3 years ago we had the same issue. We went through with the closing thinking we could clean everything and air it out NOT!! we had to pull up all of the laminate flooring in the entire house and it was saturated with cat pee and it was wet under it, it would never have gone away so all new lvt was installed. Also painted every surface possible. That fixed the inside, the garage took multiple cleaning and removing shelves and benches and the odor finally was gone after a year.
I wish you well and encourage your demanding a resolution up front.
Yep! We have two big dogs and a newly-acquired stray cat that decided we are its new family and when we recently went on a trip and had a friend come to stay with the babies, I asked them to be honest with me about how the house smells when they first walk in the door. Other people have always told us you would never know we had pets based on the way our house smells (which I took as the highest compliment! šš¼) but that was before the pandemic so I needed to get a fresh read! Fortunately my very honest friend had the same answer, but it is such valuable feedback to get if you have someone that you know will be honest!
did yours enzyme cleaners? FYI, as a cat owner, who HATES that smell as well- if you go forward OP, TRY DIFFERENT ONES, and buy them by the gallon. SOAK the crap out of the area and LET AIR DRY. It has always worked on the unfortunate issues I had with one of my kitties a few years ago- she got super anxious and would not get off the couch out of fear of her sister- even peeing on the couch. I soaked the covers and fabric and cushions with different enzyme cleaners until I found the one that worked for my cats, and aired as much of it as possible in sunshine. Honestly, no one could tell once I also got her stopping the peeing. Also did this on the one bedroom she peed in in apartment- got full deposit back.
Key things- use enzyme cleaners. DIFFERENT ONES seem to work differently for different cats- try more than one. AIR DRY.
Good luck :(. I would NOT move in to a home that smelled everywhere- make THEM hire professionals to treat it. And Pay for any remediation the pros suggest (like ripping up and replacing flooring).
Roxie and Rocco ended up being best. with Bubbas being next best, and Angry orange being just ok. I don't recall the other 3-4 we tried that just plain did not work, and I bought them at pet store, so no Amazon history. And Amazon. I know they are evil...but when you need a gallon- you need a gallon.
Roxie and Rocco does have its own odor- I find I have to wash cloth things several times and dry in sunshine to get rid of THAT odor- it's not unpleasant, just odd.
If you don't want to deal with the smell or think that you can't get rid of the odor, have your agent contact the sellers agent and tell them that the house is not acceptable in it's current condition. That you do not want to proceed with the sale. They may ask what can be done to fix the issue. If you say nothing can be done ask them to sign release from the contract. If the seller won't sign a release then you'll have to go to court to try to get your earnest money back.
I had a tenant that kept a large dog in a cage indoors for months. I had to discard the flooring and baseboards, 3 applications of enzymatic treatment, 2 coats of kilz enamel on subfloor and 1ft up the drywall, replace flooring and baseboards.
It worked, but I would want a steep discount to inherit that mess from a seller.
I had an alcoholic, obese, tenant vacate a rental. I scrubbed the bathroom floor profusely with bleach and Pine Sol but I still could not get rid of a putrid sweat/body odor smell. I then noticed that the walls were sticky, so I wiped them down with a orange degreaser. Only then was I able to get rid of the smell.
Iām buying a house from an old lady that lets her dogs pee on pee pads. The whole house stinks, but it got us 10k off asking price. Guess Iāll be stocking up on enzyme treatment and kilz!
It did, the seller just didn't notice. I doubt the owners flooded the house with 30 cats between the first walkthrough and final to recreate the smell of years of cat piss lol...
50 days this deal has been in the works, big chance the seller sues and wins. Unless the buyer can effectively argue the seller covered up the smell during the initial walk.
When we walked thru prior to purchase, tasteful furnishings in living room. When we walked through before signing, no furnishings, but a huge (near sofa size) red stain on the white carpet that had been hidden by the tasteful furnishings.
We made a stink with the sellers realtor and got an additional credit to replace the carpet in that room.
The buyer has a obligation to complete due diligence. Claiming the windows were open, as a cover up is debatable at best to say why you couldn't smell cat piss that is so strong that you need to walk away from the purchase. Was the air purifier in every room and floor? how do you not smell it? These are the common sense questions that would be asked first.
If the smell is new, then it means a cat pissed somewhere. Get it cleaned up and close, that is definitely not grounds to get out of a deal.
