Pet Smell Issue?

[Michael Limjoco]

Hello fellow investors and biggerpockets forum members, we are hoping for some guidance from other investors who have experienced a similar issue in the past. 

We have a rental unit where the previous tenant had pets. While we have had units rented with tenants who have had pets in the past, we appear to be in a unique situation where the previous tenant really let their pets run wild. The property owner is saying that the carpet and walls had animal urine on them, and there is a persistent smell that just won't go away (tenants claimed they had dogs, but property manager believes they may have had a cat that they did not disclose).

This is what the Property Manager has done to mitigate the smells thus far:

1) Brought in ServPro to mitigate the smells

2) Use "OdoBan" on all the walls

3) Brought in their own Ozone cleaner

The Property Manager is recommending the "nuclear approach" and replacing all of the carpet, flooring and painting the walls, and we feel this is quite excessive, not to mention extremely expensive!

Has anyone dealt with this in the past, and what have you done?

We filed a claim with our insurance company, but I my research has led to mixed results with this (sometimes it's covered, most of the time not).

We did document that the tenants had pets on the lease, so wondering if we can sue the previous tenant or pass along the bill for damages incurred.

Any knowledge the team can share on this would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,

Mike

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Michael Limjoco:

Document everything and definitely go after the Tenants.

Dog odor can usually be cleaned out. This sounds like cat odor, which often requires the nuclear approach.

Remove all flooring. Paint everything with an oil-based primer to seal in the odor. Paint. Install new flooring.

The last one we did cost us over $10,000. Tenant refuses to pay so we sent them to collections. We may never collect a dime, but at least it trashes their credit and prevents them from qualifying for a loan or makes it harder for them to find another rental.