How Do You Determine How Much Deposit To Keep For Wood Floor Damage?
February 27th, 2010 | 
Author: I have a tenant who rented an apartemnt from me. She got a dog and when I was showing her apartment to new tenants I noticed that the wood floors had tons of little scratches/dents in them.
The floors were brand new when she moved in (she was the first to walk on them). They can’t be resurfaced (bamboo) so how do I figure out how much to remove from her deposit seeing as I can’t spend a particular $ amount to fix.
Her deposit is ~$1000 by the way. The apt is about 900sq/ft.
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You are going to have a hard time enforcing damages you are refusing to repair. You can only get actual repair costs. You can try coming in with 3 estimates, but most judges will not give it to you, they want receipts.
Bamboo can be repaired, it is steamed, sanded and refinished.
You also need to prove the damage is beyond “normal”, wear that would have occurred no matter who lived there.
Get an estimate from a professional floor installer. They can tell you what it will cost to repair the damage or replace the flooring. That’s what you charge the tenant.
This assumes that it’s actual damage and not just normal wear and tear. Wood flooring DOES accumulate scratches over time and bamboo DOES dent more than hardwoods. The flooring contractor can evaluate it and tell you if it’s damage or just normal wear and tear.
Here’s the way it should work:
You can’t charge for ordinary wear and tear. But you can charge for damage.
Let’s say–just making these numbers up–that repairs to ordinary wear-and-tear would cost $200. But replacing the floor would cost $500. You can’t charge for the wear-and-tear, as I said, but you can charge the difference for the replacement. In this case, $300.
So: Separate the cost to repair the damage from ordinary wear-and-tear. Charge the difference.
You need to get estimates, and advice on whether you have normal wear and tear or a billable problem. If the tenant fights you and takes you to court, you will need to prove the damage was beyond normal wear and tear, and you will need to provide estimates/receipts for the costs for fixing it.
You would need to determine the amount that the repairs will cost and that is how much you can keep legally. I guess b/c they are not repairable, it would be replacement value.
Depends on if it falls into a normal wear and tear situation. If she literally caused DAMAGE you should call someone out to give you an estimate.
She is likely to challenge your estimate so I would get a contractor to estimate repair/replace.
I would call someone who fixes it and get an estimate on how much it costs.. if you had to do it.
I’m a flooring contractor and this is a common problem with Chinese bamboo flooring, most bamboo is. The scratches are in the the urethane finish, not the actual bamboo, so if you ” fill” the scratches in the urethane your problem should go away…pretty much. If you go to Home depot or Lowes, in the flooring department you will find spray buffer kits with applicators and everything you need. All wood floors have the same little scratches, it’s just that some types of wood hide it better than others. I don’t think your tenant did anything unusual to your floor and this is really a maintenance issue, similar to cleaning the carpet after a tenant moves out. My guess is that she didn’t have a ton of traffic and the scratches are limited to a few areas, but over an extended time frame the whole floor get somewhat scratched… giving the floor a consistent look making the scratches unnoticeable. If you think the the dog is responsible you could been aware, by asking the guy you bought the floor from, that ALL dogs scratch ALL wood floors, and bamboo is especially subject to little whitish scratches. You could have addressed this issue before she moved in, so maybe this will help with your next tenant.Oh.. the ultimate solution is have the floor “screened and coated” with a 1 or 2 good coats of commercial polyurethane. In the Detroit Michigan area that costs anywhere from 25 cents to 1 dollar a square foot labor and material, with you moving the furniture. Good Luck! BAMBOO CAN BE REFINISHED JUST LIKE ANY OTHER WOOF FLOOR OTHERWISE WHY WOULD ANYONE BUY IT !