Story time & also asking for advice.
My sister and I just moved into a new apartment and upon receiving our keys last week and entering, saw a tonnnn of giant stains all over the carpets. They look like pet urine / maybe rust stains. The carpet in the living room is also completely detached from the floor and can be lifted up. Big tripping hazard.
We reached out to the property management company who said they would get in touch with the owner of the condo to see if he’d have them come out and clean the carpets again, and also re-attach where it was lifting. We clarified and said at this point if you’re having someone come clean them AGAIN, it clearly didn’t work the first time and it might be better to just replace the carpets. They said no no no we have a stain removal process they are going to do and we are hopeful it will resolve the staining. When we went back after they cleaned , nothing was different AND the cleaners didn’t lock our front door 😭
We reached back out, said we were very disappointed that the unit was clearly not properly cleaned and that the carpets were still covered in stains. We asked if he would be willing to give us even a small reduction on rent since it was advertised without these stains. And yes, before you come at me and say why didn’t you look at the place before signing the lease. I did, but someone was still living there so I couldn’t see all the stains at that time and the ones that I did see, the property management company said would be cleaned. I also have all the photos of the unit advertised without stains and sent them to the property management just to show how bad it is compared to what was shown.
From the time we got the keys to moving in was about 5 days so we told them if you want to take the carpets out you can, we have none of our things in there yet. But they didn’t. Even now that our furniture is in we’d make it work if it meant we got new carpets… Now, the owner has replied and said “you can move out if you’re unhappy with the condition of the unit and I won’t penalize you for breaking your lease” that’s his solution. After we JUST moved our stuff in.
I’d love to hear from anyone who might know what laws are in place to protect us, what can we do about this because we don’t want to leave we JUST moved in. It’s a great space and as you know really hard to come by a place that is affordable and nice in Bellingham.. We literally just wanted them to replace the gross carpets or give us some rent off because we feel those are the two fair solutions, but he doesn’t seem to want to budge and would rather he find someone who won’t complain lol.