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Pet proofing rentals to keep the landlord from being able to claim "pet damages" later.
One of our volunteers recently told us a story that is all too common among renters with pets.
She rented a townhouse for five years before finally deciding to buy one. She moved her pets out and gave proper notice. The landlord came and did a walk through and the top three items on his list to be fixed were:
- Replace burned out light bulbs
- Fix broken toilet tissue holder in bathroom
- Fix bent mini-blinds
There was also an area where the 13-year-old carpet had begun to fray, helped along by cat paws, and the tenant had done a bad patch job of it. The landlord said he needed to determine if it could be repaired or if he would need to get the entire carpet replaced.
Thirty days later when the volunteer was due a security refund she instead got an email from the landlord's lawyer saying that house had been trashed, needed to be "decontaminated" and they were still calculating damages! Two weeks later the landlord had not sent a "damage" total and the volunteer decided to walk away from the security desposit and start her new life.
SIX MONTHS after the tenant had moved out the landlord sent a letter claiming $13,000 in damages! This after completely rennovating the townhouse and selling it at a significant profit! We won't go into the details of it here, but the charge included completely bogus items -- like "the dog peed on the outdoor heat pump exhaust and that caused a urine odor throughout the entire house"!
For those of you renting in Virginia who think you will know within 30 days of giving notice what you will be hit with -- think again. The volunteer took this to court but ultimately lost. In fact the judge hearing the case started the session by asking if he "really needed to hear this case"! Virginia laws strongly favor landlords and once a landlord starts talking about "pet damage" it seems that all fairness goes out the window. Having a bad lawyer doesn't help either.
If you are renting with pets you need to take steps to protect your interests -- and your pets. From simple things like tacking down moulding strips to keep cat paws from ripping carpet seams to documenting and taking photos every step along the way. We'll be exploring those things here.
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