Episode 48: DEEP DIVE into Normal Wear and Tear

Summary

What is normal wear and tear you ask?  How do you know what will be charged to you when you depart a unit?  What is considered willful damage and where is there a gray area?  In today's episode we go over the difficult-to-define "normal wear and tear", and review the US's Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s guidelines of life expectancy in rental items.  As a tenant, you need to educate yourself of what may be taken out of your security deposit; as a landlord, you need to budget for inevitable repairs, replacements, and renovations in your rentals. 

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Full Episode Transcription

Welcome to my life as a landlord where we untangle all things housing and educate the curious. If you're

looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've come to the right

show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to it.

Welcome to my life as a landlord. I am your host, doctor Jen. So glad you've joined me

today. I appreciate that you are educating yourself in landlord and tenancy topics. As you might know,

my Life Is a landlord is all about landlord and tenant issues and then other Salisbury adventures both in

the US and Canada. Today we're doing a deep dive into normal wear and tear. And that's episode number

48. And there are so many questions on all of the different landlord forums, tenancy forums in both

LinkedIn and in Facebook, and I'm find even property management forums that I'm in. I'm finding that

there's so many questions about normal wear and tear. So we're going to do a deep dive today. We're

going to talk about what it is, why it's hard to define. And I'm going to look at a couple of places in North

America for, you know, what is what is normal wear and tear, what isn't normal wear and tear. And then

we're going to talk about the gray line between what is normal wear and tear and what isn't, because that's

kind of where it seems the subjective part of normal wear and tear is, is in that gray line. And then for my

friends in the US, for my listeners in the US, you've got. A housing, housing and urban development has

developed a list. Of a sample life expectancy chart for certain items in your rental. And we're going to

talk about that because that's actually very helpful when we're talking about normal wear and tear life

expectancy of certain items in a rental. Who do you have in that rental. And and then budgeting, you

know, you need to budget because at some point you're probably going to have to renovate that rental

regardless of of who's in it. So anyway, well, let's let's jump into so what is normal wear and tear. Oh my

goodness. It's super hard to define. And so I just grabbed a couple of of spots. Uh, so I looked at Alberta,

Alberta, the province in Canada. So for all my Canadian friends, normal wear and tear. This is in Alberta.

So I just grabbed this just because I'm trying to go where where different places define different things.

So here it is. Alberta law states landlords, landlords cannot deduct money from a tenant's security deposit

for normal wear and tear caused by the tenant. And landlords cannot apply for dispute help to claim

damages to fix normal wear and tear. Normal wear and tear. Here we go. It's defined as the deterioration

that occurs over time with the use of a premises, even though the premises receives reasonable care and

maintenance. Normal wear and tear is assessed based on the duration of tenancy. The time of tenancy

matters and could include scuffs on the floors and walls, and nail holes from hanging pictures. I'm going

to continue on. I've also looked up Florida. Florida is almost identical, so let me go into where? Florida.

Okay. What's considered normal wear and tear in Florida? Normal. So this is Florida. So I just googled

Florida. Normal wear and tear. Normal wear and tear is damage that is expected when a rental unit is

used in a normal way, such as gently worn carpets and faded walls. Damage what? What I call willful

damage. Willful damage means you did it on purpose or you were not paying attention. And maybe a

guest or a child did it on purpose, or a pet, or an animal did it on purpose. Damage is the destructive

destruction caused by abusive or negligent use of a rental, like ripped carpets, holes in the drywall,

heavily stained walls. Okay, so Florida continues normal wear and tear defined as the deterioration that

occurs naturally as a result of a tenant using the property as it was designed to be used. Okay, so then it

gives you some some examples and some of the examples that we're going to go through, because I've

got a lot of examples of what normal wear and tear is according to certain folks. What it's not what

willful damage is. And then the next point we're going to talk about the gray area in between. So because

some of this you can you can argue either way. So remember this is subjective. Why it's so hard to define

what normal wear and tear is. Okay so again I'm on Florida. Examples of normal wear and tear include.

