Commercial carpet installed in beginning 2012. Held up really well, perfect condition when tenants moved in in mid-2016. (Next door, same carpet, tenant thought it was new this year.)

Tenant spilled huge bowl of wax on carpet in Bed 1, won't come out. Tenant's mom's dog "spilled" urine on carpet and pad in Bed 2, doubt it will come out.

Planning on replacing both rooms with Allure. Materials for each room about $350, labor about $200 each.

DH wants me to credit them with some sort of depreciation on the carpet. I do not want to. The carpet would have lasted years longer had they not DAMAGED it rather than just used it normally (wear and tear.)

Damaged LAMINATE flooring in middle of room. Water, paint, dog urine. Do I depreciate that too???

Gee I hate to say it but we also depreciate it -- down to useful life left on 7 year basis. Point being your depreciating the carpet on your taxes each year and of course any judge deciding a cost case will know you already recouped your value (somewhat) on your taxes. Other fights may be more worthwhile. We have high charges for other items left damaged on move out so we do get OUR money!!!

So I figured it out, I guess.

According to what I'm reading, 7-10 years is the assumed lifespan of rental carpet. Mine happens to be commercial, with a 20 year so-called span, but okay, I'll use 10.

By that equation, it had 4 years left, so I am charging 40% of the original value.

What I was doing wrong was also figuring cost of replacement materials, which has nothing to do with original cost.

You are "repairing" the damage caused by tenant. You do not have the option of buying 78.4% useful life carpeting. You must buy the supplies needed to repair.

Around here we are required to depreciate carpet. One of the things I accomplished while on the commission as to get the lifetime of carpet increased from 5 to 7 years. Here is a page out of one of the pamphlets describing how damages are calculated.

Age and Depreciation

Household fixtures and appliances depreciate (decrease

in value) at different rates depending on their life ex-

pectancy. As a practical matter, Straight-line Depreciation is the pre- ferred method for calculating depreciation. Through this method, the useful life of a household fixture or appliance is expensed evenly over the expected life of the fixture or appliance. For example, if a new toilet costs $200, and the life expectancy of a toilet is 20 years, the new toilet depreciates at a rate of $10 each year ($200÷20=$10).

Calculating the tenant’s portion of the replacement cost of the household fixture/appliance

After determining that an item requires replacement due to tenant abuse or neglect, to calculate the tenant’s responsibility, a landlord must first know:

• The actual cost to replace the fixture/appliance

• The life expectancy of the fixture/appliance

• The current age of the fixture/appliance

• The remaining life (life expectancy less current age)

• The remaining percentage value (remaining life divided by life

expectancy)

Remember, depreciated values are based on the replacement cost of an item, NOT the original cost.

16

BASIC INFORMATION

CALCULATIONS

TENANT RESPONSIBILITY

Below are several examples for determining tenant responsibility:

Cost of new dishwasher: $400

Life Expectancy of dishwasher: 10 years

Age of dishwasher at end of tenancy: 4 years

Remaining Life = 6 years (10 years less 4 years) Remaining Value = 60%

Tenant Responsibility ($400 times .60) = $240

Cost of new washing machine: $750

Life Expectancy of washing machine: 15 years

Age of washing machine at end of tenancy: 4 years

Remaining Life = 11 years (15 years less 4 years)

Tenant Responsibility ($750 times .73) = $547.50

Cost of new carpeting: $1000

Life Expectancy of carpeting: 7years

Age of carpeting at end of tenancy: 7 years

Remaining Life= 0 years (7 years – 7 years) Remaining Value = 0%

Tenant Responsibility ($1000 x 0) = $0

(6 years divided by 10 years)

Remaining Value = 73%

(11 years divided by 15 years)

In the end, your problem will be treated by whether or not the matter goes to court, and what the judge decides.

Generally, landlords must depreciate items like carpets. It seems to surprise a lot of posters that courts across the country communicate and agree on ways of solving problems. Where the law says that tenants are not responsible for wear & tear, then it is not hard to get agreement among judges that the portion of a carpet's life during which it was getting walked on and getting worn is something that landlord is responsible to pay for and tenant pays only for what he has taken away from the landlord. The courts often use approximations such as 7 years lifetime for carpets, but that is adopting a rule that standardizes the method of calculating the division of responsibility rather that being an actual measure of the lifetime of any particular carpet. Obviously, some people are hard on carpets and some people easy, and courts almost always use the standardized procedure. Thus, that your particular carpet may have what seems to you to be remaining useful life, the courts prefer to use the standardized procedure to try to keep things fair.

There are also well-known cases that courts often rule that, after the standard useful life is exhausted, carpets should be replaced rather than repaired.

Ken, deduction from SD is not a matter of punishment, as it is a matter of reimbursement for loss. Consider contract law, which would make tenant responsible for loss to the landlord. Once the carpet has served ts useful life, its destruction is no longer a loss to landlord. Landlord got his money's worth already.

