Carpet woes

Our Experts Answer:

A landlord rightly finds it frustrating to discover carpet stains that a tenant attempts to have cleaned at the end of a tenancy rather than immediately after the stain occurs. The passage of time makes it harder to treat and remove the stain. The best course of action is to have a professional carpet cleaning contractor treat the stain as soon as possible after it occurs.

The carpet was, by your description, about twenty years old. At that age it will have depreciated to a pretty negligible book value, and you should not incur the cost of replacement carpet.

However, it is reasonable for you to have made best efforts to have the stain professionally treated. If you don’t do so, the landlords would probably be entitled to engage a cleaning contractor at end of tenancy to treat the stain. In such circumstances the landlord can probably claim that cost against your bond. Be aware that stain removal is an additional cost to carpet cleaning because it entails targeted treatment in a specific spot. It is often charged at a cost per stain, so for several stains this could accumulate a large cost.