Can I sue my landlord to get them to install carpet padding?

[crashwg]

Subject pretty much says it all...

They literally glued the carpet to the cement floor in my living room.

My 1 year old daughter has hit her head on the floor multiple times and I can just imagine how much it hurts.

[Tailgunner]

Subject pretty much says it all...

They literally glued the carpet to the cement floor in my living room.

My 1 year old daughter has hit her head on the floor multiple times and I can just imagine how much it hurts.

Can't hurt to try. They might settle for buying her a helmet.

[itismejs]

You can sue anyone...doesnt mean youll win lol.  

[simplygriff]

I work in property management.  I'm not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice.
(Gotta cover ---my bottom---. )  Here's my opinion.

Did you look at the place before you rented it?  If so You probably wouldn't have a case.    This would show that you had seen the condition of the property before you took posession.  If not you could possibly get something out of  a court case.  I doubt it though.  Carpet padding is not a necessity.  Heat in the winter on the otherhand...

Try getting a nice padded area rug.  for the time and effort you spend on a court case you could buy a nice rug and take it with you when you leave.

[Crazy Cooter]

No.

Unless it is required by a building code or something...  If it is freshly installed call the city and speak to the building inspector.  If it was there when you moved in, you're SOL.

[zaphod]

Have you tried asking your landlord if he would consider upgrading the carpet with padding?  Is the carpet worn enough to warrant replacing?  That might be a good argument.  Have you lived there long and are a good renter?  That always helps your side of the negotiations.

Sue?  Not the brightest idea and would surely put you in the bad graces of your landlord.

[missioncontrol]

You can sue, but you probibly won't win....

landlords tend to skip corners to save money because they are constantly having to fix the place after a tenant leaves and the deposit put down very rarely covers all cost. Carpet padding is nice but not required in a rental unit...

your best bet is to talk to him about your concern, but inless you've been there a while don't get your hopes up.

[SS427]

crashwg,

You might check (maybe you already have asked) to see if the landlord is even aware that padding was not installed.  Maybe he asked for it without padding, maybe he thought he was getting padding and carpet installers didn't put any down.

ss

[Darkstalker]

" well, it'll depend. if you spill a cup of coffee in your lap go ahead!! you'll get millions"

Actually, I looked into this.  That lady won the case because McDonalds served their coffee at unsafe temperatures, not because it was spilled.  They kept it too hot because it tastes like crap, and keeping it super warm hides that fact :p

My advice, talk to a lawyer.  You might even find one that will examine your case for free.

[shmokes]

Are you people crazy?  You couldn't win a lawsuit there were no carpet at all.  People, afterall, use other surfaces besides carpet -- hardwood, tile, linoleum.  In fact, my favorite house of all the houses I've been in was one worth a couple million that my brother house-sat for the owners when they went on vacations.  Every floor in the house (and it extended outside for the patio) except the two bedrooms had concrete floors.  The floor was stamped in raised squares.  It was SUPER nice, as hard as it is to imagine a concrete floor being luxurious.

Anyway, no.  Don't waste your money.

And McDonalds had been sued multiple times for their coffee, but they wouldn't turn the heat down because it was cheaper to just keep severely burning people and dealing with the minor consequences.  That's the point of punitive damages.  Corporations like McDonalds will not change practices until it is in their best interest financially to do so.  For the most part punitive damages work to proactively entice businesses to consider ethics in addition to profits.  When businesses, in spite of the threat of punitive damages, ignore ethics you have to hit them with the punitive damages or the threat becomes meaningless.

[tep0583]

I'd have to go with the general concensus and say you'd be wasting your time.

You'd be much better off trying to work with your landlord, IMO.

[Matt, GoC]

If all presidents weren't idiots, people wouldn't need to wear shirts like that.
Note:  I'm referring to the yahoo news article Peale added to danny_galaga's post.
Note #2:  I don't care about politics.  Don't try to argue any points with me.  You won't convince me of anything.

[fredster]

I don't know what deals you have made with your Landlord, how big your place is or who runs it, but if it was me and I believed that this was wrong I'd :

Call and talk to the Landlord and ask him (as SS427 said) if he was aware of the problem.  

If doing that failed to get me satisfaction, I'd contact the Housing authority and see if this was a violation.  That's what we pay these guys for, so I'd make them earn their money.

Failing that, I'd contact the local ACLU or similar legal firm and see if there were grounds to take some kind of legal action.

If that looked complicated, I'd just move for the sake of my little one to someplace with a more responsive managment.

This is America, so I guess there is more than one place I could rent.

I've owned a house since I got my first paycheck. (out of the Army) I hate the concept of rent unless it's paid to me.  I did rent out a house and I made every effort to make sure my renters were happy and the house was in good order.  So I suspect that you may find that your landlord may help.

[shmokes]

My kitchen and bathroom are tiled, and I can't say this for sure, but if I had to place bets I'd say there is no padding whatsoever under them.  As soon as I have a kid I'm going to sue my landlord -- make no mistake.

Seriously...move.  Ask your landlord for new carpet if you really like your place or get a good deal on rent, since the worst that can happen is he can decline.  Otherwise, just move.  Talking to a lawyer, contacting the ACLU.....these things are just a waste of time.  And if they're not a waste of time, they ought to be.  Any ruling in your favor would be assinine.  It would outlaw any floor covering that wasn't padded in a rental.

[tep0583]

My kitchen and bathroom are tiled, and I can't say this for sure, but if I had to place bets I'd say there is no padding whatsoever under them.  As soon as I have a kid I'm going to sue my landlord -- make no mistake.

Seriously...move.  Ask your landlord for new carpet if you really like your place or get a good deal on rent, since the worst that can happen is he can decline.  Otherwise, just move.  Talking to a lawyer, contacting the ACLU.....these things are just a waste of time.  And if they're not a waste of time, they ought to be.  Any ruling in your favor would be assinine.  It would outlaw any floor covering that wasn't padded in a rental.

Pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject.

Sueing your landlord cannot be worth the strained relationship you'll have with him afterward. Its only going to be trouble in the long run.

[mattv]

Yes; you can sue him (you can sue just about anyone for just about anything) - but you probably won't win.

Which is pretty sucky in this case, I'd hate to see my kids falling over on this sort of surface all the time (and lets face it, falling over is what kids do best)

If you do win it's a safe bet your landlord will be pissed and will try and move you on as soon as he can - just human nature.

Might be best to talk to him about it first. If you find out how much it will cost to do the work, say a thousand bucks, and then tell him how much it will cost and tell him that you are prepared to pay for it provided he reduces your rent by $19 per week to pay you back over the next year that might work.
That way he's actually paying for the work, but he can be reasonably confident that you will stick around until he won't be out of pocket.
The thing he will be trying to avoid here is stumping up a big wad of cash to re-do the carpet and have you leave a few months later.

Obviously you may not have a grand aying around just waiting to be used on carpet but most flooring places will let you do a time payment thing, just make sure that the rent reduction is enough to cover the payments.  You might also need to change your rental agreement so that he doesn't wack the rent up on you right after you've paid to have the floors done. (There are some real ---daisies--- around!)