All Forum Posts by: Bret Kingcade

@Caleb Heimsoth They just finally responded saying they are not willing to change the charges whatsoever. In your opinion, is it worth it to try and fight this in small claims or should I just accept my fate at this point?... Thanks.

Caleb, the total deposit was only $350 for my 2 bedroom apartment. They e-mailed me after my move out requesting an additional $1218.25 beyond keeping my deposit and threatening collections if I don't pay it. The whole apartment except the kitchen was carpet. Not everywhere was stained but they are saying they replaced the entire apartment's carpet because they can't seam together replacement carpet of a different color. They are basing it off a depreciated cost from an original install price of $1440 and claiming a 7 year life cycle. I don't really know what to do. I'd hate to get sent to collections... There was a few other random charges in there mostly from my roommate not fully cleaning up but over $1,000 is carpet-related.

Thanks for the reply. I have no experience with replacing carpet so I honestly have no idea whether or not this level of damage is significant. If they refuse to come down whatsoever on anything, do you think it would be a waste of time to try small claims based on those pictures? I also don't know how much of a hassle or cost commitment that process would be either so any input at all would be valuable to me. Thanks!

 They are claiming it was just over a year old when I moved in and are prorating based on a 7 year carpet life. Would you mind taking a look at the pictures I added that they are using to justify the replacement? I don't know whether or not this would be considered "significant enough" to warrant replacing. One thing to note, 1 of their pictures is literally just the indentation in the carpet from where a trash can, water bowl, and food bowl always sat. I pointed this out and their response was that it "looked bleached" and "
showed that chemicals were used" once under a blacklight... I'm just trying to make sure that I'm not being taken advantage of.

 This is exactly how I replied to them but they don't want to budge. Yes, I was paying a pet fee. They are saying the carpet was just over a year old when I moved in.

Full disclosure: I am the tenant in this situation. I just started house hacking and this is from my apartment lease that just ended.

So in the 2 years I lived at my old apartment, my dog had probably 6 accidents (urine or vomit). Each time, I cleaned it up immediately with Resolve. There were no visible stains or odors (my girlfriend who didn't live there agrees) but when they did their walkthrough, they found these areas by shining a blacklight over them. They decided to replace the carpet for the entire apartment and send me the bill instead of just using a carpet cleaning service. Basically my question is just whether or not this is typical and consistent with what you guys would do in this situation. If so, I will obviously pay for it since it is my fault but I wanted to make sure first that they were not going overboard before I pay over $1,000 for it. If this is unusual, is there anything I can do about it? Thanks for any input!

I'm under contract on a duplex and one of my unacceptable conditions was the foundation which showed signs of significant movement (see below pics from inspection report). I requested that repairs be made before closing that would be a long term fix to the foundation issues.

At first, the seller tried to pull a fast one on me and push through minor "band-aid" level repairs instead of legitimate long term fixes while feigning ignorance. Naturally, I am extremely on guard now and don't want to take the seller on their word at face value. Now afterward, they told me they would proceed with a more serious fix that would be an actual long term solution to the foundation movement. I just received the quote below from the seller for the work that he says will be done. I have very little expertise when it comes to foundations but, to my untrained eyes, it appears to be a legitimate attempt to fix the problem long term. To me at least, it sounds expensive and it would surprise me a bit that he would so quickly change face without any fight. Could someone with more foundation experience please help weigh in on this for me? It would be greatly appreciated. This is my first property purchase and I am nervous about trusting this seller without understanding this more. Below is the entirety of the info I was sent. The only parts removed was the seller's name and address. (Thanks for reading my novel of a post! It is greatly appreciated.)

@Caleb Heimsoth Lol yeah, I think you are right. I'm very analytical and sometimes I overthink things. Thanks for the replies. You have been very helpful. I ended up reaching out to the seller and said I was good to stay at the original asking price contingent on him repairing the foundation as outlined in the inspection report prior to closing. He replied back that he'll send it to his contractor for a repair cost and will get back to me. So now I'm just waiting to hear back on his decision. If he ends up saying no then I'll just have to walk. I was clear to him that I had a lot of other things I'll have to pay to fix soon so anything less than him paying to repair it would make the investment no longer meet my minimum standards for ROI.

@Patrick Fraire No, he didn't mention it in the seller's disclosure. To my knowledge, you wouldn't be able to use that item as an unacceptable condition to back out of the contract and get your earnest money back if it had been clearly listed. You could still cite something else though of course. Obviously, it kind of sucks for us to discover foundation issues but a smart seller I would imagine realizes that he is just going to have to deal with this issue coming up again with the next buyer if he ends up sending you away so I am trying to hold my ground while being reasonable.

One more thing...now I am wondering what I should be doing first:

1) Reach out to the seller first to get a feel for if he'll pay for the repair to see if he just immediately shoots me down on it.

or 

2) Contact a structural engineer first to get the ball rolling so I can have a more informed discussion with the seller on what needs to be done

I'm just wondering if I should be spending more money on this property before getting a better idea of whether or not this deal can go through. My inspection period ends this Friday. Thanks for the help everyone!