Gently worn carpets. Lightly scratched glass. I don't know. Faded paint and flooring. Lightly dirtied

grout. Loose door handles. Stained bath fixtures. Okay, now there's they continue. So damage quote

unquote damage means the destruction to the rental unit that occurs because of abuse or like negligence

by a tenant during the course of tenancy. Again, this is straight from Florida. Examples of damage

includes heavily stained, burned or torn carpets, broken tiles or broken windows, holes in the wall and

missing fixtures. Now, fixtures is a term that can be used in several places as a missing plumbing

fixtures, like as a bathroom faucet. Missing or is it missing? Light fixtures like a light is missing or a

ceiling fan is missing? Either way, if something if a fixture is missing, I think we can agree that that is

not normal wear and tear that would be considered damage. 1s Okay. I'm going to keep going here

because I've got more examples of what is normal wear and tear. So we went through Alberta, Florida.

Now let's go through what HUD's definition HUD is the US Department of Housing and Urban

Development. And so this is all about housing on the federal level. Now I know Canada has something

similar. I'm slanting this towards my US listeners today. But Canada is very similar in all of this. So I'm

painting this with a broad brush. For those of you who want to follow along, I've got. This is appendix

5C5 Charlie in HUD's appendix 5-5. So if you're following that and you want to Google what it is, great.

Please do because you're going to look off the exact same PDF that I'm looking at for appendix five,

Charlie, for HUD damages. Okay. So this is the following list of items typically attributable to routine

use or quote unquote normal wear and tear in a rental unit. Here we go. Fading, peeling or cracked paint.

Slightly torn or faded wallpaper. Small chips in the plaster if you if you have a plastered unit, nail holes,

pinholes or cracks in the walls. Door sticking from humidity. You know how it sticks on the floor

because it's humid. Okay, cracked window pane from faulty foundation or the building settling? Again,

none of this is wilful damage is to still normal. Wear and tear. The floors need a coat of varnish, carpet

fading or worn thin from walking, which brings in the time element. Because the time of the tenancy, the

length of the tenancy matters. Loose grout and bathroom tiles. Worn or scratched enamel in old bathtubs,

sinks or toilets. Rusty shower rod, partly clogged sinks caused by aging pipes, dirty or faded lamp or

window shades, and you can also include lighting fixtures in there. Okay, I'm going to continue on

because they have another list on tenant damages. What I'm calling wilful damage. Tenant damage

usually requires more extensive repair at a greater cost than normal wear and tear, and are often a result

of tenants abuse or negligence that is above and beyond normal wear and tear. These items, according to

HUD, can be deducted. The repair of these can be deducted from a tenant's security deposit. Okay, so all

my tenants out there listen up. Because this is considered wilful damage, this can be used, uh, deducted

from your security deposit. Okay. Gaping holes in walls or plaster. Don't take a sledgehammer to the

drywall. That's definitely wilful damage drawings, crayon markings or wallpaper that the owner did not

approve. Seriously damaged or ruined wallpaper that was already there. Chipped or gouged wood floors.

Doors ripped off the hinges. Broken. Broken windows. Missing fixtures again. Missing plumbing fixtures

or missing lighting fixtures. Holes in the ceilings from removed lighting fixtures, holes, stains or burned

in carpet. Missing or cracked bathroom tiles. Chipped or broken enamel in bathtubs and sinks. Clogged

or damaged toilet from improper use, like putting toys down the toilet like children putting toys or apples

down the toilet that's happened missing or bent shower rods torn, stained or missing lamp from the

window, shades from lighting fixtures. Okay, so that's HUD's definition. So I can continue on. I have

many other examples. In fact, I'm going to read out I found quite a list of what is normal wear and tear.

And so I'm going to talk my way through some of this. And then we're going to talk about the gray line.

