As apartment dwellers across the Isthmus await the return of their security deposits, a campus-area alder is trying to make sure tenants don’t find those checks accompanied by some unwelcome riders—carpet cleaning bills.
Madison’s newest Common Council member, Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, asked the city attorney’s office to investigate whether landlords who charge tenants for professional carpet cleaning are violating a city ordinance prohibiting landlords from taking charges for normal wear and tear out of renters’ security deposits.
Assistant City Attorney Steve Brist said he was currently investigating one rental company for possible violation of the ordinance but could not identify that company until the investigation is complete.
Section 32.07(14)(f) of the Madison General Ordinances prohibits “any withholding for normal wear and tear, including activities that are customarily performed by the landlord or the landlord’s agents before a new tenancy commences, including, but not limited to, washing windows, shampooing carpets, occasional repainting or reupholstering furniture.”
Brist said the ordinance also prevents landlords from including clauses in a lease that withhold part of a tenant’s security deposit for carpet cleaning or other normal maintenance.
“Nothing authorizes withholding for normal wear and tear,” Brist said.
What is less clear, Brist said, is whether a separate bill presented to tenants for carpet cleaning would be prohibited under the ordinance.
“I guess what we’d like to know is how that would work in a practical situation,” he said.
One tenant who was surprised when his landlord told him and his roommates they would be billed $100 for carpet cleaning was UW-Madison senior Ben Cohen, a former resident at 433 W. Gilman St. Cohen said he was told by his landlord, Madison Property Management, that he and his roommates were responsible for getting the carpets in their apartment professionally cleaned or else had to check a box on a form and pay Madison Property Management $100 to do it for them.
“They didn’t really mention that they were going to charge for that until my roommate checked the box,” Cohen said.
Madison Property Management President Jim Stopple said his tenants are responsible for cleaning their carpets as part of the nonstandard rental provisions that accompany leases, but that charges are not taken out of security deposits. Rather, tenants receive invoices charging them for the cleaning.
Stopple said his company complies with relevant city ordinances. He also said tenants appreciate having clean carpets, adding that he does not hear complaints from residents because “it’s been addressed very succinctly with them when they sign their lease.”
Brist recommends tenants who have doubts about the legitimacy of any withholdings from their security deposits seek help from the Tenant Resource Center, 1202 Williamson St.
“If people have concerns, that’s one place they can always go to for information,” Brist said, adding that such concerns “may be something that the city attorney’s office eventually ends up with.”
Powell said residents who believe they have had carpet cleaning charges illegally withheld from their security deposits can also contact their alders. He recommended that tenants photocopy any bills they receive for carpet cleaning.
“That’s cold, hard evidence we can use,” he said.
Megin Hicks, director of the Tenant Resource Center, said renters should look closely at the clauses in their leases and contact their landlords if they have a dispute with any claims landlords make.
Hicks said the first thing a tenant should do with any kind of dispute about security deposit deductions is to “write a letter to the landlord, going through point by point” for each complaint.
