Landlord Dispute about Carpet in Texas?

My husband and I are military and we rented from Remax in Texas. We signed a lease in October 06. In October 07 we went to renew our lease and they wanted to inspect our home and my husband said he rather pay $50 more a month to go month to month rather than signing a new lease and having them walk through our house and see our stuff (he was more afraid because everyone that had a walk through on our street, all brand new duplexes that were really nice, had been broken into), so he said no way. Shortly after my husband deployed for 15 months. I just kept paying the $50 extra a month for our month to month lease. My husband came home and we had orders to move. We had been at our duplex for 3 years without a problem, never being late on rent, never having any trouble, NOTHING. Then we gave our 30 day notice to the office. They said they wanted to do a walk through and, according to our lease, that would be done at the time we handed in our keys. My husband told them when we hand in our keys that would be fine, but we were currently packing up boxes and things were a mess we were not ready for a walk through. Well, the office decided they had every right to come inspect anyway. They knocked on the door and when I answered they litterally pushed me out of the way to enter my house. They opened cabinets, closets, drawers (even my underware drawer) I called the cops and stayed on the phone with them as they went through my house and I complained, the woman even opened my 2 year olds door when I told her he was sleeping and went through his things!! She said the carpet needed to be replaced and we had to pay for it. The carpet had some wear from high traffic areas but we were really good about getting them shampooed every 6 months, and I told her that. She said they were "horrible" and needed to be replaced, I said no way, we were here 3 years and they told me as long as the carpets were not stained we would not have anything to worry about. I insisted that we were there 3 years and they should be replaced due to normal wear. The cops came after they left (go figure) and filed a report but didn't do anything. Then we left the apartment in LIKE new condition and even took pictures of EVERY inch of that place. The only problem was the paint was chipped in some areas and needed to be repainted (but we were there 3 years, what did they expect?) and the carpet was cheap so it was worn looking in some spots, not bad, but just matted to the ground and not long fibers, but they were shampooed the day we handed in our keys. Well, we arrived at our new duty station and we were closing on our house, it was 2 weeks after we left TX and that morning we had a mark on our credit from the rental office for $1585 (and they kept our deposit of $750) and I dont think that is fair at all. We left that place in amazing condition, I cleaned so well and bleached everything! I dont think its fair! We went to our JAG office on base to talk to a lawyer and they said to just drop it that we have a house and it doesn't matter. They said because that $1585 is the ONLY thing on our credit that it will not affect our credit much (which is wrong because we have credit monitoring through experian and it went down 82 points since that happened and we were lucky that they did not pull our credit THAT morning for closing, they did it the night before!!!). Please... someone tell me what to do? I dont want to "DROP IT" or "FORGET IT" because I have a house! It will haunt us for 7 years! I will not be able to get a car loan or anything! This is not fair. That carpet needed to be replaced after 3 years by law, right?? UGGH!|||Sorry wrong. 3 year old carpet is baby carpet, it does not have to be replaced.





You can file a lawsuit.





Eventually the landlord will be able to seize your accounts and tax returns to recover the loss. TX does not allow wage garnishment, but they can seize any non-earned income.|||They CANNOT charge you to replace the carpet if it was left clean with no stains or other damage. No, Carpets do not have to be replaced after 3 yrs by law. Carpets never have to be replaced until they are warn out or damaged. All that you described sounds like basic wear and tear. Also, they did NOT go through the proper procedure. They cannot put things straight on to your credit report!! They need to first send you an accounting of the charges and give you a chance to dispute them.





You need to sue them.|||See if there is an agency in that area of TX who helps tenants who are having trouble with landlords. I have seen commercials on public access for a group where I live. Do an Internet search and see what you can find. If there is a place like that they should be able to tell you if what Remax is doing is legal. If that doesn't work or if they can't help, you could probably file in magistrate court for the $750 security deposit and judgment to get the bad credit removed.