Because there is a gray line here. And the gray line emerges when you talk about the length of the

tenancy, okay. The length of the tenancy, if the tenant has been in there for ten years, it's going to be

different. If the tenant has been in there for six months, you're going to see this as we go through. So this

is why it's so subjective and why this is so difficult. Okay. Here we go. Normal wear and tear caused by

ordinary comings and goings, well worn keys, sticky keys or a door lock that seems to be

malfunctioning. Okay, that's normal wear and tear. There's no wilful damage in that. However. Missing

keys key broken off inside the lock or the door lock replaced by the tenant without the management

permission. That is wilful damage, okay. In fact, you will start to see as we go through this list. There are

aspects in here for items that need to go in your lease. Addendum like a key replacement charge. There

should be a key replacement charge. If somebody either loses the key or it breaks off inside the lock or

it's missing. Yeah, something like that. If you have to replace keys, or even more important, if you have

to have it re keyed because of a tenant problem, there should be a charge for that. Okay. Let's keep going.

Fire extinguishers. As a landlord, you've got to keep your place safe. And so if you have a fire

extinguisher that a tenant has within the unit that is, um, gone off, the fire extinguisher has depressurized,

but it has an unbroken seal like it just leaked out on its own. Guess what? That's normal wear and tear.

The tenant didn't do anything. However, if the tenant opened it up, took the seal off, and discharged the

fire extinguisher, and it wasn't used to put out a fire. Nor. That's wilful damage. Okay. Worn pattern in

plastic countertop. 1s That's a worn pattern in a plastic countertop is considered normal wear and tear.

However, a burn in a plastic countertop is considered wilful damage a burn. Okay, let's talk about this for

a second, because the gray area is emerging here and I see this quite often in the forums online. What

about Formica countertops, which are plastic, which has lots and lots of knife marks in it? That we're

not there. Let's say the countertop was new when the tenant moved in. Okay, so they clearly were not

using a cutting board. It's not just a one off accidental. You know knife scrape it is they were using the

counter as a cutting board. If this is something that has emerged and it is, it's a lot. It's clear that there was

no count, no cutting board used. And there are many, many, many knife marks. And it's wrecked this

brand new plastic Formica countertop. Then there is an argument there, especially there's an argument

there that that is wilful damage. They should have been using a cutting board if the tenant has been in

there for ten years and that has happened over ten years, that is going to be different. Then if the

tenant's been in there for six months. Okay. So as a tenant, first of all make sure you're aware of this.

Make sure you are aware that you need to be protecting the countertop, especially if you receive that

new. And I'm going to split this on my landlord side. Landlords, if you're doing annual maintenance, if

you're doing quarterly walkthroughs or any kind of walkthrough in your units, which you should be or

your property manager should be. This is exactly the kind of stuff you should be looking for. Now,

typically you're looking at water damage because water damage is one of the most expensive and

damaging thing that can happen very quickly is water damage. However, you're also looking for normal

wear and tear items. If you start to see on their brand new countertop that they're using the counter as

their cutting board, you should say something, right? And maybe not even say something. Have a written

letter. We've done that before, as well as have a written letter after a walkthrough. All right, let's keep

going. Normal wear and tear rust stain under the sink faucet. Loose or inoperable faucet handle. But on

the other side. Damage. Damage caused by carelessness, abuse, thievery, mysterious disappearance,

accident rules violation, negligence, or special request. Let's say you've got a discolored sink because of

either clothing dye or hair dye. That's happened where you've got a person, male or female. Doesn't

matter. They dye their hair purple in the bathroom sink. And guess what? The purple stays in the

bathroom sink. That is wilful damage. Also, if there's a missing faucet handle, if there's wilful damage,

uh, again, it can be. It's this is a fine line because if you've got a faucet that one of the handles comes off

and they've been in there for five years, I would argue that's normal wear and tear. If they've been in there

for five months, that might be willful damage. It's again, this is subjective. This is why it's so hard to deal

