I received a call from one of my tenants this afternoon.  It turns out that one of his dogs decided to grab onto a section of carpeting and tore up about six feet of it.  

Background on the tenant:  He has been living there with his girlfriend for just shy of five years.  He's a very good tenant.  The fact that he has lived there for five years has saved me a lot of money in the vacancy / turnover costs that you normally would endure between tenants.  For a typical turnover cost, I normally estimate it at one mortgage payment + repainting + repairs = roughly $1,500.00.  The house was built in 1997 and the carpet is from the original construction.  It is old, but it is clean and looks good...or rather it did.

Here are my options as a landlord.

A)  Leave the carpet as is and let the tenants live with it.

Pro:  This option doesn't cost me a thing.
Con:  This tear in the carpeting would make the house look bad which then would impact on the tenant's satisfaction with living in the house...which then may be the precursor to causing them to move somewhere else.

B)  Replace the carpeting and charge the tenant for his portion of the expense.  Note: the tenant would be charged according to a pro-rated lifespan of the carpet.  For instance, let's say you had a $1,000 appliance that typically has a 10-year lifespan.  If the tenant broke the appliance at the 9-year point and it needed replacement, he could only be held responsible for the one remaining year left on the appliance ($1,000 divided by 10 = $100.00)  The carpet replacement cost would probably cost in the neighborhood of $2500.00.

Pro:  The tenant gets a new carpet which would tend to keep him satisfied with his home.  This, in turn, makes it more likely that he would remain in the house.
Con:  I would end up bearing the majority of the expense for the replacement due to the age of the existing carpet.

C)  Replace the carpeting at full expense to myself.

Pro:  The tenant gets a new carpet which makes him happy.
Con:  I bear the entire expense.


Update:

I saw my tenant today and offered him a choice of option A or B.  He chose option B and said that it seemed to be more than fair.

He did offer up an explanation as to why his dog declared Jihad on the carpeting.  He hadn't been home more than a few hours in the last few days because of something that I thought that you would find interesting.  As I mentioned in a post in this thread, he is an LEO.  

A person in this area had been the victim of a burglary earlier and lost a LOT including 60+ guns in addition to his 1,000lb safe.  That's right - they even took the safe.  The burglary victim could only provide the police with the serial numbers of a couple of the guns because he stored all of that info in the safe.  One of the guns finally showed up from someone who had done a f-t-f purchase with one of the scumbags.  He felt unsure about it after the purchase and asked an LEO to run the serial number through the system.  It turned out to be one of the guns that was stolen.  My tenant spent the last few days tracking down the bad guys associated with the burglary and putting jewellery on them.

So, because of the fact that these dirtbags burglarized this home, he had to spend several days doing near simultaneous raids on the scumbags homes.  This meant his dog got bored and ate my carpet which now will cost me $2,298.00 to replace.

I'm a crime victim (by proxy.)  Please PM me for my paypal address to contribute to my Johnny_Reno Carpet Fund.  Do it for the children.

B. Tenant is responsible for damage his pets cause. Prorating it is more then fair.

I'd go with A.

If it's in a spot that can't be covered and he really wants it replaced, I'd go with B.

Replacing the carpet doesn't guarantee it won't happen again.

Never C.

It's right smack dab in the middle of the livingroom.  

....

B.

He will appreciate not having to pay all of it and having new carpet.

BUT

You guys need to have a talk and an understanding over what happens when dog does this again to the clean fresh new chew toy your laying down for him...

I think the last lease i had said something to the effect of every 6 years the owner and renter could split the cost of new carpet at the option of the renter.



So B i guess.

...

If the carpet has been there for 13 years, then replace it - but let the tenant know that future repairs or replacement will be on him if the new stuff gets ruined - or offer him the option of laminate instead with the same caveat.

I'd tell him to buy a rug.

Might happen again.

Dogs are unpredictable.

He has two dogs and they have dug holes in the backyard, but they have never been destructive in the house before.

However, the possibility exists that it could happen again on the off-chance that the dog has developed a taste for carpet....something to take into consideration.

Agreed.





 

Replacing the carpet every six years?  Man, that's wasteful.

This.



 

I don't have experience with laminate and wonder how it would wear with two sets of dog toenails running across it every day.  Also, I imagine the cost would be more than my carpet estimate.

Did the tenants put down a pet deposit? If so, how much was it?

Option B.

$350

I don't know how you would pro-rate the carpeting. That I think would be difficult. When I moved in the previous owner put in a cheap POS carpet in the master bedroom sounding like it was great, but it is showing major wear in just the 2 1/2 years I have been there.

Having him live with it would be hard. Maybe he would offer to pay for the damages his pet did. Like you said he was a good tenant. If I was renting a house and my dog did that I would offer to replace it. Does his security deposit cover it?

Being he has been there for 5 years and you said it costs $1500 to turn over the lease it wold have cost you $7500 to re-rent every year if you has 5  one year tenants.

That's 14 year old carpeting. Is due to be changed out. If he doesn't offer to pay for the replacement I guess I would pay myself and let him know if it needs to be repaired show him the invoice. Consider it a business expense.

Buy a little extra carpet from the same roll in case you need to do any future repairs.