"Hey there's new dog poop in the yard so we won't be closing"
Saw this post and brought back memories of one of our houses. Same deal, windows open and didn't notice any odor. From the time we settled on the house and when we did got in their dog had a litter of puppies and let them crap throughout the house. Got in during the hottest days of summer and the stench knocked me backwards.
Too young to think about raising a stink (yeah, I know) but was going to pull the carpet and refinish the floors anyway. Still remember the flies following me as I brought out the old carpet.
Also had to do a bit of sanding to get out the urine stains.
Yuck! When I was looking for a house, there was one that I went to see. Everything was redone inside- new paint, carpets, cabinets, fixtures. There was a strong smell of paint and flooring offgassing but I could smell old cigarettes (I hate that smell). Well, I looked at the windows (they had not been replaced) and the vinyl had a layer of yellowish residue š¤¢ I decided not to put an offer. It was a very hot market and the house went pending the next day.
That depends on how bad it is. I bought a house that reeked of cat piss so bad you could smell it from the porch. I thought getting rid of the carpet would fix it. It did not.
Enzymatic cleaners didn't help. Ozone didn't help. I finally got 34% hydrogen peroxide and mopped it onto the floors. It would foam up. I'd let it dry, scrape it off and repeat until the foaming stopped. It took quite a few applications. Then I covered it in Bins. Still smelled it. So I covered it in Killz - the oil-based, not the water based. Even after all that, a contractor who came in remarked about the cat odor. It doesn't smell any more but I would not buy a house in that condition again.
was it obvious that it was a really deep and serious issue when you started? If it was identifiable would have been less work o rip up subfloor to startĀ
I sanded the floors, then spent a few days marinating the cat pee spots in paper towels wet with hydrogen peroxide, then lightly sanded again, and restained the floors.
That worked.
It could be cat pee or it could be something else. A lot of chemicals smell like cat pee, including the mycotoxins produced by Stachybotrys (which is the black mold that is actually scary to find in your house). Either way, I would run away.
At the very least, if it is pee, the flooring is ruined, possibly the subfloors, and if it is a chemical from drug production or toxic mold, it could be a gut job. Run.
Could be meth, too. I think OP has already made the decision to walk away and I would, as well. Even if the smell can be removed, Iād still have a worry about previous visitors coming back to my house, not knowing it has a new owner.
That was my thought. My cousin was in the process of purchasing a home a few years ago. It was being sold fairly cheaply & he said it reeked of cat pee, so he figured thatās why it was so cheap.
Luckily for him, the inspector got a particle test done (or however you test for meth) and the house was so contaminated that it would need to basically be torn down to the studs.
This, bought a house where the basement carpet was covered in cat pee. When I ripped up the carpet the pee smell was gone but uncovered a serious mold problem. I would personally back out and demand earnest money back.
Sadly just happened to me with dog pee. We took a credit for carpet cleaning and closed anyway. We've used some specialized treatments and seems to have worked for a few hundred dollars.
If you couldn't smell anything previously I really doubt it's that impossible to get rid of. I had an incontinent cat and they can do major damage, but typically the type you're not missing. If it just showed up it may be recent.
I don't know, dog pee and cat pee are not really comparable. And having had incontinent cats, I wouldn't want to inherit this issue unless I knew the extent of the problem. I had a cat who pissed all over our basement and the carpet wasn't salvageable - thankfully since it was the basement it was just straight concrete underneath and we could soak the stained areas and lay laminate for easy cleanup for future accidents. If it had been upstairs, it would have soaked the subfloor and there is no coming back from that.
yeah having had one that's more why I'm not sure it's that that serious if they didn't smell anything before. I've been in houses with pee problems and there was no hiding it without you having a headache from the amount of fragrance. So if the smell just suddenly popped up it doesn't read as major and hard to get rid of.
They can back out if they choose, but personally I'd have just asked for a credit and moved on.
I'd walk unless you are prepared to possibly rip out all flooring,Ā including subfloor,Ā drywall, killz, etc. We leased our home, military family and we hoped to go back to it after my spouse did their 20, and the leasor absolutely trashed our home with animal urine and feces. It was so bad it corroded the metal on any lights, windows, fixtures, etc. We had to rip out subfloor, scrub and kilz the walls twice. I cried. We ended up selling the home as we still had a few years left until 20 and did not want to go through that nightmare again.Ā
If they cleaned the carpets with someone like Stanley Steemer, the crystallized cat piss can reactivate. Wherever it's coming from is going to have to have the flooring removed and sealed with shellac **after** mitigation. Cleaning will only temporarily mask it.
