The basement stunk from a dirty litter box. Sent email to tenant to clean cat litter daily. Her response: "You don't have the standing to tell me how often to clean my cat litter and no damage has been done to the property. You and your husband have expressed your distaste for pets, including my certified emotional support animal".

Never expressed a distaste for pets my distaste is with people that don't properly care for them. I have never rented to tenant with pet before and the only reason she got in was because she was the only one that wasn't section 8.

Any suggestions?

The basement stunk from a dirty litter box. Sent email to tenant to clean cat litter daily. Her response: "You don't have the standing to tell me how often to clean my cat litter and no damage has been done to the property. You and your husband have expressed your distaste for pets, including my certified emotional support animal".

Never expressed a distaste for pets my distaste is with people that don't properly care for them. I have never rented to tenant with pet before and the only reason she got in was because she was the only one that wasn't section 8.

Does your unit have access to the outside? especially the back yard? A 'pet door' to the outside will solve any future problem. I take pets, and I have pet doors in all my properties incl my own home. The pets love the acess to outside and the tenants love the convenience. No more cat boxes anywhere. This pet door can be put thru a door into laundry room, kitchen, or even an attached garage. They are inexpensive and solve so many problems.

Send her a letter highlighting the section of your lease that requires tenants to keep the property clean. Explain that the smell of cat urine that seeps into the walls and ductwork is especially difficult and expensive to get rid of, and that you don't want them to incur expenses unnecessarily.

Detra,

Do exactly what Robin said!

Add a deadline or nothing will happen. "We will inspect again in 7 days. If the sanitation and odor are up to standards, management will evict."

2 things to keep this from happening again:

-2 Minute In Home Visit prior to final approval you woudl have SMELLED their home before you let them stink up yours!

-be the MANAGER, never the OWNER. They will complain to the manager but will fight with the owner. Makes managing sooo much easier!

"Mary, If it were up to me I don't care about your litter box. But Management is s stickler for this stuff. Please get it cleaned up so I can give a good report when I come back. And here is some odor control spray to help you so they don't kick you out."

BRAD

Arrrrgggh! leting cats go outdoor! They kill as many as 3.7 billion songbirds a year. They also bring in diseases like Lyme ticks and other ticks that can transmit several very bad diseases to humans. Then there are fleas. bring in not completely dead mice and snakes that revive and can live in your house. Other animals that can get into pet doors.

Plus the fact that many cats don't "come back" hit by cars, killed by coyotes or other animals,injured by fighting with other cats, poisoned by eating mice that have been poisoned,.. drinking drips of antifreeze that often happens by some cars. ETC,ETC,

Letting cats outside is convenient for lazy people but bad for the cat and other animals and people. ( I have hit and killed 3 cats in my life,and I hate that fact, no I was not speeding)

I agree, you should try to resolve the stinky kitty litter problem.

These odours will cause you to loose good prospective tenants when showing the property in the future.

To Bob NY: There is a dif between a cat being put out by its gardian and let in later--and a cat that can go in and out by itself. In the first scenario the cat loses its home protection during the time it is shut out; in the 2nd, it can immediately return to safety at will.

All your points are POSSIBLE but are extreme and rarely happen in real life. Except the fleas. Even inside pets manage to get fleas. And fleas are easy and inexpensive to eradicate. Ticks and coyotes rarely happen even out in the country. In general cats are very fast and traffic savy and get hit less than dogs do. Cats will often go after wildlife--but seldom actually catch it. When they do they will play with it or kill it in place. Once it has no movement they lose intrest.

Odor spray won't do much good. She needs to clean

the litter box often to keep the smell down.

Some people like her just become nose blind to their

Here's the problem. If it's a common area for another tenant's use or for you to get in through a separate door to service the heater, it is your business and it has to stop. Splain it to her.

Other than that the problem will be when she leaves if urine has soaked into the flooring or the cat is spraying the walls. Cats won't use a filthy litter box and will go elsewhere. Splain it to her. Say that if there is odor remaining when she leaves there will be no return of security deposit because you will have to: steam clean the floors, paint cement floor or other floor material to cover odor, possibly tile over floor to remove all odor.

Lynda/TX I have had indoor/outdoor cats too, right now we have two. They do NOT live as long as indoor only cats, which can reach advanced ages, but I think they are much happier, so it's a balance.

Also, we live at the end of dead end road, with fields nearby. Pretty safe. They love it.

But ours *are* killing machines. They bring in birds, mice, moles. They love to leave dead mice at my desk, especially if we go away overnight. They are slowing down now as they get older but they were serial killers when they were younger.

We have had both a raccoon and a possum come through our dog door. Possum actually ran all over the house, up on my desk and pooped on my open tenant file drawer :(

The dogs cornered the raccoon in the kitchen but honestly, it could not have cared less about them, just turned around and ambled back out the door.

Odor is considered damage and cat odor is extremely difficult to get rid of. You are only looking to have your property properly maintained.

As Janet said she's apparently gone nose blind in this case....typical of many pet owners.