[WSBARP] Landlord/tenant - damage to floors / calculating cost

[Rachel Bender]

Hi all,

Just adding something to this thread.

Apparently the landlord listed the townhouse for sale over the weekend, and
you can see in the staging photos on the listing that they haven't fixed
the floors yet. If they sell the house prior to fixing the floors, then
they can't charge the tenants for those repairs, correct? I feel like the
answer is obvious, but I'm not sure what the next steps would be for the
tenant.


*Rachel R. Bender | *Member, Attorney

*Bender Law PLLC*
1001 Fourth Avenue* | *Suite 4400 *|* Seattle, WA 98154
*Reception*: 206.577.7987 *| Direct*: 206.389.1744 *|* *Fax*: 206.693.4365
www.bender-law.com

CONFIDENTIALITY: This email and its attachments are confidential and may be
protected by the attorney/client privilege, work product doctrine, or other
nondisclosure protection. If you believe that it has been sent to you in
error, you may not read, disclose, print, copy, store or disseminate the
email or any attachments or the information in them. If you have received
this communication in error, please notify this attorney immediately by
replying to this email.


On Tue, Jun 9, 2020 at 1:02 PM Rachel Bender <rachel at bender-law.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Has anyone dealt with a client (landlord or tenant) re: calculating
> damages to floors in a rental?
>
> Here's what's going on: tenant moved into townhouse with hardwood floors,
> landlords acknowledged extensive scratches and damage made prior to tenant
> moving in (documented on "initial walk-through inspection" form).
>
> Tenant moves out, and landlord discovers two small scratches (2-3 inches)
> on the hardwood (tenant insists that this was from the moving company, but
> I digress). Landlord obtains estimate ($1,700) to sand and refinish ALL of
> the hardwood on that floor, and wants to charge the tenant 100% of that
> even though the vast majority of damage existed prior to tenant's lease.
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong, but tenant should not be on the hook for 100% of
> this bill - shouldn't it be calculated to ensure tenant only pays for the 2
> new scratches?
>
> Any advice on how to calculate this? 2-3 inches vs. total square footage
> of 500 for that floor?
>
> Thanks!
>
> *Rachel R. Bender | *Member, Attorney
>
> *Bender Law PLLC*
> 1001 Fourth Avenue* | *Suite 4400 *|* Seattle, WA 98154
> *Reception*: 206.577.7987 *| Direct*: 206.389.1744 *|* *Fax*: 206.693.4365
> www.bender-law.com
>
> CONFIDENTIALITY: This email and its attachments are confidential and may
> be protected by the attorney/client privilege, work product doctrine, or
> other nondisclosure protection. If you believe that it has been sent to you
> in error, you may not read, disclose, print, copy, store or disseminate the
> email or any attachments or the information in them. If you have received
> this communication in error, please notify this attorney immediately by
> replying to this email.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbarp/attachments/20200615/21cb33a1/attachment.html>