It’s normal wear and tear, unless you left big divots.
They are required by law to repaint the walls?
Of course they do, and the terms are outlined in your lease and in your state’s tenant laws.
Come to think of it, does your lease say anything about smoking? If it was prohibited might end up on the hook no matter what you do.
And speaking of checking the lease, you might want to look to see whether they’re going to automatically deduct anything from your deposit for cleaning or whatever.
Did you look at the picture? If yes, would you say it is not normal wear and tear in an apartment in which I have lived for 2 years? I would think it is normal wear and tear. I have no problem if they deduct the cost of the repair for this 2x4 foot section of the hardwood floor.
What is my cost/benefit? Hire someone to fix it, or get it deducted from my deposit? I know the answer, pay someone to fix it. They are going to charge a lot less than the aparrment complex.
They are here in New Jersey. And Rhode Island. And DC, sorry those are the only places I have lived.
wait, when I said they don’t have a right to deduct anything, yes that have a right to dedcuct things that I have damaged beyond reasonable wear and tear, sorry if I wansn’t clear about that.
editing- very selective quoting there, my friend. Here is the full post
For nail marks, yes. I know they can’t. I know they are required by law to repaint the apartment. And unless the tenant has put gauges in the wall, they cannot be charged. But the law is not always followed. But the fucking big corporation landlords will do so anyway. If a tenant moves out, the apartment people come in and inspect, and if they can charge you one last dime they will. They will fucking gauge you for every last fucking, literal, cent they can.
The day I signed my lease here, and as apartment complexes go, management is “relatively” decent, but as I was signing the agent was talking to a tenant who had just moved out and they were trying to take a lot of her security deposit, and I had a feeling that when the time to come for me to move out that they would try to do the same to me.
That is the whole point of this OP is to make sure they don’t charge me any more than they can. I don’t think they have a right to deduct anything from my $1800 deposit.
So, here is a picture of the “damage” I have done in 2 years, the reason for the O
Like five cigarette burns in the floor?
There’s no picture at that link when I look.
It was a fuzzy picture of the floor, and it was hard to tell if those were burn marks or knot holes.
Thanks - I just tried a different browser and it worked there.
Use a chair mat at the next place so you don’t ruin the floor. And smoke outside.
And when have I ever said that I would not pay for it, out of my security? Let’s go back to the OP, I think it was a pretty simple question. Do I need to spackle over the nail marks, I think not and I am sorry I even asked. I DO NOT have to by law. But I asked wondering if other people here might have not done so and gottten charged. 2nd question, should I repair the 2x4 foot section of damage myself, or let them take it out of my deposit. I should not have even bothered to ask, OF COURSE I should do it myself, when in the history of the world has anyone come out ahead trusting a landlord?
And a lot of landlords will reply “Vice versa”.
When I rented, I got back every dollar of every security deposit I ever put down.
Chalk up a portion of that to luck and the rest to scrupulous behavior, always paying my rent on time and in person, and being on friendly terms with building management.
At the end of the day, landlords are people. If they know you and like you, they’ll take care of you.
Two quick things:
First, it’s gouge, not gauge. I caught myself wondering why anyone would be putting measuring instruments in the wall. And I just got home after comparison shopping for a home weather station to, you guessed it, mount on my apartment wall.
Second, I think “normal wear and tear” is a lousy expression. It’s far too subjective. I found that in an area without high turnover, normal wear and tear is quite liberally interpreted. In other areas with a high military or student population, there is no wear or tear that is considered normal; this is especially so for the student-heavy areas. A month and half after I graduated from university, I lost my deposit because of that. I did no damage at all to the place and was a bit fanatical about keeping things clean. 'Twas a long time ago, but I still think it’s nonsense. As another poster mentioned above, “big corporate” landlords aren’t like the small fry you can parley with.
Thanks for correcting my spelling of “gauge”, I used to pride myself for being a good speller, I wish I could gauge exactly when in my declining years I became the person that used “gauge” instead of “gouge”.
But I never goughed anything. Well, not in moving out of an aprartment, if ya know what I mean, nudge nudge wink wink.
If you live in a place where you think they might be like this make sure you are with them when they inspect the apartment after you move out. If you can, have a friend with you.
