Pet damage

Littledigo

From march 2012 - April 2013 I was renting a house from a friend and he knew I had a cat. There was nothing in the tenancy agreement to say I wasn't allowed a cat in the house. He has now billed me almost £300 for alleged damaged caused by the cat. He states he needs a carpet cleaning at the value of £175 due to the cat (cream carpet) and a blind replacing due to the cat snapping it.
In my opinion the carpet is absolutely fine and does not need cleaning. Re the blind it was not damaged when I left the address. There was no inventory so therefore the address was not checked by him when I left.
I have briefly spoken to a solicitor on the phone today who said I am not responsible for "damage" caused by the cat as it was not excluded from the tenancy agreement, and I can not control everything my cat does.
What are everyone's thoughts? I if am responsible then fair enough but I think he's taking the pee...

PaulLuke

Just felt I had to post as I'm so surprised about the advice from the solicitor.

Regardless of whether you had permission to keep a pet or not you are responsible for any damage you, your family, visitors and pets cause.

Think about it logically why should the landlord accept responsibility for damaged caused by a tenants pets when they certainly would not accept responsibility for damage caused by the tenant or anybody in the house at the tenant;s invitation!

ruggedtoast

What kind of cat is it?

sandsni

You might think the carpet is absolutely fine, but would a prospective tenant agree? You will have stopped smelling the scent of your cat (you will be desensitised to it) and may not notice the cat hairs anymore, but it would be instantly obvious to anyone else entering the house.

How much to you value your friendship? The fact that you've spoken to a solicitor rather than try to compromise with your friend would suggest you value the money more. You could refuse to pay and see if he presses the matter via small claims (in which case, without any check-in or check-out inventory or photos, it would be very hard to prove the condition of the carpet and blind or prove you and your cat were responsible for the deterioration and damage).

The_Palmist

I have rented a place where previous tenants used to have a cat. On first I didn't notice a thing but it soon became obvious. But by that time I had already moved in. The cat hair were absolutely everywhere and took me about a week to clean the flat.

£300 is a considerable amount of money, so if it cannot be proven I won't pay it. You can offer to clean the carpets yourself though as a goodwill gesture.

Albert22

I think if the solicitor must have the condition statement when you rent that home and when you leave and by comparing both the statement you can see how much damages you have.And if they don't have that statement than you are not liable for any damages.

grifferz

Morally your duty is to return the property in the same condition that it was handed over to you in, allowing for reasonable wear and tear (this does not include damage by anyone, human or feline). If you can't do that then morally it is your obligation to pay what it costs the landlord to do so.

Legally, as there is no agreed inventory, your landlord will be unable to prove the state of the carpet when you moved in. If your position is that you have returned the property to the condition you received it in then the landlord will find it difficult to back up a dispute of that claim.

Arguing about whether a pet was allowed or not is sidetracking the main issue of the condition of the property being the same as when you moved in. It's irrelevant at this stage.

ognum

Oh dear, as a landlord I think the fact that Youbare not taking responsibility for your animal is quite sad.

So many people are searching for homes that accept pets and are happy to have carpets cleaned and give extra deposit. I hope your post does not put landlord off letting to them. Take responsibility for your cat, have the carpets cleaned and discuss the blind!

Lagoon

ognum wrote: »

Oh dear, as a landlord I think the fact that Youbare not taking responsibility for your animal is quite sad.

So many people are searching for homes that accept pets and are happy to have carpets cleaned and give extra deposit. I hope your post does not put landlord off letting to them. Take responsibility for your cat, have the carpets cleaned and discuss the blind!

I agree. There aren't enough landlords that are happy to accept pets, and this is why. If I had a pet that in any way damaged a property, then I'd pay what was required.

I'd love a cat, but due to the scarcity of rental properties that allow them I've chosen not to have one. I don't want to put myself in the position where I have to find a home quickly, and can't find somewhere for my pet.

That said, I have friends and family that own their homes and have cats. These people aren't disgustingly dirty, but those cat hairs do get into the carpets. I'd consider £300 quite a low amount, for cleaning a post-cat house.

[Deleted User]

As others have said, it's difficult to find rental properties where pets are allowed, and this is why. Please don't give us pet owners a bad name by not paying for the damage. I've replaced a carpet in my current house because of damage by my cats and it was well worth it to know I have a place where I can stay with my cats and I won't get kicked out.

uk_american

I own a flat with a cat. I was letting a friend stay for a bit while I was going to be out of town (while the cat was also away, as my friend was allergic).

The flat is laminate throughout, except for the bedroom, which is carpeted. I had hoovered with my Dyson and then washed down all the floors. The bedroom was hoovered repeatedly. The other textiles were the sofa and duvet, pillows etc. I had hoovered the sofa repeatedly and freshly washed all the bedroom items.

My allergic friend still had the sniffles while staying, even though the cat had been out of the flat for a week and I had done all this cleaning--and I felt awful that it was impacting my friend in this way. While it seemed good enough for me (and other non-allergic friends never knew I had a cat upon being in the flat until they noticed her bowls etc.), in the end, it wasn't 'good enough'.

After this experience, I'm thinking there's little chance to get a totally cat-free zone, due to the textiles. So just an additional perspective from a fellow cat owner.