with normal wear and tear. Okay, let's keep going. Rusty refrigerator shelf is considered normal wear and

tear, but I'm missing. Refrigerator shelf is considered wilful damage. Again, depends on how long they've

been in. There's a whole bunch of different ones. And and we can go through. This is wobbly toilet, rusty

shower curtain rod tracks on the doorjamb, where the door rubs doors off its hinges and stored in the

garage, but it's still operable if it was to be put back. Plant hanger left in the ceiling. These are all items

on the normal wear and tear list. Stain caused on ceiling by a leaky roof. Landlords. If you have a leaky

roof, there shouldn't be any left over anything. Cracked paint. Chipped paint which is minor. Pleasing

professional tenant wallpapering if the tenant has permission. Mildew around the shower or tub. Urine

odor around the toilet. Oh, come on now. We've had to deal with that in annual maintenance. I would

argue if that's normal wear and tear or not. Discoloration around the light fixture globe. Um. Let's see.

Light fixture which is installed by tenant. Okay. Make sure you're talking with your landlord. If you're

doing that. Tenants window cracked by settling or high winds, faded shade paint blistered Venetian

blinds sun damaged drapes or blinds. Drapery rod which won't close properly. Dirty window screen

grease stains on a parking space. All of these items, you can just tell has have occurred because there is

there just living there, right? It's just from the normal wear and tear that they're living there. All right.

Let's let's go through. I'm just going to rapidfire go through some of these other ones and then we'll talk

more about some of the gray areas. But again you can tell. That some of these items are going to be

different because of the length of tenancy. Okay. And then I'll go into. The guideline for the lifetime of

certain items. Okay. We talked about missing keys, broken off keys, depressurized fire extinguisher, burn

in the plastic countertop sink discolored by clothing or hair dye, painted ceramic tile. This is all wilful

damage according to. I think this is also HUD, but this is all I did. Just general google search as well. A

gouge in the wooden floor. Oh, I see this all the time on Facebook where you have tenant move out and

they've had a brand new floor, and when they move out their furniture, their corners or their the holders

of the, uh, the corners of the the furniture, the table legs or the couch legs have gouged the floor. That's

willful damage. Sorry, but if they've been in for ten years, that's not willful damage. You need to expect

to change the floor or repair it. A hole in the hollow core door. If you have doors that have been punched,

that is willful damage. Period. I don't care how long you've been in a tenancy, the tenant needs to replace

that two inch diameter hole in the ceiling. I don't know if that's a two inch diameter hole in the ceiling.

Any diameter hole in the ceiling depends on what it is. Stain on ceiling caused by popping champagne or

beer bottles. Oh, here's one I see all the time. Crayon marks on walls for tenants. If you have children and

you have them coloring all over the walls of the drywall or the wood paneling, or even worse, in the

bathtub, in the bathtub surround, that is wilful damage. You either have to get that off, or you're going to

be paying to have it cleaned or replaced, burned out or missing lightbulbs. Now on this list. 1s That is

part of wilful damage. However, it depends on where you are in British Columbia. Landlords are

supposed to provide light bulbs. Gotta be careful. So I challenge you. It's not always burned out. Light

bulbs. Missing light bulbs. You got to be careful. You got to know your local area requirements.

Okay, let me keep going. Walls painted by tenant in dark color, necessitating repainting. If you've got a

day sleeper. And they've painted the walls black and they haven't painted them back, they've got to paint

them black or you have to. That is wilful damage. Window cracked by movers. Yeah, that's wilful

damage. That's. That was not received that way. Uh, pet damaged drapes. Any damage by an animal?

