Laugh at My Stupid

[amaristella]

So, me and Mr. Amaristella are getting ready to move out of our posh Air Force housing. During move in the lady told us "Oh, you don't even need to worry about pet stains because we automatically replace the carpets when there have been pets in the unit". And we believed this. The whole 18 months we've been here. We believed it.

Fast forward to move out and we're told that we must pay for the carpet to be shampooed with deodorizing enzymes even if no smells or stains are evident. The paper even says that they will pull up the carpet to look for stains on the padding. And suddenly I realize that move in lady had terrible reading comprehension and misinterpretted a very non-tenant friendly rule into a very tenant friendly one. Or perhaps she saw someone pull up carpet before and assumed that it was being replaced and knew that the people hadn't paid for replacement.

I do wonder, though, if they have the right to force us to pay for the enzyme shampooing and the fogger cans (really? Our cats have never had a single flea. They're also, as it happens, afraid of the outdoors) if it's not stipulated in our lease or in the pet addendum that we should have to pay for anything when no damage is apparent. Realistically my cats have barfed on the carpet a few times. It only sits on the surface and I do clean it up. I will admit, though, that we're going to end up paying because our little guy has gotten pee on the carpet. So there has been pee, it's just not cat pee. And yes when something happens I clean it. There are no stains or smells that I can detect.

[panicked]

We have always had to have the floors professionally cleaned upon move out, pets or no pets. Technically though, if it's not tin the lease, they can't mandate it.

[amaristella]

Jan 19, 2015 9:25:42 GMT -5 panicked said:

We have always had to have the floors professionally cleaned upon move out, pets or no pets. Technically though, if it's not tin the lease, they can't mandate it.

That's what I'm wondering. I'm going to probably pay the $200 dollars for them to do it and somehow somewhere I will find these damn foggers. I don't mind that it needs to be done but apparently every other place that I have lived has simply gone and done it themselves after we leave. I didn't plan an extra day just to clean my damn carpets. If I had known then I would have. (Maybe) Every night that we are here and not in our house is $200 in a very small uncomfortable hotel room. Not to mention that getting reservations or a decent nightly price without actual orders is really difficult. I probably would have asked about the prices and stuff at move in just so I could plan! I wouldn't expect such a big housing company to be mandating something that they can't legally mandate. Seems like someone would have taken the matter to JAG already.

[brandienee]

We've always had to pay, even if they do it themselves. It came out of our pet deposit or we paid upfront. 

This sounds super frustrating though, they should have told you before hand so you weren't left with this nasty surprise.

[killercupcake]

In 29 Palms, we had to clean the carpets, professionally or ourselves. If there was obvious damage, we would've had to pay to have the carpets cleaned again or replaced.

In San Diego, we were told not to even clean the carpets because they were replacing them after we moved out. I think the same rules applied as 29 Palms, though SD housing was pet free. It just didn't matter for us since the carpets were old and being changed. I have no idea if they replaced it. It looked like it hadn't even been vacuumed when we moved in (I was finding stuff in cabinets and earrings in the carpets and drains. Ew.).

I wish housing would just do away with carpet in general though. I don't mind it in my own home. In a house that has a turnover rate as high as military housing does, it gets gross.

[Deleted]

My only experience with AF housing is that they use this "pee stick" to see if they could detect any pet messes. They couldn't (our cat did have a few accidents but we used rented a rug doctor and used the pet shampoo). Also, I remember all of the move-out policies being given to us in writing when we moved in.

Is this privatized housing?

[amaristella]

Jan 19, 2015 21:17:09 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

In 29 Palms, we had to clean the carpets, professionally or ourselves. If there was obvious damage, we would've had to pay to have the carpets cleaned again or replaced.

In San Diego, we were told not to even clean the carpets because they were replacing them after we moved out. I think the same rules applied as 29 Palms, though SD housing was pet free. It just didn't matter for us since the carpets were old and being changed. I have no idea if they replaced it. It looked like it hadn't even been vacuumed when we moved in (I was finding stuff in cabinets and earrings in the carpets and drains. Ew.).