I would explain to him his dog just cost him half of the cost of redoing the carpet in that room .

Option B is more than fair. If you have a good tenant KEEP the tenant, and be fucking grateful. I know that might cheese off a lot of people, but I have a GREAT relationship with my landlord. I fix most stuff myself, etc. As a result, he is extremely generous on "normal wear and tear". I protect his 4-plex, he takes care of me. I almost went with option C, because hey man, you let a pet owner move in. Which is kind of herp derp on you. I would love to have a dog to help with the hunting, but I would NEVER bring an animal into a property belonging to someone else.

My $.02.

I'm currently a tenant and Option B sounds fair to me.  It's definitely better than you making him pay for all of the cost of repair.



 

The dog is a carpet muncher!  

Either way, the caveat is it gets ruined again, he pays.





 

Nope.  The tenant can only be held for the cost of the pro-rated lifespan portion of the item.

The lifespan of carpet is not 28 years.

I went with B.



With B you have another pro, you can take it off your taxes. (can't you?)

Plan B

Then, tell him that if his dogs do it again, you'll go Po-Po on him and shoot his dags.

area rug to cover up hole until he moves.  it was his dog that caused the destruction.  I am currently renting, if my dog did something like that I would feel obligated to fix the damages.  If it was something damaged that was not my doing or something caused from just old age we can work something out. SO Option A


ETA: My In Laws rent out a few homes.... They just tile the whole house and rent it like that.  Easier clean up and prep between renters.

The carpet is 14 years old.   Pro rating is the best thing to do.

It currently has builders grade carpeting and would be replaced by the same.



His security deposit would be sufficient to cover his portion of the replacement cost.

.

Valid points.



Carpet is expensive...even a little extra.

Was probably more.



I was just trying to illustrate that in my experience going halvesies seems to be the norm.



 

Its hard to find a good tenant.

If the carpet is old and due to be replaced anyway I would fix it. I would also let him know that it's on him if it happens again.

what about a laminate floor?

Not allowing dogs in your rentals will eliminate over half of your potential tenants.  That means longer vancancy times between tenants and that equals cash out of your pocket.

As a landlord myself I would go with C.  The Carpet is way past overdue to be replaced (14 years for carpet ).  Good tenants are harder to find than an honest mechanic.  You will save more money in the long run keeping this guy happy.

I would choose C
1. to keep the house looking good.
2. The tenant is paying for your house, you can write off the expense.
3. I would let the tenant know any further damages caused by the dog would be his responsibilty.

It becomes a business expense/loss.

You don't write off the total expense.  You benefit according to your current tax rate.

Option A.  If he moves fine.

Next time... no pets clause in the lease!

Heh.

He is the Po-Po.

I screen for my landlord. It is NOWHERE NEAR half.

ETA: Depends actually. If it is a single family home, your statement is probably highly accurate.

you might explain options A and B and ask him if he has a preference.  he might actually prefer to keep the carpet as-is.  compare your vacancy savings against the cost of the carpet––at what point would you break even if you were to replace the carpet after he moves out?  plus, you'd add value to the unit for a new tenant with a perfectly new carpet.



OTOH, if he wants the new carpet, then you get it for a pro-rated discount.



seems to me that either of these options are good for you.  if you can't choose, ask him what he likes.

I would ask him what he wanted to do.

If he wants to live with the carpet, then leave it as is. Depending on how much longer he lives there, deal with pet deposit/prorated replacement accordingly.

If he wants to replace it, prorate the cost and explain to him that it is on him 100% if the dog tears up the new rug.

Amazing that you got that long out of builder grade carpet. Most is not that high quality.

<Emily Litella> Oh, that's different.  NEVERMIND<Emily Litella>

No pets = hard to find tenants.

No tenant = me making unsubsidized mortgage payments on an empty house.  Unacceptable.

I only rent single family homes.

You're actually the closest so far to my opinion on the situation.

I just posted the thread because I think it's interesting to see other's opinions.

This.
Send the ball back in his court.

Makes a whole load more sense then. To an extent. The place I help my LL with is a 4plex, and 3 of the units have decently sized yards, and we still don't get many people who have dogs applying. Mostly cat owners, which are absolutely refused immediately because they will easily ruin a place worse than any dog. Most dog owners reject apartments all the way to duplexes out of hand.

I stand corrected sir!

No kidding. They may have torn the carpet so you would have to replace it.

We have a good long term tenant in one of our houses. They are not very common.

It is a renters market right now.

You could lose them and find somebody better in the same day.

I would do one of either:

1) Repair the carpet as best as possible with carpet tape.

2) Tell them to buy a rug to put over it.

Since the carpet is already damaged and 13 years old just plan on replacing it when they leave.

DO NOT buy new carpet for the whole house when they have animals capable of doing damage living inside.

Builders grade is low quality.  However, it can be kept presentable with care and cleaning.

My own home still has builders grade carpeting in it and I'm at the 8-year mark.  I find it difficult to get rid of something that still has servicable life in it.  (That's why I'm hoping that my jet-engine powered Noise-o-matic dishwasher will finally die - so I can get a new quiet Bosch.)