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Dogs I get. They can do a lot of damage to their environment. But what is with a deposit for cats? I can't think of what kind of damage they can do to a unit (assuming they are fixed).
This tends to only be true for intact male cats. The smell is linked to a sexual hormone that stops getting produced once fixed.
While intact male cat pee is right up there with billy goat pee, neutered cat pee is still pretty potent.
I've been living with cats for nearly 40 years, as a home owner and as a renter. I love them, but I'm not blind to their issues.
BTW, I once had a neutered female cat who sprayed. She couldn't do it as well as an intact male could, but she did do it. Also, some neutered males still spray.
We had a tenant just recently in one of our rentals who lied to us about their pet situation. They claimed to have 1 dog. They actually had 2 dogs and 2 cats. During the time they lived in the rental, they accumulated pets until they had, we think, 4 dogs and 5 or 6 cats. When they moved out, it cost us almost $9000 to get the house back to livable. A small amount of that was dog, but most of it was cat. Everyone we had working in the house had to wear masks for the first few days while we tore out everything, including insulation inside the walls, that was urine soaked.
Puppies that aren't housetrained are the worst for damage, but to say that cats don't do enough damage to warrant a deposit is just ignoring facts.
We had a tenant just recently in one of our rentals who lied to us about their pet situation. They claimed to have 1 dog. They actually had 2 dogs and 2 cats. During the time they lived in the rental, they accumulated pets until they had, we think, 4 dogs and 5 or 6 cats. When they moved out, it cost us almost $9000 to get the house back to livable. A small amount of that was dog, but most of it was cat. Everyone we had working in the house had to wear masks for the first few days while we tore out everything, including insulation inside the walls, that was urine soaked.
Puppies that aren't housetrained are the worst for damage, but to say that cats don't do enough damage to warrant a deposit is just ignoring facts.
On behalf of responsible renters everywhere, I'm sorry this happened to you. It was wrong.
Expect this to be 50 pages of which is worse, cats or dogs. The answer is neither is worse generally speaking. Some dogs are worse, some cats are worse. Usually it's the owners that are the problem though.
Pretty much what several posters have written. Thankfully, my kitten (male, 3-4 months old, recently neutered) has never sprayed and I pray that he never does. And, truth be told, none of my family's cats (and we've only had males) ever sprayed in the house. That said, it can and does happen and property owners would be wise to take precautions to cover themselves against such damage.
This tends to only be true for intact male cats. The smell is linked to a sexual hormone that stops getting produced once fixed.
No. I've NEVER known a cat owner that didn't have a stinky mess. Most were spayed females, one neutered male. And they all stunk the place up. They were far from 100% in hitting the litter box. Even when the owners are neat, clean women, they stink the place up. They think they are clean cat owners, but they aren't.
My last apartment had a cat owner in their previously. I lived there for over two years, and the closet still stank like cats when I left.
Honestly, I can't understand the attraction to having a cat in the house. But that's another discussion.
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