Lewiston Properties at Pheasant Run    |    Michael Lewis    |    Clinton    ,    New York 13323    Landlord Complaint 23-0088

We recently moved out from a two-bedroom rented apartment. We have lived there for three years. When we moved in, it was a new. We cleaned the unit by ourselves after we moved out for more than six hours to prepare it for the next tenant. After inspection, the manager (son of the landlord) emailed me that the glass cooking top was "badly damaged" and they would replace it , and that we had to pay for it. Also, he said that, because of small bleach spots on the carpet, they would have to replace the whole upstairs carpet, since he claimed that the bleach spots could not be removed even with carpet cleaning. So we visited the site back to see those problems. When we looked at the glass cooking top, it wasn't damaged at all, but perfectly clean. The manager said it was OK. But if we did not visit, we could not see the condition. We went upstairs to look at the problem with the carpet . We saw that they didn't even try to clean the bleach spots out of the carpet. We tried to explain that the bleach stains were made to clean some colored stains (2 or 3 per room). So it was an effort for cleaning the landlord's property. The bleached stains were barely noticeable because original carpet color was also bright (light cream). He told us that, because of those stains, they have to replace the whole carpet with a new one, and that they would deduct our deposit in a whole to pay for the new carpet because the new carpet and installation costs exceed my security deposit (for his estimation the new carpet and installation is $1469 and my deposit is $1250). He said maintaining the apartment clean and customer satisfaction is his responsibility. But he does not take care of interest of leaving customers (like me). He said that we should not use bleach but I haven't received any prior warning or information not to use bleach on the carpet. Even though I admit my lack of knowledge but I once observed that a carpet installation person used bleach on the carpet. I think this is absurd and over-reaction, since we have lived there for three years and it is impossible to maintain the home like new. Also, even I appealed to him, his position hasn't been changed, he still hasn't even tried to find win-win solution and stick to easiest way (take a whole deposit to buy new one). The stained area with a bleach is too small to replace whole carpet. Also I think it is not fair for me to pay for new carpet because the carpet value has been depreciated. What is best solution?