Landlord expects us to have carpets professionally cleaned before moving out -- do I really need to? legaladvice

As the title says, a line in our lease states that on move out we need to have the carpets in our apartment professionally cleaned. They also penciled in a line saying, "carpet cleaning" on our pre-moveout inspection. We live in Southern California. When I look at the CA dept of Consumer Affairs website, it states

A landlord cannot routinely charge each tenant for cleaning carpets, drapes, walls, or windows in order to prepare the rental unit for the next tenancy. Instead, the landlord must look at how well the departing tenant cleaned the rental unit, and may charge cleaning costs only if the departing tenant left the rental unit (or a portion of it) less clean than when he or she moved in. Reasonable cleaning costs would include the cost of such things as eliminating flea infestations left by the tenant's animals, cleaning the oven, removing decals from walls, removing mildew in bathrooms, defrosting the refrigerator, or washing the kitchen floor. But the landlord could not charge for cleaning any of these conditions if they existed at the time that the departing tenant moved in. In addition, the landlord could not charge for the cumulative effects of wear and tear. Suppose, for example, that the tenant had washed the kitchen floor but that it remained dingy because of wax built up over the years. The landlord could not charge the tenant for stripping the built-up wax from the kitchen floor.

It also states

Normal wear and tear to carpets, drapes and other furnishings cannot be charged against a tenant's security deposit.243 Normal wear and tear includes simple wearing down of carpet and drapes because of normal use or aging, and includes moderate dirt or spotting. In contrast, large rips or indelible stains justify a deduction from the tenant's security deposit for repairing the carpet or drapes, or replacing them if that is reasonably necessary.

To me this seems pretty clear that they cannot have us pay for routine carpet cleaning as a condition of vacating the apt, right? Even if it says so in the lease? We have certainly not put any abnormal wear and tear on the carpets, they look exactly the same as when we moved in a year ago.

Just looking for some advice, as I don't want them trying to deduct anything from my security deposit and I definitely can't afford a hefty carpet cleaning bill.

Submitted June 27, 2016 at 10:54PM by EnragedPirate http://ift.tt/29hbnOw legaladvice