Not even just a pet. If you've got an emotional support animal or a service animal that is causing damage

in your unit, whether it's the flooring, the drapes, the blinds, the trim doors, I've seen trim eaten by dogs

before, that is all willful damage that has to be fixed. Flees, left behind a tenant's pet. I know that's a huge

deal. In Hawaii, they require professional tenant treatment of any, uh, carpets, any flooring. They require

a flea treatment. Okay. And then another one that can be a this can be a gray area to caked grease on the

parking spot. Again, very subjective, very subjective. This is, um, this is a tough one. This is why we're

doing a deep dive on this. So but again, it all comes in to how long the tenant was in there. But let's go

back to, um, appendix five of the US Housing and Urban Development. And I'm looking at appendix five

D sample life expectancy chart. Now it says has big asterisks. Next to this it says if these items were in

good condition at the time of move in. And it can be shown that damage above normal wear and tear has

been sustained, then a damage claim can be submitted. This is for section eight, but this is a guess.

Again, this is a guideline for life expectancy of items in a rental. Very interesting. I was not expecting to

find this when I started doing research on normal wear and tear, but let's talk about this because it's not

just things that you think, and it's not just appliances there are on here, okay? A list of items and their

life expectancy are listed below. Okay, hot water heaters. Ten years. And that's for all units, any kind of

unit. So for my landlords out there, if you have a unit that you renovated and you're three years in, expect

that your hot water heater will very likely need to be replaced in seven years. Right. So this is going to

help you budget okay. We're going to keep going. Plush carpeting now here this is interesting. HUD has

broken it apart on the lifespan based on the biological age and the being count of who's in the unit. So for

example, if you have plush carpeting and you have a family in the unit, the life expectancy of that plush

carpeting is five years. If you have an elderly person, elderly couple just as elderly in the unit, they're

saying the plush carpeting life expectancy is seven years. 1s Very interesting how this is looking at

because fair housing is all about not discriminating. Right. This is very interesting how this is sort of on

that gray line of how much you can, um, expect to replace based on who's in there. All right. Let's keep

going. Air conditioning units, ten years, all units, ten years. Uh, that also depends. This is again, this is a

HUD idea, HUD guideline on what you can expect. How about a range a stove range 20 years. All units.

Doesn't matter who's in there. Same thing with refrigerators. Ten years for refrigerators. All units, I'm

going to stop here for a second. If you are a tenant that is starting to have problems with your fridge,

please let your property manager or your landlord know. A fridge going out is one of the stressful times

in a landlord's life. Why? Because if your fridge is going and it is gone for more than two days, going on

three days, your landlord then has to replace all your food. Okay. It is a basic quality of life thing. So and

I'm, I'm assuming tenants that this is a landlord provided fridge. If you provide your own fridge, sorry

you're on your own. But if the landlord is providing the fridge. And you are starting to have issues with

keeping it cool or you're having, you know, the compressors freezing stuff in the back, like you need to

speak up because I always keep in my rental fleet, I always have a spare fridge somewhere around,

somewhere around, because as soon as we hear that we need parts for a fridge, or we've got a fridge that's

starting to go where we are is quite remote, both in British Columbia and in Hawaii. We can't always just

show up with a fridge, so we keep one around somewhere in case something starts to go sideways. So

this for you? For my tenants. Be patient. Be patient, but also communicate with your landlords. If your

refrigerator starting to go landlords depending on your rental fleet, you have got to make sure you've got

some kind of game plan for a spare fridge. Or maybe you've got an empty unit that you can take the

fridge out of that one temporarily. You've got to have a game plan in the event a fridge starts to go, okay,

that's not normal. Wear and tear. That is a landlord thing unless it's tenant supplied. Okay, let's keep

going because we've got four more things that HUD says in here. And all four of these are broken up

depending on either if there's a family in the unit or elderly person in the unit. This is interesting. Okay. If

the interior painting of a unit according to HUD, if it is an enamel paint, if there's a family in the unit, it's

expected to last five years. If you've got someone elderly in the unit, it's expected to last seven years now.