I can understand the argument of depreciated value of floor coverings/ paint/ appliances would apply for an insurer settling an insurance claim.

If the carpet in the home was 20 year carpet, and you have the warenty info and receipt, I'd depreciate it only on 20 years if at all. I'm with the rest of the flyover state people. They DAMAGED the carpet. You deserve to be made whole, with carpet in as good a condition as when they moved in.

So, go price the same carpet, along with replacement pad and installation. If you believe you must depreciate over some time, do it over the manufacturer lifespan of the carpet. Remember, new pad must be installed with new carpet or the warenty is void.

Then make sure to charge for taking up the carpet and pad, hauling it away, scrubbing and treating where the urine is and sealing the floor if needed.

In NC we have to depreciate the cost. Carpet is 10 years from date of service. Materials and labor plus tax.

Did you try to freeze the wax off? Years ago I learned from Aldo about spraying wax spills on carpeting with a canned air/sub-zero freezing product and hit it with a hammer. The wax will shatter off. Look at products like: Releasit Gum Freeze Spray (Single 6 oz. Can) for Removing Gum & Wax From Carpet.

" They DAMAGED the carpet. You deserve to be made whole, with carpet in as good a condition as when they moved in. "

Barb, They damaged a carpet which had no value.

When they moved in, the carpet had a certain value, depending on how old it was. Then, they walked on it, reducing its value further, even down to zero (the courts say 7 years). Once the carpet has zero value (not use to the owner, VALUE) the owner no longer has any stake in the carpet.

The law says that tenant owes landlord for a loss. But if it has no value, there is no loss. Landlord IS whole.

If they walk on the carpet, it wears out. Who is responsible for wear & tear? Since the 13th century, common law rules for renting property says that landlord is compensated for wear & tear by RENT. After 7 years of wear & tear, carpet no longer has any value for landlord to lose.

Approximation or not, courts use 7 years, not value estimated by owner, not value according to manufacturer's warranty, and not usefulness to owner.

Sorry. Carpet depreciation as of 2017 is either 5 years or 9 depending on whether you use straight line or alternate.

NC courts will use the IRS method not the mfg. warranty.

Per the NC RE Comm.

if you caused the item to wear out because of your mistreatment of it, you may be charged for the

amount of unusual wear which you caused (but not the entire cost of replacement).

I have pink/rose/fuscia carpet in one of my apartments. I don't know the color. It has to be 20 years old. It's in perfect shape. I want to change it simply because it's ugly. I won't though, because it's still good.

If I got it back in the condition you got yours back in, I would charge full replacement and not even think twice about it.

Are you deducting other things as well? Often times I will add as many small things to the SD accounting as I can and write "no charge" next to it. I can send a big

Wax and dog pee is not normal wear and tear.

No Elliot. your house does not have ZERO value after it's fully depreciated and it does not allow a tenant to fully destroy it. If that were the case, there would be a whole breed of tenants out there "depreciation chasing" like ambulance chasers. They'd be looking for fully depreciated houses to move into to totally destroy without repercussion.

If you can find something in print that says that carpet is good for 20 years, then depreciate it using 20 years. IRS tax depreciation is not the same as actual expected lifespan of an item.

As was pointed out by OP this tenant will fight the bill. So if you know that get in front of this train wreck. Most judges, when it comes to the garnishment phase of collecting, will need to see the bills. These judges are not dispo court judges but mostly professional types. You can't pull the wool over their eyes. If the tenant has been there 2 years and the carpet is only 5 years old the life left on it is 2. So you do the figuring. Be realistic though. You wouldn't get whole house replacement for a spot in the living room or just one bedroom has cool aid on it. Story will be if carpet is so new why not just replace bad room? Carpet is new and still in production.

WMH OF NC, TO do this hopefully the carpet is in the unit. Buy a black light flashlight, Walmart carries them you may have to order it. Go room by room in the unit using the black light to find dog urine. Using your digital camera take pictures of the damaged area showing with the black light. CUT A PIECE OF carpet that is badly damaged with urine. Place it in a double zip lock EXTRA LARGE bags and hang onto it. MAKING certain to cut the carpet the size of the bag, of course NEVER opening again. IF this tenant takes you to court take the bag with the carpet in it, date the bag when it was cut out. Have pictures with the bag to show damaged area. Write in red marker CAUTION Dog Urine DAMAGED carpet do not open, where it was in the unit and address of unit, tenants name. THEN let the judge decide IF he wants to open the bag, GOOD LUCK YOUR HONOR!!!

WAX, DOG URINE, WATER, and PAINT are NOT normal wear and tear. Lets hope you have check in lists signed by the tenant and took pictures of the unit before tenant moved in.

