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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
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    13,916

    Default Does a Landlord Have to Replace Rotting Carpet

    We recently moved into a home that seemed nice, and was freshly painted. When I vacuumed the carpet, I would vacuum up a large amount of carpet fibers. I spoke with the landlord and he said that the house had been sitting empty for several years before he bought it. He had a company come in to steam clean the carpets.

    The carpet looks fine from the surface, but I continued to get huge amounts of fiber when vacuuming. I asked the cleaning company what was going on and they said that there was dry rot of the carpet, and that the fibers were coming from the bottom of the carpet. They said that there is nothing that they can do about the problem, and that the only solution is to replace the carpet.

    My landlord says that the carpet looks fine and won't replace it. Can I make my landlord replace rotten carpet? This is in Arizona.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    98,846

    Default Re: Does a Landlord Have to Replace Rotting Carpet

    Absent a health risk from the carpet, the fact that there's an issue that makes vacuuming more of a chore than it might otherwise have been is not going to be a basis to compel replacement of the carpet. If the carpet is clean, looks good and presents no tripping hazards, even if fibers are coming up from the bottom when you vacuum, it does not sound like you're going to be able to succeed in an argument that the condition of the carpet affects the habitability of the rental property.

    You can speak to a landlord-tenant lawyer who represents tenants about your options, but I'm not optimistic that you're going to come up with a way to compel carpet replacement.

    If you don't want to live in a rental with this type of problem, you can see if you can negotiate a resolution with your landlord. If he has multiple rental properties, perhaps he'll let you switch properties (albeit likely with you bearing the moving cost). Perhaps he'll let you pay a fee to be released from the balance of your lease. Perhaps he'll agree to split the cost of carpet replacement.

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