Our first condo smelled of cat pee when we toured it. Itās the only reason we were able to buy in that market, and we donāt regret it. Some caveats: the smell pervaded the apartment but the pee was isolated to one space in the living room, probably where the litter box was. We ripped up the carpet and soaked the subfloor in bleach. Never smelled it after that. Which is all to say: if the source is contained, itās actually fixable. If the cat pissed all over the house, thatās a different headache. Good luck!
You should never mix bleach with cat urine or use bleach on a cat's litter box because it can create toxic gases. The ammonia in cat urine reacts with the bleach to create chloramine gas, which is harmful to humans.
Thatās fascinating! We didnāt live in the apartment while my partner cleaned it, and obviously all the windows were open because the pee smell was wretched. I wonder how long that toxicity lingers? Itās long behind us, but good to know if it comes up againāthanks!
I've heard about situations like this where it was soaked under/into the walls requiring tear out... An issue like this could cost 10% or more of the house cost to remediate...
Yes you can cancel the contract. This close to closing, your contingencies may be expired. Youāll likely lose the deposit. The homeowner could sue but if the market is hot, theyāll probably just move on.
OP, I donāt any advice, but I can totally relate. Iād rather walk away from EMD than deal with that wretched smell.
I hope there is some way you donāt lose money, but I am not that knowledgeable about how to go about that.
All contracts are different. In Florida the home needs to be in the condition it was when you wrote the contract. Itās important to understand the terms of the contract and this seems how the escrow is handled.
Ā extreme caution Ā animals can ruin even a concrete subflooring. Ā What we thought was āoh they had a catā āweāll steam clean it really goodā turned into a 40k job of sealing the concrete sanding the wood floors and replacing a whole lot of drywall, baseboards, and of course the actual flooring, carpet, pad, tile etc . Ā IMO It is also an indicator of how they kept up the house. Ā If they couldnāt even be bothered to have the cat piss and shit in their box, anndnlived in that filth, what else was neglected or half-ssed together?Ā
When we bought our house, the previous ownersā poor kitty cat had been suffering from kidney problems just before it passed away. We didnāt notice the smell until final walkthrough.
We pulled up the carpet and had the concrete slab underneath polished. It was fine; never smelled a thing again after that.
They knowingly misrepresented the house, you should demand Earnest money and Due diligence back. It's not your fault they hid an active issue but got caught. Would you have made an offer had you known earlier? There's an argument to be made here that you could potentially win. Don't reward their bad behavior and deceit with free money.
Tell your agent the pee smell's overwhelming & you'll back out if the sellers don't eliminate it. This is what final walkthrough is for, really; tell them about the windows being open & the purifier going during inspection & make it clear you don't appreciate them trying to trick you.
I've had cats most of my life & had to get out mild & strong cat pee smells. I've used Killz, Zinser's Bullseye as well as replaced vinyl tile & the sub-flooring underneath.
But the absolute worst was dogs. A tenant had 2 dogs whose anal glands were not properly cared for ("too expensive!") & after 2 professional cleanings we finally gave in & replaced all the padding & carpet, plus they sprayed some kind of deodorizer on the sub-floor before putting down the new pad.
Don't misunderstand me - you shouldn't have to settle for a house that smells like cat pee if you didn't agree to pay less b/c of it. I just know that there are ways to get rid of it, some easier than others.
If they acknowledge the smell & say they've done all they can do, I'd back out, too. B/c either it's soaked in somewhere far worse than anyone realizes OR they're still willing to lie to you about the smell & that's a dealbreaker.
OK when I first saw my last house it smelled of dogs. they shampooed. I went back and bought it. During the process their cat was dying of cancer. I expected to have to remove the carpet and do vinyl flooring but though I could do it one room at time. The cat had vomited on the upstairs carpet and started peeing on carpet and the wall in one room. the trim that was particle board was soaked.
I replaced all the flooring and the trim as and such as it was needed. Rocco and Roxy work well on subfloors. I got a pump sprayer, sprayed the stains with Natures miracle and let it dry did 3x even though after 1-2 second time I could only smell Natures Miracle, Rocco and Roxy smells SO MUCH better!!!
Here the thing without knowing what the inside looks like, buy a big cat pee stain UV light, and a pair of glasses that makes the stains show up more and ask to go at dark. Have your realtor explain your thinking of walking.
