My rental condo has terrible cat urine smell from upstairs (insurance, mortgage)

[walkingupstream]

Hello,

I own a rental condo, and the tenant in the property upstairs has a cat (cats?), and there's been a terrible smell of cat urine in my downstairs condo for the last 3 months at least (first noticed it in June). The condo association knows all about it, the owner has given her a month's notice to vacate, but I'm afraid the smell's in the walls and floors up there.

My place has been vacant for the last two months, in large part because of the smell, but it's getting harder to cover my mortgage as time moves on.

What is my recourse if the smell doesn't leave with the tenant? What can I do? What steps can I take?

Thank you very much for any and all advice.

CH

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by walkingupstream

Hello,

I own a rental condo, and the tenant in the property upstairs has a cat (cats?), and there's been a terrible smell of cat urine in my downstairs condo for the last 3 months at least (first noticed it in June). The condo association knows all about it, the owner has given her a month's notice to vacate, but I'm afraid the smell's in the walls and floors up there.

My place has been vacant for the last two months, in large part because of the smell, but it's getting harder to cover my mortgage as time moves on.

What is my recourse if the smell doesn't leave with the tenant? What can I do? What steps can I take?

Thank you very much for any and all advice.

CH

Wow. So sorry to hear this. I would seriously consider suing the owner of that property for allowing this to go on. No, they couldn't have evicted the cat owner faster than the law allows, but they could've insisted she/he take measures to prevent the cats from urinating everywhere, or to prevent the downward flow of the urine.

Any lawyers want to chime in? Is this something the OP could sue for?

[United_Caps_Skins_Fan]

Not sure that I can help with what to do about your condo situation. What I can offer is that you may have something in that if the owner did not enforce a spay/ neuter covenant in any lease, they may be on the hook. I would think at the very least you could probably force the owner of the unit up stairs to have it thoroughly cleaned, if not have the floors / carpet taken up too. Though, they should want to do this themselves because any lingering odor is going to cause them headaches in terms of renting their place out as well.

In general, cats, esp males are going to mark / spray if they are not fixed. In fact its pretty much a given they will do this. If they are fixed, then this is almost never a problem. The other issue is that the tenant is probably not cleaning this up either. Generally, if it is cleaned the smell goes. There are numerous products on the market that effectively neutralise the odor by using enzymes to basically eat the cat urine / hormones that are in it. Also, a cat spraying is much more intense odor than if it is just urinating. Straight up cat pee as more of an ammonia component to it, where is the spray is much more pungent and smelly in a different way. Hard to describe. Anyway, the place above you can probably be cleaned using some of the products I mentioned and this will get rid of the 'cat pee' smell at least enough where it is not coming into your unit.

Sorry you are having to go through this. This is a completely preventable situation that is caused not by the cats, but by the cats owner in either being cheap, (not wanting to pay to get them fixed) lazy, and / or BOTH. People like this should not own animals, period.

[gingerbreadgirl]

Sometimes the products sold (Natures Miracle is what I used when I was housebreaking a puppy....but dogs are different) do not get rid of the odor because it can seep through the carpet and pad to the sub-floor. If the smell is that strong in your unit, that is probably what has happened. I would imagine that would have to be taken care of by a professional.

Makes me wonder how your upstairs neighbor is living with that odor. Yuk! I really feel bad for you being in this situation. Could you break your lease by saying it is affecting your health? I know that living with that smell would make me sick. Good luck!

[Teebyrd86]

The OP is not a renter.. they own the unit

Originally Posted by gingerbreadgirl

Sometimes the products sold (Natures Miracle is what I used when I was housebreaking a puppy....but dogs are different) do not get rid of the odor because it can seep through the carpet and pad to the sub-floor. If the smell is that strong in your unit, that is probably what has happened. I would imagine that would have to be taken care of by a professional.

Makes me wonder how your upstairs neighbor is living with that odor. Yuk! I really feel bad for you being in this situation. Could you break your lease by saying it is affecting your health? I know that living with that smell would make me sick. Good luck!

[gingerbreadgirl]

Originally Posted by Teebyrd86

The OP is not a renter.. they own the unit

Oh sorry, didn't read carefully enough.

[seiketsu]

If it's an inter-unit issue, in the walls, would your homeowner's insurance or master condo policy cover it?

Good luck to you. This is one of the reasons I refused to allow cats when I owned a rental (small dogs were okay). It continues to amaze me that so many landlords say no to dogs but yes to cats, when cat damage like this is FAR more expensive than sprucing up after a dog.

[Dazed&Confused]

I would suspect that the cats urinated in the vents if they're in the floor. Even though their ducts aren't connected to yours, you could smell it.

[walkingupstream]

Wow- thanks for all your advice- actually in the lease for the unit upstairs there's a 'no pet' clause, but the owner hasn't been very responsible about keeping up with their unit. Actually, the way I was finally able to get through to him that the tenant upstairs needs to go is when I pointed out that I had been getting $550 more per month on my unit than he was getting from his; and his (was) in better shape than mine.

My biggest worry/problem is how can I prove 'disgusting smell' in court or something; and how would I even file and where?

I like the idea about contacting my homeowner's to see if there's something they can do. I filed a report July 27 with the county zoning commission reporting unsanitary living conditions (almost two months ago) but have not heard back from them, and it looks like the case is still 'open'.

Like I said, the condo association is willing to say that the smell exists, but they're not doing anything about it.

How do I prove bad smell?

[Carlingtonian]

Happy to help; we're all rooting for you. Inconsiderate slobs are the bane of humanity.

You could start by getting neighbors of yours to come over and take a whiff and then write statements saying that yeah, it reeks of kitty pee in your unit. If you get several of those, I think that would be compelling in court. You could try getting your insurance agent to do the same. And if you can get one from the building maintenance guy, even better.

The idea that the owner allowed his tenant to violate his own lease, to your detriment (the smell) and his (lower rent collected) seems like it should point to some legal responsibillity, but I'm not sure you could sue him for that. At the same time, it could be used to show that he was cavalier about paying attention to the conditions there.

There has to be something they can use to rid the place of the smell--like the Nature's Miracle stuff GingerbreadGirl mentioned. No smell lasts forever. I think you should sue him to undertake smell mitigation, along with the loss of income you've endured due to the smell.

As to where: Small claims court is the easiest place--no lawyer needed, just show up and make your case with as much evidence as you can muster. But you can only claim up to a few thousand, depending on the jurisdiction. Still--it's faster, and no legal fees. But if you can prove that 1. this guy was negligent, and 2. it cost you in real money, then it might be worth hiring a lawyer and suing for more.