<p>We bought a big townhouse two years ago. And rented it out. The tenant paid one month security deposit. Last month they didn’t pay the rent and they moved out last week. Today our carpet clean company told us the carpet was damaged (we don’t have any experience and thought it can be cleaned up). How can we charge the tenant the carpet replacement fee after they left? We are in south California.</p>
<p>Good luck with that.</p>
<p>These only work in hindsight:</p>
<p>1) Require a larger security deposit</p>
<p>2) Charge higher rent</p>
<p>3) Carry a landlord insurance policy that will cover damages exceeding the security deposit</p>
<p>4) Switch to concrete floors; they are much harder to damage</p>
<p>The only option you have is to sue them.</p>
<p>…“The only option you have is to sue them.”</p>
<p>If they had any real assets they would not be tenants. We used to have several rentals. They pretty much broke even. The profit we made came when the properties sold for more than the purchase prices. People are pigs. I always wanted to provide a clean, attractive well maintained rental. Many renters don’t care and it’s hard to tell who will be the deadbeats. Always pull a credit report. You should never, ever let them use the security deposit as rent. Hold the security deposit for the full term of the lease and return it with interest after you have inspected the move out condition. If they are a day late paying rent, post a “pay or quit” notice on the door. It takes forever to evict a bad tenant and you have to act as swiftly as the law allows. In most states damage to your rental is handled differently than say, a friend who trashed your carpet. They are entitled to cause reasonable “wear and tear.” If you were to sue the tenant and get a judgment, great. How do you collect? </p>
<p>Good luck with that. Carpets rarely last more than one maybe if you are lucky a couple tenants. We’re gone to laminate in all our rentals or exposed and refinished the hardwood. If you seriously want to keep the unit pristine, as if someone who owned it lived there, you’re going to need to charge much larger security deposits to prevent those who consider their security deposit the last rent you’ll ever see. You can always take them to small claims court if you can document that the damage wasn’t there before they moved in otherwise they’ll just say the damage was there when they moved in. But there are limits to what you can get in small claims court and you generally have to “do” the collections. </p>
<p>My son and 3 others recently rented a nice 4 bedroom, 2 bath place. The landlord required first month’s rent, last month’s rent and one month’s security deposit. Perhaps that’s just the standard practice in the “hot” market where he’s renting but it’s certainly a way to cover issues such as this. Sorry to hear your dilemma but if you re-rent, I would agree with others that you need more upfront $$.</p>
<p>First, last month rent and one month security deposit is typical in HI as well. If the renter is a student, it is also pretty common to have a parent co-sign for the rental.</p>
<p>First, last, one month security. Credit check. Background check. Learned from experience (and not good ones)</p>
<p>First, last, one month security - One year DS balked at this when required for a 3 1/2 month summer sublet in Boston. It would have required him borrowing “startup” funds from us, and we were willing. I explained that it is a reasonable and common practice. But he pushed back with the landlord and students doing the sublet and prevailed. </p>
<p>After recent experience your son wouldn’t have an apartment if I was the one renting…
Don’t mean to be harsh but after getting burned you learn to get it upfront.</p>
<p>That can be very market dependent, though. For example, despite a competitive rental market in my city the standard deposit remains one month’s rent. Anyone asking first+last+deposit would be the happy owner of an unoccupied dwelling.</p>
<p>Ugh…I have owned rental property in Calif. Calif is a state that favors the tenant (landlords are mean rich people…lol)</p>
<p>I don’t think Calif allows 1st, Last, plus security…I can’t remember…we just asked for a security deposit that was larger than last months rent.</p>
<p>This sort of thing happens ALL the time there. People don’t pay last month’s rent so that they’ll eat up their security deposit. </p>
<p>Since they’ve been there for 2 years, it’s going to be hard to show that it was more than “normal wear and tear” unless they truly cut up, burned the carpet or something.</p>
<p>How old was the carpet when it went in?</p>
<p>This is why I favor hard-flooring in my rentals. </p>
<p>I am the assistant manager of an apartment complex. Our corporate office deals with the collections part of it, though I am the one that does move out walk throughs and decides what is damage and what is just normal wear and tear.</p>
<p>Carpet has to be less than 5 years old for us to charge the tenant for any damages. Even if it was in great shape when they moved in and then their dog chewed it up, if it is one day over 5 years old, we have to eat the expense.</p>
<p>I have learned to carry my cell phone with me on the walk throughs and take pictures, lots of them. That way, if corporate questions why I am charging something, then I can email them pictures.</p>
<p>In our state, we are limited as to how much we can require in deposits. I think it is no more than 1.5 times the monthly rent. This is in addition to the first month rent. We can’t collect last month rent. We do require a larger pet deposit, but it still can’t put them over the 1.5 times the montlhly rent. </p>
<p>It gets tricky if they are sort of on the bubble after we run their background check, so we want to charge a double deposit and then they want to bring two pets.</p>
<p>A friend who owns some rentals just keeps some 5x7 and 8x10 rugs in storage. If a tenant really dislikes the hardwood/concrete floors in his units but otherwise seems to be on the hook, he offers to throw in a couple of rugs with the rental.</p>
<p>I’m sure the rugs are often thoroughly trashed by the end of the rental, but replacing them is easier and faster than wall-to-wall, and I think he may even skirt around the whole “normal wear and tear” thing since they are technically not part of the dwelling.</p>
<p>Get a credit and background check. Saves lots of hassles.</p>
<p>Stuff happens. Be glad they split and you don’t have to go through expense and trouble of having to legally evict them. Fix the place up and get another tenant in the place.</p>