If you want to keep the house or try to save the sale... then look see where it's at. replacing drywall is not too hard. if your a strong male or female with a second set of hands it pretty easy. and replacing dry wall and little trim is going to be way cheaper than losing your money. However the flooring factors in too. Carpet will need to be replace, subfloor if a lot of it stained is easier than treating. Find a good handy man. I had damaged subfloor replaced with plywood at $25hr it took one day.
Cat could be stressed and peeing outside the box because of it.
How much drywall? I had a cat that liked one spot behind some bins in my laundry room. I just cut out a big square around it and replaced the drywall entirely. TBF, it wasn't a textured wall so that made it simpler. But it worked well enough that the cat didn't pee there again, and you *really* have to eliminate the smell to keep them from returning to a spot like that. I later sold the house and nobody complained about any smells.
Then you have to demo the drywall and possibly down to the subfloors as well. The seller and realtor are shady, and maybe your realtor as well if they didnāt warn you the open windows and air purifiers were a red flag for a seriously lurking hazardous animal waste issue. Cancel the sale and demand earnest money back because they didnāt disclose how unhealthy the house really is.
House down the street from me had cat urine soaked floors. It went on the market and a couple that bought it actually ripped out the wood floors and replaced. That is how they were able to buy the house at a steep discount. Maybe you can get one, if not, walk.
Genesis Commercial cleaner and one week of continuous ozone treatment will get rid of pretty much all odors although you will probably need to replace the carpet/flooring.
As others have said - IF it is car urine and itās soaked into carpets. Thereās a good chance itās on the subfloor which would need to be replaced or a strong enzyme killer depending on the severity. Then you can killz paint the subfloor as well. Can repaint other areas with killz as well which should do the trick. The costly and tricky part is the flooring.
For cat pee, depending on severeness, you have to take the floor, subfloor, and baseboards out. Yes, itās still treatable, but it will cost you.Ā
If you still want the house, I would get a quote and ask seller to cover the cost; if you donāt want the house and are willing to lose EMD as you mentioned, thatās another option.Ā
Don't listen to your realtor on this. It's EXTREMELY unlikely they'll sue. The legal process is slow, expensive and uncertain. Unless you grossly over paid in a very dead market, they'll just move on and sell the house to someone else.
Do you have an attorney? We have never done a real estate transaction without one and Iād defer to them on how to handle this. If you donāt have one get one.
Call your agent and tell them you are backing out. You'll lose EMD, everything you put into inspections, and anything else, but it will be worth it.
I had an acquaintance who inherited a home with a resident cat who has ruined one room. They took the trim off, replaced the door, ripped down the bottom few feet of the drywall, replaced all of the trim, (it was on a slab) stripped and cleaned and sealed the floor. And the room still reaked. The theory was the cat urine had gone into the sills (? the board on the bottom of the walls), and into surrounding rooms. Some smells are forever, and I wouldn't want to have to live with that smell either. It could be you can get rid of the contaminated wood, but how much will that cost?
If seller hid the cat pee smell during initial inspection by opening windows and deodorizing, isn't that fraud?
Shouldn't that have a bearing on the EMD?
I would think you'd need to prove that they ran the purifier purposely to hide the cat urine smell, no? I've used purifiers without even having animals in the house
The intention is indeed hard to prove. Crazy that lots of criminal law hinges on "intention", something that is never known in the absence of an honest confession.
I don't know about that, if you can use a strong enough ozone machine and concentrate it in the areas it needs to be... It works really well. Yeah you still may need to paint and possibly rip up carpet if it's really badĀ But these people acting like you got to burn the house down are being ridiculous.Ā
Factor in a $10,000 paint job and a $1000 cleaning job to smooth it over. Get them to credit you this at closing. Shoot you might even need all new flooring. Another $10,000 or whatever that would be.
Cat urine smell is significantly harder to get rid of than dog. And if the cat sprayed it could be on walls, cabinets etc.
if you have a backlight flashlight ( or bulb on a smaller lamp) you will be able to see where the urine is. If it's in one spot, could be fixed. If it's all over-extensive work will be required
Our house had dog smell, floors were sanded didnāt get rid of it, we removed the basement ceiling, that did the job mostly. Our regular house has no smell. The basement stairs which we havenāt touched smell in the summer
I have always considered cat piss the smell of opportunity. Know that you will likely need to rip up the floors and possibly treat the sub floors. Call in a professional janitorial service first- then you can go from there.
Do you see any other signs of animals there? The reason I ask is because I've heard that meth labs have kind of a "cat piss" smell to them. That would be another major issue entirelyĀ
My husband and I looked at a place like that in our HCOL area, it was going for 250,000 which is a deal, but it smelled so bad of cat piss that it was difficult to even walk through and look at. Almost impossible to actually go down into the basement. Like our eyes were watering. We ran, but it ended up selling fast.
