For Homeowners or Landlords

If you’re a homeowner and you’re looking to install carpet in one of your investment properties, there’s a few things you need to take into consideration. If you’ve got tenants moving into a property, you have to realise that they may damage the carpet purely because they don’t really care about it the way you would as the owner.

Most tenants will never have the standard that you have, so keep that in mind and take into consideration fair wear and tear. That’s the one major thing that landlords fail to think about and most judges at VCAT for example will always base their decision around.

In short, a property will slowly depreciate over time. The judge will take into consideration how many people are living in the property, if there is kids or animals and also how long the tenants have been in the property.

Fair wear and tear:

Wear and tear is damage that naturally and inevitably occurs as a result of normal wear or aging. It is used in a legal context for such areas as warranty contracts from manufacturers, which usually stipulate that damage due to wear and tear will not be covered. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_and_tear, 2014)

What Carpet to Choose?

These are things that you need to think about if you’re an owner and you’re looking to rent a property out but you’re worried about the state of the carpet or what type of carpet you’re looking to lay. Over time the carpet will accumulate stains (if they’re not professionally cleaned that is) and you will find that you will probably need to repaint and re-carpet every 7 or so years.

That’s why it’s a good idea to install hardy and durable carpet, and I would always recommend something darker in colour as stains don’t show up that easily. Don’t buy cheap light cream or white carpet as you will be in for a shock after 12 months of tenants living in your property. I don’t think I’ve ever steam cleaned carpets that look clean which are either cream or white. They always show up every little spot and it looks terrible. The best carpet by in my opinion (when it comes to steam cleaning) is the dark browns. They hardly ever show up any stains, and if they do, they’re quite easy to remove. Plus if the stain cannot be fully removed, it blends in quite easily.

Check out http://homeguides.sfgate.com/carpeting-rental-properties-83245.html

For Tenants or Renters

If you’re a new tenant and you’ve never rented before (or an old tenant for that matter), I always recommend to cover yourself when you move into a rental property by taking photos and also jotting down plenty of notes. Keep them filed in a safe place and make a backup too. This can save you quite a lot of money especially when it comes to getting your bond back. I wouldn’t really rely on the agent to do this, and on the other hand I wouldn’t trust and agent either.

Managing agents:

They can be your best friend when it comes to moving in and be your worst enemy when it comes to moving out.

Greedy landlords and agents are constantly visiting VCAT on a daily basis, to try and steal bond money off innocent tenants. The good thing is, the judge always knows that there is an endless supply of greedy landlords so they generally favour the tenants. I constantly tell this to tenants every day and customers alike, if you haven’t damaged the property in any major way shape or form, and you’ve cleaned it on a regular basis, you won’t have any problems getting your bond back. Especially if you go to the extreme of having it professionally cleaned and professionally carpet cleaned when you move out.

If you can get the cleaning company and the carpet cleaning company to write a detailed invoice outlining what was done, this can definitely win you points if it ever goes to VCAT. Remember, the judge will only look at photos and the condition report, so if you can have both of these done in detail, you can save yourself losing your bond money.