe half. Of course windows in a period property are expected to last much longer than that so the tenant would owe more.

Same with the kitchen doors, it would depend on the quality of the kitchen to determine it's expected lifespan and then see how much of it's life a tenant has deprived the landlord of.

FBaby

The reality is that the arbitration process is very subjective so no-one can really say how it would go. I made a case some years back. I was prepared to accept that I wouldn't get all I was asking for, even though I really did believe I was being fair, but did make a very good case. I was furious when it came back giving 90% of the deposit back to the tenant. It was perfectly clear from the report though that the arbitrator had failed to read some of the documentation. Even though they make it very clear that the decision is final, I challenged it as a complaint on the basis that the arbitrator had not followed the procedures they were supposed to adhere to, and to my surprise, the complaint department agreed with me immediately and suggested that the case would go back to arbitration and allocated to someone who would not be made aware that this was a reconsideration.

Sure enough, the report came back totally the opposite allocating more than 90% of the cost to me as the LL. I have no idea whether they claimed the difference back from the tenant, I expect not, but I got what indeed was fair. Some of the difference did come down to what could be defined as T&W and what was damage.

Ultimately, the ADR process will aimed to be fair, but the rules under which they come to be so are not as tight as most LLs and tenants assume they are, or certainly which they were. It is just a final decision making process when a compromise can't be reached as a stage before using the justice system.

joehfax

Hi all, OP here, Just a quick update, we have been awarded the full amount back. The adjudicator agreed with us and stated that carpet in rented accommodation has a life expectancy of 5 to 8years, unless receipts could be shown they were to a high quality.

Thanks for all your replies

FBaby

Thanks for coming back and confirmed the decision very helpful to know.

Totally disagree with it as it takes people to have vrry little respect for property to ruin new average carpet after 5 years. No surprise LLs would up for the very cheapest range which is absolute rubbish as who would want the astronomical cost of replacing carpet in a 3 bed + property every 5 years?

Those kind of ruling often end up doing more harm than good to those it is intended to help.