UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi,

We are currently renting a house which has had the same green carpet laid in all rooms. We have been in the property about 4 years and this same carpet was there before we moved in.

I dropped the iron on our front room carpet and it has left a large scorch mark. I have found a carpet as close to current carpet as possible and told the landlord I would pay to have the front room carpet changed. However our landlord has now said that he wants us to pay to have the. Story's in the whole house changed. He said that if we change the front room carpet it won't exactly match the rest of the house and therefore we must pay to change the whole lot.

I'd like some advice on where I stand with this. Can he ask me to do this or is it reasonable to only change the front room carpet?

Thanks for your help.

No chance, you pay for what you damaged. nothing more.
I;m a landlord myself, and would love someone to completely re-carpet my entire properties every time they accidentally damage something.
You are not responsible for the other undamaged carpets. It's irrelevant if they are the same colour or not. This is a rented property and its reasonable to assume things will become damaged over time. Imagine if you were a home owner (your parents probably were) if your mother had dropped an iron on her carpet, would she replace the entire house? I doubt it! - Because I never would!
It may be a good idea to ask the landlord where he/she got the carpets from, as technically you are supposed to replace items - like for like, but it's reasonable to assume you may not be able to find the EXACT original colour.

The landlord is just trying to get a deal out of it. You pay only for what you are responsible for.

Did you take out insurance that covers accidental damage? Does your landlord have the same?  If so, surely its the excess payment only.

Thanks Steve1000 - that's what we thought but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious about the whole situation Before I went back to my landlord.
Knicholas - yes we have accidental damage on our insurance but they will only cover the carpet in the one room. If we were expected to replace the carpets in the whole house we would have to pay for all of them ourselves.

I have a slightly different take on this.

The Landlord is currently within the realms of reasonableness to want the carpet replacing with like-for-like and if that's not possible they are reasonable in wanting all of the carpets changed. Consider it to be like painted walls. I always use one single colour of paint throughout a let property - it's usually Johnston's Vinly Matt Covaplus magnolia (but that's by-the-by). However, I also detail in the Inventory what the paint used is - then the Tenant doesn't have to struggle in matching if they'd decide - or need - to repaint at the end of a tenancy - it's right there in front of them. All new build properties I've bought have had the same carpet throughout - it's all about interior design (and efficiency and cost saving, of course) and breaking that up can be said to devalue the property (exactly how is likely subjective).

However, the fact is that the Landlord's desire will not fly. A carpet is different to paint and, even then, aesthetics does not play a big part in deposit disputes. It's more about presence and functionality (e.g. was there a cooker there at the start of the tenancy and is it still there? or even if the worktop has a slight chip in it, it still functions perfectly well as a worktop)... not really colours and touch-and-feel angles. The grey area between what's wear-and-tear and what's damage can often be so subjective.

Let's be clear - what has happened here is not wear-and-tear, it is damage (accidental, obviously) and I think you accept that - so, in my eyes, you are being reasonable.

All that said... carpets are on sale for many, many years. I would suspect you've not tried hard - enough - to find a direct replacement (all of that would be made much easier if the Landlord told you what carpets were down. If they can and it's not able to be purchased any more you have a cast-iron case. If the Landlord can't even tell you what it is, then you have a cast-iron case. If the Landlord can tell you what it is - or you can find out - and you find out it can still be bought - but choose not to - then I think the benefit of doubt swings back to the Landlord.

As with all disputes like this there is an element of being reasonable. For example, if you were able to confirm that the exact same carpet is absolutely not available any more then the Landlord should accept this. Before you've proven, that then the Landlord is being reasonable in expecting you to get a ike-for-like replacement - you can't just go around replacing things for what's convenient (to you). If you conclude the Landlord is being unreasonable, then you need to go to a deposit dispute when the time is right.

And you need to be more careful with your iron. And the Landlord should not be expected to claim on their insurance for anything a Tenant has done (I know many Landlord policies cover stuff like this... but I think that is a ploy by the Insurance industry to make policies appear more attractive and get those premiums up).

Lastly, nowhere in your original thread does it state you are getting ready to move out / move on. It is only your responsibility to ensure things are back to as they're supposed to be at the end of a tenancy... if you're planning on staying there and can live with the scorch mark - that's your prerogative (it's not usually within your Landlord's gift to insist things are repaired / replaced mid-tenancy).

