State Specific Question About: INDIANA (IN)

We had a little surprise yesterday -- the tenant who's been in our little rental house across town has moved out a month and a half before the end of her lease. She actually sent us rent through the end of the lease, so there's no issue there. I looked at the place today and it's also reasonably clean.

However, we installed new wood-look sheet vinyl floors in the place before she moved in. Three of the four rooms have some damage to the floor. The two bedrooms have multiple small holes cut in them by tubular bed-frame legs. The living room has a place where a piece of furniture clearly got shoved and the floor ripped -- hole's about 2" diameter. There's also a place in one room where there's been a bigger tear near a heat register; it's been glued down.

Admittedly it was Lowe's cheapest sheet vinyl that we put in, but it's a big three years old and has one tenant on it. I feel justified in dinging her deposit for the damage -- really, I *could* justify replacing floors in three out of four rooms, which would run at least $300-350, since you can't patch sheet vinyl.

That seems harsh, however. Furthermore, it's not a high-rent neighborhood, and the floors, while damaged, don't look so bad that I can't find a tenant without replacing them -- I'm betting I can.

If I ding her deposit for, say, $100-150, am I then legally or morally obligated to replace the floors right away? Or can I ding her deposit, but rent the place with the floors as-is?

You should be able to repair the tears. Did you have left over when installed or can you use some out of the closet.

Sounds like you installed a floor that would never hold up to any wear and tear. 3 years sounds good for the junk you installed. Install a decent floor in areas that get some wear and tear

Your BAD!Replace with a better vinyl...it was a mistake to use a CHEAPO * charge her 1/2 the vinyl cost and eat the labor yourself..

I was at a house today with property owner/client discussing installing a fence in back yard....current tenants are departing in June and we did a quick check of the inside - it looks almost as good at when it bought it 4 years ago with very little damage or W/T....better residents KEEP your property in better condition...

LL such as you give the rest of us a bad name. you install crap, and are surprised (?) when ordinary wear & tear (bed in the bedroom....)rips it up. and the crap is three years old. then you want to ding her deposit, and then rent as is.

you are a scum ll

splurge...install the $1.25 vct tiles...........

Great advice all the way up to Wallace. I wouldn't charge but learn from it. There are many areas to save on but floors are one area where substandard materials will show quickly.

You didn't mention how much deposit you are holding but I'd ding her the whole lot.

"Normal" people would know enough to put protection/coasters under tubular bed frames. A better grade linoleum would not hold up to your tenant's abuse.

this one really brought out the fangs! tubular bed frame would have damaged a wood floor, too... tho it does sound like your materials were prone to getting damaged very easily.

i don't have an answer for you other than mentioning that it's not fair to keep all her rent if you re-rent before the end of the time she paid for. you should return the rent if you're getting it from a new renter, no double-dipping, etc.

As usual PMH comes on too strong--but as usual, his basic intent is correct. The "garbage in--garbage out" rule for computers also works for rental property. For tenants you always choose the strongest most durable option their is, or you are just asking for it to be ripped up and to be continually replacing.

-advice#1, if the vinyl has a pattern (like planks of wood)you can cut a section out with an exacto knife and glue in a repair. If you don't have any left over, purchasing another 1ft x length of roll shd be pretty cheap and give you enough to work with.

you have me partly sussed out Lynda. however, I cannot abide those, such as dana, who are "suprised" that the cheap sheet vinyl film floors are damaged by the mere fact of a bed resting on the floor, and THEN wants to ding tenant's deposit and THEN rent AS IS (without taking the $$ witheld - if legal here - towards installing a floor which one would expect to hold up to normal wear & tear).

dana also asked for comment on moral obligation..........and so I stand by my original observations.