That's if you've got an enamel paint on the interior. If you've got a flat paint on the interior for a family,

you're expected three years. For an elderly person, that's only five. For five years. For three years? For a

family. That's interesting. A family is going to be harder, right? You've got more people. You've got

implied that there might be children. There's going to be more movement. There's going to be more

hitting and scuffs on the walls. Let's talk about tiles or linoleum. Or in Canada, call it Lionel. 1s If you've

got a family in the unit and you've got tiles, the life expectancy of the tile is five years. If you've got

someone elderly in there, the life expectancy is seven years. Again, the length of tenancy and how what

who you've got in there. But if you've got a renovation that included tiles, you can expect that you're

going to start replacing some of these tiles and it can't. That's not wilful damage. Remember, this is the

whole idea is that there's a bit of a line here of when you're expecting that you know what's normal wear

and tear, what is the tenant's responsibility and what is wilful damage that that they've caused, or what

can you take out of their security deposit? Right. Uh, the last one is window shades, screens and blinds.

And they're saying, no matter who it is, family or elderly tenants. Three years. Just three years. For those

of you who have the mini blinds, you can, you know, they get quite brittle, they get sun faded pretty

quickly. And so you need to be able to replace that in BC and maybe in Canada if you've got the pull

strings, those are no longer allowed. Those are illegal. So you can't even buy them. So you've got to be

able to pull the blinds up and down to operate them. And so we're phasing those out in all of our units.

There's no I don't think there's any more pull strings. And if they are they're on their way out. We are

slowly changing those out. Okay. So this is our deep dive into normal wear and tear. Holy cow. There is

so much on this. What is normal wear and tear. It's super hard to define, but it's, you know, there's there's

a way that you can it's almost a formula. But again, there's a curveball in there. On how long the tenant

was in there. Right. Subjective. So one of the questions that we've got is is a tenant a tenant that departs

and says, hey, wait a minute, my landlord is charging me for this, that and the other. There is an

argument of whether that was willful damage and these resources that I read to you today. Um, it helps

define what is the tenant responsibility, what can be deducted out of the security deposit and what can't,

especially if it results in a dispute. Then you've really kind of kind of know what is what is the the role

there. You know, if a tenant's been in there eight, eight years and there is some floor gouges. And it was a

brand new unit before again, very subjective, very subjective. Okay. We'll keep going. All right. So

we've gone through quite a bit about wilful damage, normal wear and tear. We talked about Alberto. We

talked about Florida. Talked a lot about about HUD's definition. But here's your call to action. All my

tenants and landlords out there go to where your rental is, the location of your rental province, state,

territory, read your Rental Housing Act or tenant landlord code, whatever it is, and read about the normal

wear and tear in that rentals area. You have to know as a tenant and as a landlord, what are the rules now

if you're in the US? I read the federal life expectancy chart from HUD. Right. So you have some

guidelines there. But if you've got something that's just normal wear and tear, you're just opening,

opening the lock, opening the door, opening the closet, opening, you know, your refrigerator and it's just

basic wear and tear, then you can't, you know, you can't charge for that landlords. You can't you can't

deduct that from. But again it's subjective. And because a security deposit is not rent you now have to go

very likely to small claims court. And so it's it's not rent. It's very interesting how this all works. But

that's your call to action. Go and educate yourself on how you can, um, understand the difference

between wilful damage and normal wear and tear in your area. Let me know your comments and

questions. You can email me anytime. Learn at my life as a landlord. Com comments questions. Create

the next podcast and future resources. And speaking of resources, don't forget the resources on our

website that are free to go to my life as a landlord. Com and you get two free Blackout Bingo cards.

These are guides that are designed to help you educate yourself as you start to figure out the nuances in

your local area. So please make sure you do that. Next week's topic is another Salisbury Adventure topic.

This is episode 49 and it is all about the Jones act. Keeping up with the Jones Act with Colin Grabow,

who is a research fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC. We talk about domestic shipping and

how Canada and the US are intertwined in the Jones Act and how that is going to affect housing moving

forward. That's next week keeping up with the Jones Act. I will see you there.

Thank you for joining us this week. To view the complete show notes

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