At the end of your tenancy - say if that was going to be in 2020 - then the amount you'd have to pay to the Landlord in the event of a deposit dispute would be lessened, because of the concept of fair wear-and-tear and how it dovetails into depreciation and the expected lifetime of assets, like a carpet - which, again reasonably, would be expected to last, say, 10 years.

Therefore if the carpet was laid in 2009 and you move out in 2020 - even if you destroyed the entire carpet, or removed it, the Deposit Adjudication people would likely award the Landlord a big fat nothing - because they would say that the carpet has fully depreciated in those 10 years (that is often a raw deal because it makes sense when you're speaking in accountancy terms, but Landlords don't get this because they see there was a carpet and now there is no carpet, but they get nothing for the loss of that carpet - ouch!).

Tough world.

Hi Hippogriff

Thanks for your response.
I should have mentioned in my original post that we are planning on moving out at the end of our tenancy which is a few months away.
When we found a replacement carpet I asked the landlord to come and see if he was happy with it before we purchased it - originally he said yes (verbally) but now has changed his mind (when he found out we were planning on moving out)

I have asked if he knows what carpet it is but he says that it was already in when he brought the property so doesn't know. (He brought the property around 6 years ago I beiiebe)
I do except responsibility for the accident (I lost my balance and it was either the carpet or my hand the iron would land on - I chose the carpet) and would be happy to replace like for like if I could. If only it was noted on the inventory - great idea I think.

Hopefully the fact that he doesn't know what carpet it was will help us if he disputes it. Lots of people said just leave it and when you move out he will just take some from your deposit but I thought I was trying to do the right thing by getting it sorted before we leave - starting to wish i has just done this now but didn't really sit right me with.

So, likewise, no-one can determine a) the age of the carpet or b) the cost of the carpet.

The Landlord is on a sticky wicket to be honest.

I like the idea of Tenants trying to rectify things before move-out. It's a nice thing to do. However, with this - and especially the retraction of what was communicated verbally - I would also advise just leaving it. When you depart, meekly accept that this scorch was your doing and listen to the request the Landlord makes for a deposit deduction.

If it's acceptable, accept it.

If it's not acceptable, then go through the Alternative Dispute Resolution process of the Deposit Scheme (I assume you're able to confirm your deposit is protected?) and let them laugh the Landlord out when an entire house of new carpet is claimed for. You have very little to worry about in my view.

Personally I do things a different way. I accept anyone can drop an iron. I have done it myself, and have been lucky enough not to damage my own carpets.
However whilst I was a child, I remember my mother dropped an iron 3 times before I was 16, so it can happen, and it can be entirely accidental.

However, I have in my tenancy agreement, that all damage must be reported to the landlord immediately.
I do this to ensure that any damage does not lead to bigger problems if left unattended.
Personally I would have been over the moon if my tenant had notified me about it immediately.

However, I take another view on repairs. I expect the damage to be repaired.
If its a wall, I expect it to be magnolia, white for ceilings, and the carpets chaanged like for like, or as close as possible,
If someone damages a carpet, I expect that particular carpet to be replaced. but I would never expect somone to pay out £1500 to re-carpet the whole house, I don't even care what colour it is as long as its as close as possible.

The reason why I was asking you to find out where the parpet came from, is so that you could replace it with a close match (an exact same carpet).

I think a landlord would have a hard time claiming for 5 carpets if only one was damaged, regardless of the colour.

One capret is about £100 but re-carpeting the whole house could be a very large sum!

I think the landlord may have seen an opportunity when he found out you would be moving out. He may have become more defensive because of this.

In my personal opinion, I accept that any rented property will take a beating. Rented properties are under heavy use by nature, simply because so many people move in and out.
And you are far likely to care about your own property if you own it. For that reason, I would not be as strict about the replacement carpet or its colour shade.
As long as it works and looks ok, then I wouldn't care if it was slightly lighter in tone.

Thats me personally. By the way.... are you looking for a new place in the North of England? you seem like a decent tenant!

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It really is so useful to be able to get others opinions on this!

Steve1000 I wish I was looking in that area - you sound much more reasonable than my current landlord!!