2010/06/24 02:21:10 PM AG Posts: 2	My tenant has allowed cigarette ash to burn the carpet in two rooms. In one room there are two burns. In the other close to ten burns spread across about a third of the area. The carpets were already 3+ years old so had some wear. However each time they were cleaned they looked good. There was an existing mark on one of them. Is there a guideline on the point at which one can say this is damage and the tenant must pay for replacement?
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2010/06/25 11:36:23 AM mjwthorne Posts: 12	Having dealt with in the past and with a ruling from the housing tribunal, what you have to look at is what is the expected life on the carpet, and keep in mind that a carpet in a rental property does not last as long as your home, I allow 5 to 7 years for a carpet, even though we clean them every time a tenant moves out, there is a lot of wear and tear on the carpet. You have to decided by how much did the tenant reduce the life that was left in the carpet by, how much is it to replace the carpet, then pro-rata the amount that is owed by the tenant. The carpet cost R5,000-00 and it was reduced by two years the cost of the carpet would be R2,000-00, or an amount that the tenant agrees to, remember you are not able to charge for the full amount unless it was a new carpet when the tenant moved in and within a year it was totally destroyed. Ask yourself is it fair what you are asking and if it is then you should not fall foul of the Housing Tribunal.
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