Depreciation VS irresponsible damages and carelessness are NOT one in the same. I would charge for the costs to replace the carpet. Take a pc of the carpet to your carpet supplier and have them give you a written estimate to replace it and the pad and tack strips, removal of it, treating the floor with odor x it Eliminator. DO the same for the laminate too. Take these quotes and include them in the SD deductions AND MAKE THE LIST OF damages for the unit and each costs for the damages. INCLUDE pictures too and send it to the TOXIC TENANT. PLUS the balance owed will be sent to collections within 30 days if not paid. THEN let the chips fall where they may. Most likely they will take you to court for the security deposit over costs BUT thats ok, let them do it. Have ALL your costs listed and supporting paperwork. Copy of Lease, check in paperwork, check out paperwork, before and after pics, costs of carpet and laminate reinstall. PLUS eviction notices, plus any other breaches of lease during TOXIC TENANTS rental term with you.

Once you remove the carpet and laminate replace it with click vinyl flooring.

The tenants are not out yet, so there will be more damages to report when they are I am sure, but for now, I depreciated the carpet down to ONE year of remaining life, even though I could go for more. She can't argue with that.

But then I *am* charging for labor for removal of old stuff, and dump fees.

The laminate has a limited lifetime warranty (Costco) that is of course VOIDED by the water/urine damage. I do have pictures of the urine on the floor, and I have pictures of the wax puddle on carpet and of the ripped/torn carpeting at the doorway to the other bedroom (frantic dog damage.) I'll take more as I can!

I have the Security Deposit sent to previous departing tenants who got all of their security deposit back as place was in excellent, move-in condition. I have the move-in check list which specifically notes flooring is clean and undamaged, and the carpets were cleaned a few days before move-in. (Also pictures of course.)

I have the Annual Checklist where we inspected the place at the next lease signing and didn't see this damage...but the place was FILLED with furniture so couldn't really tell. Now it's more emptied out.

We are only going to replace the bedrooms with Allure, leaving the hall and stairs carpeted as they are fine. We also have to replace the laminate as all damage is right smack in the middle of the living room floor, VERY visible.

WMH: I understand not wanting a confrontation. But the reality is that even taking the full amount that you are legally allowed will still leave you with a considerable loss.

When I send tenants their SD accounting I also email them a copy that includes pictures of the move-in and move-out along with a copy of their signed move-in inspection report. The contrast between the two sets of pix shuts down any argument.

I've had 1 tenant who took me to court on their dime. It took the judge two minutes of looking at the pix before he awarded me the damages. Be bold!

WMH of NC, EXCELLENT you have the move in check list and then the move out check list.

You are hurting yourself for not taking the value of replacing the carpet with the same material quote from your supplier.

Like I said earlier take the amount to replace it, installation, new padding and tack strip. The Laminate damage take the cost to replace getting a written quote from Costco.

Send the deduction of security deposit and the balance owed along with move in and move out check list AND pictures as well. The balance to be paid in 30 days or it goes to collections. Let the tenant take you to court on their dime. The judge will rule in your favor if NOT he's a pro tenant judge.

TOM: It may be silly and unfair but she can only do what the NC LL tenant SD laws allow and full restitution is not an option. NC, as well as most states, consider wear and tear as a normal cost of doing business. Had the carpet been new when the tenant moved in she would not be required to depreciate the cost. But it wasn't new so her only option is to get as much restitution as is legally allowed.

W,

ANOTHER reason to be carpet-free: depreciation arguments.

Repair. We charge for REPAIRING the carpet.

Yes, I would take in chunks of pee soaked carpet. My judge asked us to leave them out in the hall! (This was back when we had carpet)

In our 40 years, 350+ evictions, 2,000 court appearance, over 6 judges, no one has even MENTIONED depreciation.

My judge says if we re-painted or repaired due to resident negligence depreciation is not an issue.

Gotta know YOUR judge. Is there any precedent in YOUR court?

Considering your state laws I would pump up the repairs and cleaning to full full retail. We charge $50 per hour.

BRAD

PS so glad we don't have to mess with carpet any more!

When you do evictions with the lower court-- depreciation isn't mentioned because at that point it's only about rent owed not the damages done phase.

Civil court for that is a higher court then Magistrate (here in GA at least) Judges in those civil cases "suit on damages" phase ask about carpet and the total bill. when they see the bill and the outline for charges your now getting into garnishment and it's taken a lot more seriously.

Some cases the tenant isn't even there for damages phase but judge still inspects the paperwork and questions charges.

myob (GA ): In NC damages are in small claims for anything under $10,000. We only go to District, next step up from civil, when the amount is >$10,000 or one party has filed an appeal.

NC we do the same here in GA the "suit for damages" claim although in a lower court (same as the magistrate court) there is no mixing of eviction court and other civil claims. There's no tenant cases for eviction heard and the judges are different. Whole different atmosphere. not the circus eviction court with everyone acting out.