Help! Pet damges of $4500 above deposit.

[Kelly McMillan]

I allowed a tenant to have pets (3 small dogs), with a pet deposit of $300. He was the first tenant in a newly renovated unit with refinished wood floors. After several visits in which I found feces on the floor, a growing odor of urine, and finally, an unauthorized cat living in the property, I told the tenant his lease would not be renewed and he needed to relocate (there was only two months left on his lease, so it did not seem worth evicting).

Now that he is out, the smell is horrendous (you can smell it from outside the front door). I've been told the floors need to be replaced and the house treated with ozone.

My question is, how much is the tenant responsible beyond his regular and pet deposit? I plan to file in small claims court, for what good it will do. But the total repairs will be about $6500. Technically, the lease does not say pets can't urinate and defecate in the house. Would I face any problems in court, without that in the lease? or do I only get a maximum of his pet deposit in return for damages?

Thanks for your help,

First time landlord

[Jim K.]

@Caleb Heimsoth

OK.

@Kelly McMillan

So your contractor is telling you that the way to handle this is to tear out all the wood flooring in the apartment and then treat with ozone, and then put in a new wood floor.

This is insane, the home improvement equivalent of going into a Quickie Lube for a $30 oil change and coming out with a bill for $300. You should get multiple opinions about this problem AFTER you clean up and treat with ozone. You can buy a large-room ozone generator off Amazon for $100. Follow the directions.

Get that done, then see what the floor looks and smells like, Wood flooring typically darkens when it is soaked in pet urine repeatedly, you can see the trouble spots to sands them out and refinish only those sections. You won't need a contractor to handle this. If the floor was refinished already, as you indicate, we're talking polyurethane, oil-based or water-based. A handyman can handle sanding the problem spots with a belt sander and refinishing them. The only exception to this would be if you put in a high-gloss water-based poly finish on those floors because you liked how it looked the most. In that case, have your guy rent a drum sander and edger and resand everything and refinish in semigloss oil-based poly (it's tougher and what we use for pet-friendly rentals).

To give you an idea of the real costs involved, a gallon of poly costs about $35. Belts for a 4x24 belt sander can be had 10 for $30. The most expensive belt sander for a spot-sanding job will cost $300 new. If you have to refinish the whole floor, that's going to cost more, but not the ridiculous price you were quoted.

The issue is NOT so serious.