Back story
I bought a new co-op. My parents helped me out with a lot of stuff. The previous owner had pets and the carpet smelled of it. My father hired a carpet cleaner. He charged me 3x the quoted price of $99 (a scam, which I later found out he is known for). The carpet came up around all the edges. It looked like a bunch of throw rugs. I had to hire another guy to reinstall it (tack it down) at the cost of another $100. After it dried, all the stains (which the cleaner charged me extra to remove) reappeared. Worse, it has a chemical odor that I can't get rid of. I have had the windows open nearly all day, for nearly three months. The cleaner was abusive and uncooperative when I called to ask him to come back and take a look at it.
I had two other carpet cleaners here to evaluate his work. They say that he used too much cleaning solution and didn't suction it out when he was done. One had a meter, which he used to determine that the underpadding was still soaked (3 months aftet the cleaning). He says they this kind of thing takes forever to dry, although the rug itself is dry to the touch. He said that the chemical won't evaporate, it will just settle into particles. The odor may remain. I am being quoted prices anywhere from $200 to $1,000 to try to remove the residue and dry out the underpadding -- with no assurance that this will work. If it doesn't, it will cost me up to another $2,200 to pull it up, dry out the floor, and have a new carpet installed.
The other carpet cleaners couldn't identify the chemical used from its odor, which the lab that the State's Department of Environmental Protection uses for testing, says is cause for concern. They say, if I can't get the original cleaner to identify it, I may have to spent up to $600 to test for everything -- and they can't promise that they'll find it. They say that fact that other cleaners don't recognize the odor is very troubling.
Since the cleaner will likely refuse to identify the chemical, or lie about it, if he knows they are testing, a guy from the lab offered to do a site visit, on the condition that he has a business address, i.e. a public place (i.e. that he is not working out of a private home). If anyone can walk in and see drums of chemicals, he could make a note of it and know what to test for in the rug.
The invoice I received from the cleaner has his phone number and a partial address: "LaGrange NY 12510". No street address. When I tried to find it (searching by company name and zipcode) I came up with a bogus address. I took a ride out there and it's literally an empty field, probably belonging to the parish of an adjacent church.
One other note: I also had a Health Department inspector come to look at the place. She found it clean and in excellent condition, other than the chemical odor from the carpet. No sewer or plumbing problems. No bacteria, pests, mold, mildew, etc. Bottom line: the odor is not coming from anything that I did or any problem with the building (plumbing, drainage, flooring, etc.) No record of this ever being the case, nothing here to indicate a problem with any of it.
Legal Questions
I want to sue the carpet cleaner, but I would like to know:
(1) If a business is required to list its full legal address on its invoice? (If so, what is the citation in law?)
(2) Is it legal for the business address to be a PO box, or forwarding address, or some other dodge to conceal its location? Some more recent Internet searches are coming up with a PO Box, which may or may not be valid. (It has been suggested to me that he may be storing toxic chemicals at his location and that, or the desire to frustrate lawsuits may be the reason for failing to disclose the address on the invoices).
(3) If a business is incorporated (as the invoice says this rug cleaner is) is there some way that I can find its address from the incorporation papers or public records?
I can't afford to handle this any way but through small claims court, so I am doing all this myself. Thank you.
I bought a new co-op. My parents helped me out with a lot of stuff. The previous owner had pets and the carpet smelled of it. My father hired a carpet cleaner. He charged me 3x the quoted price of $99 (a scam, which I later found out he is known for). The carpet came up around all the edges. It looked like a bunch of throw rugs. I had to hire another guy to reinstall it (tack it down) at the cost of another $100. After it dried, all the stains (which the cleaner charged me extra to remove) reappeared. Worse, it has a chemical odor that I can't get rid of. I have had the windows open nearly all day, for nearly three months. The cleaner was abusive and uncooperative when I called to ask him to come back and take a look at it.
I had two other carpet cleaners here to evaluate his work. They say that he used too much cleaning solution and didn't suction it out when he was done. One had a meter, which he used to determine that the underpadding was still soaked (3 months aftet the cleaning). He says they this kind of thing takes forever to dry, although the rug itself is dry to the touch. He said that the chemical won't evaporate, it will just settle into particles. The odor may remain. I am being quoted prices anywhere from $200 to $1,000 to try to remove the residue and dry out the underpadding -- with no assurance that this will work. If it doesn't, it will cost me up to another $2,200 to pull it up, dry out the floor, and have a new carpet installed.
The other carpet cleaners couldn't identify the chemical used from its odor, which the lab that the State's Department of Environmental Protection uses for testing, says is cause for concern. They say, if I can't get the original cleaner to identify it, I may have to spent up to $600 to test for everything -- and they can't promise that they'll find it. They say that fact that other cleaners don't recognize the odor is very troubling.
Since the cleaner will likely refuse to identify the chemical, or lie about it, if he knows they are testing, a guy from the lab offered to do a site visit, on the condition that he has a business address, i.e. a public place (i.e. that he is not working out of a private home). If anyone can walk in and see drums of chemicals, he could make a note of it and know what to test for in the rug.
The invoice I received from the cleaner has his phone number and a partial address: "LaGrange NY 12510". No street address. When I tried to find it (searching by company name and zipcode) I came up with a bogus address. I took a ride out there and it's literally an empty field, probably belonging to the parish of an adjacent church.
One other note: I also had a Health Department inspector come to look at the place. She found it clean and in excellent condition, other than the chemical odor from the carpet. No sewer or plumbing problems. No bacteria, pests, mold, mildew, etc. Bottom line: the odor is not coming from anything that I did or any problem with the building (plumbing, drainage, flooring, etc.) No record of this ever being the case, nothing here to indicate a problem with any of it.
Legal Questions
I want to sue the carpet cleaner, but I would like to know:
(1) If a business is required to list its full legal address on its invoice? (If so, what is the citation in law?)
(2) Is it legal for the business address to be a PO box, or forwarding address, or some other dodge to conceal its location? Some more recent Internet searches are coming up with a PO Box, which may or may not be valid. (It has been suggested to me that he may be storing toxic chemicals at his location and that, or the desire to frustrate lawsuits may be the reason for failing to disclose the address on the invoices).
(3) If a business is incorporated (as the invoice says this rug cleaner is) is there some way that I can find its address from the incorporation papers or public records?
I can't afford to handle this any way but through small claims court, so I am doing all this myself. Thank you.
Last edited:
