Not only that but a powerful smell of cat urine from the 7 cats i counted as they ran passed me when i entered the front door!

Just looking at this companies website, you can just see and smell the BS.

Personally, on the surface, the whole thing sounds complicated and convoluted, and that usually smells of a scam. 

The business is then faced with the choice of 2, 3 maybe more years of a drawn-out, expensive legal battle, or they can give the a**wipe a few thousands to go away quietly.Neither choice is a "good" one, but sometimes settling out of court is just simply more expedient.Will said a**wipe go find somebody else's business to "trip" in front of?

Cleaned up painted new flooring and got the smell and smoke out.

They will react quicker than you think just to avoid liability and a fear of long drawn expensive legal battle.

I think it would be harder to spot a cat but the smell is a giveaway and you should still smell it on a scheduled inspection.  

I am a DIY landlord and one of my tenants reached out and said " the overflow hole in the bathroom sink has a sulfur smell" and "the water has been leaving a yellow buildup around the drains" the tenant has used bleach to attempt to resolve this however it continues to come back.

Most people go into the bathroom shower expecting to come out cleaner than they were when they went in ... not so in this house :DOne thing that video can't capture is smell - how bad did that place smell?

It really sucks that you lost the $5,000, but it sounds like you will have an uphill battle trying to deal with the government.