I wish housing would just do away with carpet in general though. I don't mind it in my own home. In a house that has a turnover rate as high as military housing does, it gets gross.

99% likely that what is under this gross cheap carpet is some beautiful hardwood. I see signs of it in the upstairs portion of the house. It's a remodeled historic home that was built 70 years ago.

[killercupcake]

Jan 19, 2015 23:03:17 GMT -5 amaristella said:

Jan 19, 2015 21:17:09 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

In 29 Palms, we had to clean the carpets, professionally or ourselves. If there was obvious damage, we would've had to pay to have the carpets cleaned again or replaced.

In San Diego, we were told not to even clean the carpets because they were replacing them after we moved out. I think the same rules applied as 29 Palms, though SD housing was pet free. It just didn't matter for us since the carpets were old and being changed. I have no idea if they replaced it. It looked like it hadn't even been vacuumed when we moved in (I was finding stuff in cabinets and earrings in the carpets and drains. Ew.).

I wish housing would just do away with carpet in general though. I don't mind it in my own home. In a house that has a turnover rate as high as military housing does, it gets gross.

99% likely that what is under this gross cheap carpet is some beautiful hardwood. I see signs of it in the upstairs portion of the house. It's a remodeled historic home that was built 70 years ago.

Ugh. WHY do people do this? 

[amaristella]

Jan 19, 2015 21:47:07 GMT -5 @villainv said:

My only experience with AF housing is that they use this "pee stick" to see if they could detect any pet messes. They couldn't (our cat did have a few accidents but we used rented a rug doctor and used the pet shampoo). Also, I remember all of the move-out policies being given to us in writing when we moved in.

Is this privatized housing?

It is privatized housing, although it's located literally on base. The only thing I haven't checked is the resident guide but I figured at move in that I was safe just getting it verbally from the lady who gave us the keys. My husband and I both remember because it's a concern of ours wherever we go. We want to know what to expect on move out. The lady told us that the people before us didn't have pets and yet there are giant ugly inexplicable stains on the carpet in a few places. I put them on the move in sheet and I really wished that they had done more to take care of them. I would bet dollars to dimes they charged the previous tenants for the carpet stains and then did nothing about them. Also wouldn't be surprised if the previous tenants had an animal and lied about it. So there could be animal stains we don't know about from the previous people but because we were honest about being pet owners anything they find will fall on us.

[amaristella]

Jan 19, 2015 23:04:03 GMT -5 killercupcake said:

Jan 19, 2015 23:03:17 GMT -5 amaristella said:

99% likely that what is under this gross cheap carpet is some beautiful hardwood. I see signs of it in the upstairs portion of the house. It's a remodeled historic home that was built 70 years ago.

Ugh. WHY do people do this? 

We were told that in Air Force housing if carpet and ceiling fans are not present that the house is not up to standards..... ^o)

[amaristella]

The move out brochures they gave us don't even agree with each other.

One agrees with the lease "well, if your pet made a mess you better clean it"
www.hickamcommunities.com/ArticleDocuments/3052/MoveOutBrochure_HC%2001252013FINAL.pdf.aspx

The other is the one I was discussing with the lady wide eyed. "If you have pets, then you better do these things"
www.hickamcommunities.com/ArticleDocuments/3052/Cleaning%20Requirement%202014.pdf.aspx

FFS the DoD just upped our BAH $150/month just because landlords on the other side of the island are charging more due to market demand. They can afford to clean the carpets and buy foggers.

[kpol]

We lived in privatized military housing at our first place in Korea and our floors resembled the tiles you find in a school lunchroom....reaalllly nice stuff I'm talking about! We were given a list of what to clean before we left but we knew the housing area was closing down and new tenets wouldn't be moving in so we didn't put too much effort into it. The housing people didn't even do a walk-thru, they just came in and had us sign out. One of the closet doors (also very "high quality") had a large scratch in it from a container falling off the shelf and they didn't say a word. We pointed it out to them expecting to pay for it but, nope, not a word!