Iron hole in landlord's carpet...any tips? Am a bit desperate!!

[IBlameThePenguins]

Hi,

I am new to this thread and am not sure if this is the right place for such a message. I'll try the Good Housekeeping section as well.

Basically, I'm 28 weeks pregnant and in a baby brained stupour managed to drop the iron onto my landlord's carpet, leaving a nice iron sized melted patch .

I'm about to move out, and have used the £400 deposit as my last month's rent, and have used what would have been July's rent to pay for the new place. There is some unused carpet, and DP has suggested cutting the iron hole out and replacing it with a bit of the unused carpet.

Does anyone have any tips aadvice on what we can do to hide the patch???

TIA xxxx

If it's burnt, you're not going to be able to rectify it. Cutting a hole out would be a disaster, hope your husband was joking. It depends where in the room it is - if you have been there a good long time and been good tenants, and it is in a place where people might usually put a chair or another piece of furniture, I would be inclined to overlook it as a landlord. If it is in the middle of the room and you offered to buy a nice rug to cover it, I might be fine. If the carpet is relatively new and the mark is somewhere inconvenient though, I think you may have to cough up.

Have you got house contents insurance? If so then the carpet may be covered under the policy so you would only need to pay the excess.

I would just wait and see what the landlord says about it. They might put it down to wear and tear (hopefully) or assess it and send you a bill. They might even just repair it using the leftover carpet and bill you for the labour. Just wait & see first.

Don't let it bug you or worry you. It's just an iron mark in the carpet. It's common. Enjoy your pg

How long have you lived there, and where has your deposit been held?

Have you tried giving the melted area a haircut? It might not be melted down to the canvas, so you may be able to cut it off, and gradually blend it into the surrounding carpet. My sister did something similar and this technique worked well.

My tenants recently burned a hole in my carpet when they dropped a hot coal on it. They replaced the carpet, which was very sweet of them, but that is why I have insurance. I would have expected to pay for it, as we put the carpets down just after we moved in (1993), so I would have had to replace them soon anyway. You could offer to pay a contribution perhaps, but there is normally a contents element in a landlords buildings insurance to cover such eventualities.

Goog advice re insurance, but I was once in similar position and did exactly what your dh said - got stanley knife, cut out ruined section and glued new section in. It actually worked brilliantly - you couldn't see a join. It was quite good quality carpet with reasonably thick pile though - may be different if carpet is really flat/thin. Good luck.

I would try the haircut thing first and then if that doesn't work try and replace the section.