billed to replace carpet

[jrwtkw]

hi
I live in TX. My old landlord is trying to bill me for replacing the carpet in the whole house I was renting. the carpets were stained before i move in(in damage list). By his own admission the only section that need to be replace was in livingroom by front door. however he could not find a match to the carpet through out the rest of the house (shows how dated it was). so he is trying to bill me for the carpet thought the entire house. CAN HE DO THIS???????


PS he ended up tiling the area that needed to be replaced

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Carpet replacement is a real bone of contention between former tenants and their landlords.

How the courts handle this (and how the landlord should) involves prorating the life of the carpet over a number of years, typically 7 to 10 years. In other words, if the carpet was 7 years old, it had reached the end of it's useful life and you would owe nothing for its replacement.

You say the carpets were stained at move in. Do you, by any chance, have pictures of this, both when you moved in and moved out? Such pictures would be useful should this end up in court.

Gail