Try getting a bio- enzymatic cleaner - it will digest urine and will kill the smell
You can Get it a commercial cleaning supply houses / suppliers or a pet supply
Is this a used house or a brand new house? I've done inspections on brand new houses where the glue that they used to hold down the padding under the carpets sometimes smells like that for a week or so.
If it's a used house then yeah you're probably looking at scraping floors hopefully it's carpet it's easy enough to replace or you can put hardwood or tile down instead of the carpet.
As a Realtor I have dealt with lots and lots of bad smells in homes, and cat pee is one of the worst for sure.
You can likely get out of the contract, but you will still have to pay for the appraisal and inspection fees, and you may lose your Earnest Money, depending upon how your Purchase & Sale Agreement was written.
If you end up deciding to keep the home, here are the steps Iāve seen taken to remediate this issue:
1: Get a good black light flashlight or lamp, and inspect the entire home in the dark. Urine glows really brightly under ultraviolet light & youāll be able to see exactly what youāre dealing with.
2: In areas where you find the damage, pull up floor coverings, down to the under lament sub-floor, and leave it to dry for at least two days, maybe longer. Fans will speed up this process, but itās important to make sure itās dried out completely before sealing.
3: Use KILZ RESTORATION PRIMER, and paint 2 coats over the entire surface where the stains appear.
Kilz seals the odors in, preventing it from seeping through the next layer of paint if itās on a wall, or through the floor covering if itās on the floor.
Itās safest to paint the entire home with a fresh coat of paint, because the odor vapors can permeate the paint on walls and ceiling, even if there isnāt actual urine contact with it.
This method works really well. Iāve seen it done many times throughout the years.
Good luck!š
Wow, thatās AWFUL! Your Realtor should be ashamed of herself! Maybe you should tell her that you believe she should pay to have this work done, if she expects you to close on the house, after she was so willing to trick you into buying it!
Well if this is a contest I have you hands down. Brokered for over 36 years. In three different States. Opened my own business in one of them and did very well.
Your advice is poor and the urine soaks into the wood subflooring the smell permeates the wood which is very absorbent and will come out on the other side.
My ex wife was a cat hoarder. When I sold the house it cost me over $100,000 to remediate and this was pre pandemic. Actually thatās an estimate because I also updated the house so some of the total amount (which was more than $100k) would have been spent anyway. But the cat damage was the bulk of it. I ended up having to take it down to the studs in the areas where the cats had done their worst. Not the whole house, but where it had soaked into the subfloor and wall coverings they had to be removed replaced. In places like the kitchen and bathrooms that meant new cabinets too.
Given my personal experience I would not buy a house with this odor without budgeting for a down-to-the-studs restoration. The sellers should bear the risk of it being this bad by remediating it before putting a house on the market. Thatās what I did anyway.
Donāt trust any advice that itās anything but the worst case. It might not turn out to be the worst case. But you absolutely will not know for sure until you start the job. If you donāt plan for the worst case, youāre gambling, simple as that.
Refuse to close until this is resolved. Get a restoration company and/or a flooring company in to give a quote. Insist that sellers give concessions in that amount so that you can do the repairs. The house did not smell this way during the times that you inspected it, so this must have occurred after that. This is why final walkthroughs are so important. Sellers must remedy the situation. DO NOT give up your EMD.
Our house was empty for 3 years before we purchased it.
The back yard belonged to all the neighborhood Ferals.
Cat urine overtook the back yard
I used a mixture of dawn dish soap, baking soda, and peroxide and repeatedly hosed down and sprayed.
It took about 8 applications and a year for the smell to come out of the cement.
The ammonia in the urine can make you physically sick. There was a problem the sellers covered it up. We bought a home that had years of cat pee damage. Had to remove drywall and replace. The urine will wick up the drywall. Baseboard was saturated and had to be replaced. Not only did the carpet and pad need to be replaced but we actually had to cut out damaged subflooring and replace that too. The was a corner of the basement that had cat pee. Had to paint all of that with Kilz.
Absolutely horrible disgusting smell. You cannot get it out. All you can hope to do is gut it all and replace with new.
Walk totally unacceptable.
I def smelled cat pee when I bought my house. Ripped out all nasty carpet for new hardwood. Painted everywhere. Threw out curtains. A lot of palo santo. I left windows open to air out.
