A Moral Dilemma. What Would You Do In My Situation?

[BankNote]

Hello Fine Fellows,

I am about to make a transition from a short term temporary tourist rental to a 'normal' long term 2 year rental.

So, I have been staying in this short term furnished rental for almost 1.5 years, paying a pretty high dollar rent. However, over a period of time :-

1. The sofa has become pretty depleted and almost unusable for the new tenant. Not that I did anything careless except that i sat on it every day!!

2. Ditto for a cane chair where the cane has got cut in several places because of over use by me. ( I am not over weight but the chair was just too delicate)

3. Once I was taking a shower and due to back pressure in the line from a neighbor's apartment below, some water flooded in my bathroom & had escaped in the living room.. I dried the water very quickly. However, few squares of the wood did lift very slightly above than the normal.

I want to know from you fine fellows.If any of the above 3 is my fault? If asked to pay for it or get it repaired..should I oblige?

The moral dilemma is because the owner never took security deposit from me in good faith when renting to me. On the flip side, I paid him a extremely fat rent rent, for 1.5 years well above the rent of furnished apartments, in the same building.

I can put a fight and say ..hey I am not paying anything but i will pay up if you fellow expats think..any of the three., is my fault.

Thank you guys and have a continuous great day,

 

[MRP]

So you don't have a moral dilemma, but you do have one if someone else has a different take on it?

In my perception all of above is the risk for the owner. You didn't behave like a rock star smashing up a hotel room, so that's it.

 

[ben]

Assuming that the cause/effect for all the occurrences is as you say, I don't see the slightest question here. You did not inappropriately use (or to put it simply, abuse) the apartment nor its furnishings.

In the example of the chair, it is (or was) there to sit on. Unless you did something stupid with it, it's not called overuse if you merely sat on it. Was it there as an adornment? If it broke, it's because it's old, shabby or both. Not your responsibility to fix. You pay rent for the right to use the apartment and its furnishings. If they break as the result of normal use, then that's what you paid rent for.

Same for the sofa - it doesn't sound like it was new. If all you did is normal use, that's what you paid rent for.

As for the wood squares, again - if you did nothing wrong, then it's not your thing to fix. Want to be nice? Great. But you are under no obligation, legal or otherwise, as a renter, to take charge of things as the owner.

 

[BankNote]

Dear Ben,

My main concern was, what if the owner says :-

Hey, I handed you the sofa and chair in a perfect condition but in 18 months, you have made it look old and shabby and now I need to replace it.

For the wood, I had already told him before, but he never came to inspect it. Now I fear, he will create a issue on the last day! Not that he has a security deposit but i don't wanta ugly fight.

So I am not looking to be extra nice but more as to what is the correct legal reply!!! Or if indeed I did something wrong?

Thanks again.

 

[ben]

Dear Ben,

My main concern was, what if the owner says :-

Hey, I handed you the sofa and chair in a perfect condition but in 18 months, you have made it look old and shabby and now I need to replace it.

For the wood, I had already told him before, but he never came to inspect it. Now I fear, he will create a issue on the last day! Not that he has a security deposit but i don't wanta ugly fight.

So I am not looking to be extra nice but more as to what is the correct legal reply!!! Or if indeed I did something wrong?

Thanks again.

Again: if what you state here is the truth, then legally, there is no claim whatsoever. A chair and sofa that is in 'perfect condition' does not become THAT old and shabby after 18 months of normal use. Broadly, there are only 3 possibilities here:

a) the items were not in fact in 'perfect condition';​

b ) that they were in the first place of extraordinarily bad construction, such that 18 months of normal use can bring them from 'like new' to 'old and shabby';​

c) that you are being less than forthright about the manner in which you used said items, and that in fact you used them more than 'normally'; in a way that can actually ruin good sturdy furniture.​

You claim that (c ) is not the case. That leaves only some combination of the first two. Whichever of (a) or (b ) is the case, your obligation is nothing. Unless you feel that (c ) is at least partly true, your legal AND moral obligation is zero. And if there's no security deposit, your course of action is to calmly and nicely explain your position and that is it.

 

[Matt84]

Most lease contracts include at least as part of a clause regarding the conditions of the property, the expected "normal" wear and tear.
I suppose you don't have a contract but since you say you've been paying above market prices in hard currency for more than a year I don't suppose the landlord will have a problem unless there's been "extraordinary" damages. Without assessing the damages it's impossible to give advice. The way you describe it, you should not worry about it.
If you do, consider the chair could be repaired, no need to buy a new one.
The sofa, like a bed, is expected to suffer the inclemencies of daily life, unless it's an antique, or stained. My opinion.

 

[Matt84]

1. The sofa has become pretty depleted and almost unusable for the new tenant. Not that I did anything careless except that i sat on it every day!!

Meaning for the last months it's been almost unusable for you as well, all the while paying those above market prices for a furnished apartment.

 

[nlaruccia]

Think how would you feel if you were the owner of an apartment and a tenant accidentally warped the wooden floor you paid a lot of money for. It was an accident and not their fault, but nor is it your fault. Agreeing to pay an elevated rental price doesn't give one the privilege to not cover the cost of damage.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Never had to rent here but In Europe (uk/ire) these things would be covered under normal wear and tear in the contract. That said there may be some liability (again, not sure here) if your failure to notify the landlord immediately exacerbated any damage from the water spill.

 

[nikad]

The floor is not your fault, and as a matter of fact it is the building managers responsibility to get that repaired and charge it to the expensas. The sofa and chair, if I was you I would let him take a look, and see what he says. If he complains, offer to pay some $ towards a repair ( as those items were not new ) maybe a couple hundred pesos, and be done with it. You should have notified him when this happened though. He was extra nice not asking for a deposit, so I think reciprocating might be in order.