I need an opinion on something. My family has lived in a rental home for about 2 years now, and it is pretty hard to beat the rent. Not only that but they let us have my furry babies there. Here is the problem. The floors in the house all sag and slope towards the middle of the house. I walked into my bathroom the other day and my high heel went through the floor! This bathroom has obvious signs of water damage. The carpet in this house is tattered, matted down, and has the odor of just being old and worn out. Our landlord is very nice, and I do not mind being in the house, but here is my question... Is it the landlords responsibility to change or fix these things or should we do them ourselves? We looked at getting the carpet ourselves, but I have no idea what it takes to install it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all8)
check your contract and see what it says, some will negotiate with you. Say if you do the stuff yourself they will give you money off the rent to cover it.
I would say landlord, its his property and he needs to keep it in a safe condition with regard to the floors being weak/rotted enough that your heal went through. The carpet.. eh, maybe he'd want to do it while he'd going to have to do something about the floors anyway. Maybe you could offer to split the carpet cost with him if you get a say in the style/color and agree to stay there for awhile.
Like Tassy posted - if your floor has obvious signs of water damage, so much so that your heel is falling through - this is unsafe living conditions and is not your responsibility.
The contract does not say anything about, not only that but the contract was for one year, and they said there was no need for another one. We plan to stay in the house until I graduate at the very least. I had not thought about asking to split the cost or see if they might give us a credit or something. I had planned to tell the landlord about the bath floor as it is no longer safe, but the carpet is kinda the iffy one. I want it replaced because it is old and worn, but will they see it that way? Who knows... Worth asking though.
Fair wear and tear are expected. Maintenance of floors, i.e. sweeping, vacuuming, maintaining carpeting, etc are normal items that the renter is expected to handle. The flooring situation you described is the owners responsibility. I would try to work with them to get it fixed/replaced. But, be aware that the owner can tell you that he may need you to vacate in order to fix it. With the expiration of your lease, most courts would hold that the rent has gone to a month to month basis, and therefore the landlord can ask you to vacate with notice in order to repair the floor. It sounds as if you have an agreeable relationship, something to be nurtured. If you're the kind of tenant that I'd treasure, I'd work with with you to ensure a safe floor, repair of whatever caused the flooring problem (undetected water leaks, etc) and if you were going to be there a while and wanted to share in some carpet or flooring choices and share the cost, I'd be amenable to that.
I would say that we are good renters. We pay our rent on time every month, always have. We do not bug anyone for anything, and plan to stay here for a while. There is not much other than the smell and normal wear and tear on the carpet with the exception of a spot in the back bedroom from where my printer blew up, and spilled ink on the carpet.:banghead: We were thinking we would just replace the carpet ourselves, it would just have to be room by room. It is the only way we can afford it. Thanks for the advice though. It never hurts to ask, all they can say is no.8)
should be his cost on it, even the carpet, now if it is work you guys can do then the labor should pay down the rent and he provide all materials certainly with damage not by you guys...
They should definitely do something about the bathroom floor, but I doubt you'll get far with the carpet. At best you could offer to pay for the labor if they pay for the carpet, but it seems unlikely they'll go for it. My reason for this opinion is your 'furry friends'. They probably figure that they're going to have to replace the carpet after you leave in order to get new renters. So paying for new carpet now doesn't seem likely. As a renter, I'd probably invest in a few rugs before doing leasehold improvements on someone else's property.
My furry babies are outdoor babies. I have tried to bring them in the house and they hate it. I have only brought them in when it gets cold or is raining. They go into the living room where it is hardwood floors. I don't have any pet probs with the carpet, just my printer mishap. I am most likely going to simply replace the carpet myself. I am just going to have to do it room by room. Now if I only knew how to replace the carpet I would be all set:lol:
I recommend going to Home Depot or Lowes and buying what they have in stock. It's typically cheaper than the stuff they have to order, and you can use a 10% coupon. I find the most knowledgable carpet guy and start up a conversation about finding an installer that would do the work as a side job. I wait until he says that they can't recommend anyone for that, or do it themselves, then slip him my business card and say that we'll just install it ourselves, but that if I happen to get a phone call from an installer that would be great luck. We got about 1k square feet of carpet installed for less than $300 cash that way, and the guy came out the next day to do the work. Just before selling our old house, we did the same thing for the basement and paid about $100 for 400 square feet. If you decide to do it yourself, I would seriously try to work something out with the landlord. If they won't give you any money towards the carpet, I would ask for your security deposit back now to help cover the costs, or see if you can get a small rent reduction (even $20 off a month, which over two years will net you $480 if that's how long you plan to stay).
I believe floors are floors no matter whether they are hardwood or carpeted. Sounds like your landlord is reasonable and would understand all of this. Any improvement to the structure improves the value of the asset (the landlord could make more if selling the place by repairing these items). See link and excerpt below. Good luck, Sherry http://www.ncdoj.com/DocumentStreamerClient?directory=CPTipAlert/&file=Landlord-tenant booklet.pdf Excerpt: Housing Codes. Most local building and housing codes contain a long list of maintenance and safety requirements for rental property. Under these codes, owners of such property must provide safe and properly functioning heating and plumbing systems. Heating systems in many communities must be capable of heating every habitable room in a dwelling to at least 65-70 degrees. Most local codes also require that all walls, doors and windows be weather tight. Walls, ceilings and floors must be free of holes, cracks, and peeling paint, according to many local codes. Similarly, most local codes require landlords to rid multi-family (but not necessarily single family) dwellings of infestations of rodents or bugs.
