[islandtomato]

My boyfriend and I rented a single family home in Austin, TX for the past year and signed a Texas Association of Realtors' residential lease. We put down a total of $1900 for the refundable deposit, $700 of which was for our 2 pets. We moved in 24-48 hours after the prior tenants moved out so we moved in "as is" with the landlord providing "make-ready cleaning service and carpet cleaning". This is stated in the lease. Prior to us moving in, the landlord had the kitchen and dining area laminate replaced. Once we received the keys, I did a thorough walk of the house. The house had a slight aroma of cigarettes all over, but I didn't note this smell on the damage report. The master bedroom closets REAKED of cat urine and we noted this overwhelming smell on the report. On the damage report I wrote all the physical damages in detail for each category in each room. To sum it up, the carpet has stains, burn marks, colorful paint splatter, etc all over in every room and looks like it's been there since the early 90s along with the old laminate in the laundry area (This is just my personal judgment based on the look/feel of the carpet and the design, staining, damage on the laminate). I took pictures of each thing that I saw. We returned the damage report within the requested timeframe and requested for major items to be fixed via email (rotten/water damage under the bathroom sinks, bedroom doors falling off door hinge, ants/rolly poley in kitchen and bathrooms, shower rods missing, no cover for attic crawl space entry, and weather stripping replacement for exterior doors).

We moved out mid-May. We cleaned every room/cabinet/window sill, and per our lease, had the carpet of the entire house professionally cleaned by the carpet cleaners. We used carpet cleaners that were mandated by the landlord (not in the lease, but was on a move-out checklist that we had to sign off on at the time of lease signing). This cost us about $300. We received our deposit back within the 30 days via certified mail. This is where I have a problem. $786 of our deposit was taken out to replace the carpet for the 2 guest bedrooms and the hallway because of "urine stains and smell" which we are absolutely positive was NOT caused by our pets. These rooms were a no go for pets and the doors were shut unless either myself of my boyfriend were in the room. As for the hallway, the pets never linger in the short hallway area. They're either in the master bedroom or in the living area. There was no opportunity for the pets to have caused any damage in those areas. I realize this is just my say, but we noted stains on the carpet in the damage report also. We sent the landlord an email to appeal the deposit issue along with some of the photos we took. The landlord argues that since we didn't specify "urine stains", the damage report holds no water and he said the smell of urine in those areas were "overwhelming". I've been a cat owner for several years and my cat has NEVER urinated outside of her litter box. Her litter box was kept in the master bedroom. I know what cat and dog urine smell like and none of the areas in question smelled abnormal, especially not after we were done cleaning. This is all speculation, but I feel that he's footing us with the bill because he wasn't able to get the money from the last tenants due to his inability to clear a portion of his schedule to do a proper walk through after they moved out, prior to our move-in.

At this point, we emailed him back to request a copy of the carpet replacement invoice and a copy of the move-out condition form he should have filled out. My question is, whether the landlord has a right to take the full carpet replacement cost for those areas out of our deposit. I can accept paying a portion (maybe up to 50%), but not the whole cost since none of the damage, outside of normal wear and tear, were caused by our stay in the house.

Thanks

[AK lawyer]

In short, you are saying that you reported the urine smells when you moved in and that your cats didn't cause them.

It appears that you will have to take them to small claims court to make your case.