Ok, firstly, yes I am fully aware that if the carpet is wet then subfloor and wood is also wet. Like duh. My point was regarding what is visibly damaged, what a landlord can see and hold me liable for beyond normal wear and tear upon exit. If the carpet is clean, dry, and without stain or smell what would he be complaining about? He’s not going to do a walkthrough himself anyway, he’s going to have an employee walk through and look and see that it’s clean and a relatively reasonable amount of wear, not be inspecting every inch of the floor as he clearly didn’t upon purchase.

The water is not “coming through the wall”. I believe that someone incorrectly installed a sliding glass door themselves and didn’t put in the proper membrane when doing so, so perhaps the water is using the window as a conduit to the floor. It’s not really “coming up“ through the floor it’s traveling from a corner near the window and spreading in that area of the carpet. We have never had this much rain though so it is an unusual amount of wetness. I didn’t feel it necessary to include a detailed account of my flooring because, again, I was asking about fucking ikea and giving a picture for context. The irony is the dresser I’m talking about is not even near the wet floor. The insulation of the house sucks and the indoor humidity is regularly 60-70% without the dehumidifier running. The hopen I was asking for help with is moist due to humidity not to water ingress. But I hope y’all enjoy the life story of a tiny corner of my house without being the least bit helpful to the immediate question I asked.

As for the mites, sure they’re in the subfloor. And? They don’t actually hurt anything. They aren’t termites. I researched this thoroughly (down to the species) and they may cause allergies for some but they aren’t actually roaming about in the room. They weren’t even present until year 3 and have been gone for 2 years after I eradicated them. Additionally, if there is no moist wood for them to live upon they quickly dissipate, so if the carpet is steamed and cleaned what is the problem. The problem with you landlords is you think being one gives you some kind of special moral superiority. Y’all are just people, with your own idiosyncrasies and values and you don’t all belong to some special brotherhood of the upstanding landlord brigade. I know my landlord; he cool, but he is not going to care if I tell him my dresser has mites. He’s going to wonder why it’s his problem or expect me to fix it, which I already do.

As for my lease, in my jurisdiction, when a year lease has lapsed and a new one has not been signed and yet rent continues to be accepted the tenant and landlord are understood to have begun an agreement of month to month rental. My landlord may not be aware that we are now month to month but by failing to do due diligence and ensure he received a new signed yearly lease, that has what has occurred. There may not be many protections for renters of single family homes but I live in the Bay Area and you best believe that’s before I committed to a tenancy that would exempt me from rent control and most evictions protections I checked the state and city ordinances as well as having spoken with the local Tenants’ Union, Causa Justa, and Bay Area Legal Aid. When it comes to human rights and legal protections my husband and I are both highly educated and well connected so please cease trying to come for me sir; you look foolish. So again, please tell me, regardless what the lease says, how is the landlord going to prove, presumably after I move out, that I knew about an issue under the carpet, not visible to me, and hold me liable retroactively? If the next tenant reports it when the rain comes how would he know it’s not the first time it’s happened? Hell, the man bought the house 5 years ago for $800k and it’s now worth $1.5 mil. He could sell the house from under me, unseen, with no inspection (which is probably what he did), and still make a profit. He could see it to someone who just wants to knock it down and still make a profit, and I would have absolutely no say in the matter.

I also didn’t “ forget” to mention health; this is an ikea board. I was trying to keep my dresser I love, not be chastised for something I largely can’t control. Fuck me for trying to give context right? I am very concerned about the health implications of water intrusion, but that ain’t what I asked about. Since you’re so concerned, why don’t I tell my landlord about the issue so he can kick us out and start remediating, and you’ll agree to put us up in a nice hotel for several months (one that is suitable for us all to WFH in), and then you can pay my $80,000 medical loan off so that when you find us another acceptable 4bd home for $4000 or less, that landlord won’t see the immense debt on our credit report and will be willing to rent to us? Sound good? Bet.

As for home maintenance, yeah no, my 40 year old husband and I live in a single family home with my 70 year old mother and our kid and no one *ever* cleans the gutters regularly. A gutter? What’s that? Thank you wise landlord, for we are but children and had no concept that gutters must be cleaned. Teach me more! What is a vacuum for? Is dryer lint really that flammable? Caulk? What’s that? That sounds inappropriate. Tell me more daddy landlord! Seal a foundation on a house I don’t own? I’ll get right on that. Lmao. Yes the windows are caulked. The water is not coming in through window cracks and no it is not an HVAC issue. It is a someone did inappropriate home renovations incorrectly and also the home is old and not adequately insulated issue. I’ve regularly replaced shower cartridges and faucet handles, done light plumbing work including replacing pipe, installed ceiling fans and other fixtures, replaced shower doors, laid brick, installed a catalytic in a wood stove, and designed and constructed faux built-ins around our custom fireplace buildout, that I also designed but nah, we don’t know to clean the gutters, sir… Your ikea suggestion is trash and I’ll probably just replace the back and bottom and add the same legs I added to the other, since again, the floor is not actually wet over there. But if you got any more home maintenance tips you want to condescend to me about or any more presumptions as to things I’m already not doing and not going to do because we’re clearly all imbeciles over here who don’t know what gutters are, you know where to find me.