Tenants let dogs go bathroom on deck- advice.

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I feel I should preface this by saying that the tenants were ones I inherited for only two months.  

The first time I went to a showing on the property I noticed that there were appox. 10-15 piles of dogs poop on the 2nd floor deck.  We are talking a standard deck off the back of an up-down duplex.  When we took over possession of the property we immediately sent a warning to the tenants that they need to remove the dogs poop.  The next couple times I went over to the unit there was no poop on the deck.

Fast forward a month and the tenants moved out.   My wife and I went over to meet them and they had just left keys and opted out of the walk through on the property.  They left the property in very good shape which I was obviously happy about.  When we went out on the deck, we were hit with a wall of waste smell.  Mainly the smell of pee/ammonia but also residual poop smell.  It was so bad that it was actually a little gross to stand on the deck. 

The move out was only a couple days ago and I still have their deposit.  I am not quite sure what/if any action I should take as far as their deposit goes.  I have to have the deck treated/cleaned in some fashion.  I just can't possibly move new tenants in to that unit with the deck smelling that way.

I was wondering if anyone else had come across this and what they did?  How they got rid of the smell?  Am I in the right to charge them to have this cleaned?

Thanks in advance!!

[JD Martin]

A good bleach scrub, pressure wash and stain or seal the deck will take care of the problem. Decks are pressure-treated, which doesn't make them indestructible but does allow them to be exposed to the elements for a long time without degradation. I would be surprised if you couldn't clean it, and any deck boards too bad off can simply be replaced. 

Have it done professionally and you can just deduct it from the deposit. That is not normal wear & tear or cleaning.