It is simple to email them and setup the time to do it. If you want, record the walk-through with your phone.
Yes, yes they actually DO have a right to deduct from your deposit if you have caused damage to the place beyond normal wear and tear.
Cigarette burns on the floor definitely qualify. And while you might quibble about whether or not it’s a “burn” or a “mark” they’ll definitely call it a burn.
Well… when the place I was living had it’s utilities destroyed by an inept road construction crew the landlord paid for dry ice for me to keep my perishable food, handed over the balance of that’s month rent without being asked when it became apparent he was not going to be able to get the problem fixed in a reasonable time period and helped me move to the place I’m currently living. Oh, and he’s still giving me free storage for some of my stuff.
But I’ll be the first to admit that is very much the exception. Treat any lease and landlord situation like a business and don’t trust the other party beyond what’s in writing.
My current lease actually states what they’ll accept as “clean” when I move out and includes professional carpet cleaning with receipt required. At which point I decided to just let them do it
Having worked for landlords and cleaned up after other tenants move out, in most cases the cleaning required costs more than the security deposit. There are exceptions, but a lot of people cause destruction, leave behind a mess, then whine when they don’t get their money back.
As for the OP - you did cause damage to a wood floor. It might have been completely unintentional, but the next tenant is not going to want to deal with burns on the floor. The landlord is going to have to pay to fix it if you don’t. Either you fix it, or you hire someone to fix it (but make sure they are able to fix it without making it worse), or the landlord has to fix it, but if the latter then they are definitely going to take it out of your security deposit.
If you clean up after yourself, and do little things like spackling over nail holes (but please use real spackle and not toothpaste - yes I’ve seen the toothpaste “fix” and had to re-repair it) and otherwise fix up the place maybe the landlord will only take your security deposit and not also charge you the difference between fixing the floor and that deposit.
I’ve been a renter all my adult life. Once I got my whole deposit back. Usually I get some but not all because, frankly, while moving I don’t always want to attend to every detail, especially if I’m moving for reasons stressful on top of moving. Maybe because I have done clean-outs I’m a bit more sympathetic to the landlord side even if, as a tenant, I’d prefer to have all my money back.
“If a tenant moves out, the apartment people come in and inspect, and if they can charge you one last dime they will. They will fucking (gouge) you for every last fucking, literal, cent they can.”
This.
You can be rigorous about taking care of things and still lose much of your deposit. I remember once laboring over comprehensive cleaning before moving out, and then losing a big chunk of the deposit because I didn’t clean behind the oven.
Nail holes in the wall? Sure, they’ll hit you for that if they can.
Landlords will figure you have priorities other than fighting them in court, no matter what the law says in your jurisdiction.
Definitely do the walkthrough with them and take photos. The longer you live there the more leeway you have on what’s considered normal wear and tear. My move-in checklist notes rather banal items like spots on the stove enamel (since cleaned), a long scratch on the hardwood floor from the previous tenant moving a dresser (the floors had been completely refinished prior), staining on the inside of the bathtub (since re-glazed), and other stuff like that. Since then, some of that enamel on the stove has chipped, as has the re-glazing on the tub. None of those things were deliberate on my part, they’re old fixtures, and I’ve lived here almost 20 years. I’ve put a rug/mat under my desk chair to prevent scratching the floor, but after so much time it’s still worn down the finish some. That’s normal wear and tear, and I’m going to stick to that when I move out, also noting how long I’ve been here.
The problem with the burn marks is that “fixing” a hardwood floor usually means sanding and refinishing the whole thing. Spot repairs are nigh impossible to blend in depending on the type of finish. It’s a matter of returning it to the condition it was when you moved in. Normal wear and tear would be minor scuffs and dulling of the finish, but not obvious burn marks. Not saying you can’t try to fix it yourself. I’m not sure what the best course of action would be though. Whether it’s bringing in the landlord to look at it first and assessing, or trying to repair it without their knowledge.
I’d actually say the same goes for the nail holes. Check your lease. Mine mentions that nail holes must be patched, but not repainted. Generally repainting only applies if you changed the paint color, so again you have to put it back to the condition it was when you moved in. It’s hard to call something wear and tear when you deliberately put holes in the wall or dropped butts on the floor.