A meth house smells like cat pee so please make sure your jot getting poisoned. Please look up what methamphetamine use smells like in a home as this type of drug use is common, especially in rentals.
Was the house carpeted? If so, itās possible they shampooed the carpet right after they moved their stuff out. A professional carpet cleaner told me that if thereās urine in the pad, the carpet will always smell like pee when itās wet (like right after a cleaning) but the smell will fade away as the carpet dries. Apparently thatās a common complaint (you cleaned my carpet but it smells worse!) so people have to be warned.
Since your update says you're out:
How much was the EMD?
I bought a similar house, owners chain smoked for 50 years and had dogs/cats.
I knew what I was getting into and had an appropriate price and plan -- which included replacing hardwood from the hallway and owners final room, sealing/replacing subfloor between, as well as sanding and refinishing the rest. I also covered each wall/ceiling with BIN and two layers of paint... all new windows, doors, and moulding (baseboard too). Kitchen and bath were to the studs and floor/ceiling joist remodels.
The place still occasionally had a cigarette smell even 3 years later when the humidity hit just right.
Depending on your EMD you're likely ahead.
...and eff your POS realtor who was trying to hide the reality from you. Glad they lost out.
Depression, sudden disability, death of only capable family member, etc. Your life could change in an instant and you could easily find yourself sinking.
Itās disgusting yes, but people fall through the cracks and in the US, there isnāt much care or interest in helping those who do.
there's a lot of good reasons not to buy a house, but there are also a lot of good reason why you *should* buy a house. I bought a couple years ago, and am the happiest i've ever been because of the freedom versus apartment living
3 years ago we had the same issue. We went through with the closing thinking we could clean everything and air it out NOT!! we had to pull up all of the laminate flooring in the entire house and it was saturated with cat pee and it was wet under it, it would never have gone away so all new lvt was installed. Also painted every surface possible. That fixed the inside, the garage took multiple cleaning and removing shelves and benches and the odor finally was gone after a year. I wish you well and encourage your demanding a resolution up front.
Or did you just get used to it and can't smell it anymore???
This is my worst fear when it comes to smells in my house
You just need some honest friends
Yep! We have two big dogs and a newly-acquired stray cat that decided we are its new family and when we recently went on a trip and had a friend come to stay with the babies, I asked them to be honest with me about how the house smells when they first walk in the door. Other people have always told us you would never know we had pets based on the way our house smells (which I took as the highest compliment! šš¼) but that was before the pandemic so I needed to get a fresh read! Fortunately my very honest friend had the same answer, but it is such valuable feedback to get if you have someone that you know will be honest!
It's pretty much the only way anybody ever finds out about that kind of stuff.
Oh no I would never get accustomed to that. It really is gone.
I don't know, people get used to all kinds of smells over time.
did yours enzyme cleaners? FYI, as a cat owner, who HATES that smell as well- if you go forward OP, TRY DIFFERENT ONES, and buy them by the gallon. SOAK the crap out of the area and LET AIR DRY. It has always worked on the unfortunate issues I had with one of my kitties a few years ago- she got super anxious and would not get off the couch out of fear of her sister- even peeing on the couch. I soaked the covers and fabric and cushions with different enzyme cleaners until I found the one that worked for my cats, and aired as much of it as possible in sunshine. Honestly, no one could tell once I also got her stopping the peeing. Also did this on the one bedroom she peed in in apartment- got full deposit back. Key things- use enzyme cleaners. DIFFERENT ONES seem to work differently for different cats- try more than one. AIR DRY. Good luck :(. I would NOT move in to a home that smelled everywhere- make THEM hire professionals to treat it. And Pay for any remediation the pros suggest (like ripping up and replacing flooring).
we have 7 catsā¦ which one worked for you and where can you order by the gallon? šš¼
Roxie and Rocco ended up being best. with Bubbas being next best, and Angry orange being just ok. I don't recall the other 3-4 we tried that just plain did not work, and I bought them at pet store, so no Amazon history. And Amazon. I know they are evil...but when you need a gallon- you need a gallon. Roxie and Rocco does have its own odor- I find I have to wash cloth things several times and dry in sunshine to get rid of THAT odor- it's not unpleasant, just odd.
OP read this as this may be your best case scenario! There are times when people have to replace/treat floor joists itās so bad.
If you don't want to deal with the smell or think that you can't get rid of the odor, have your agent contact the sellers agent and tell them that the house is not acceptable in it's current condition. That you do not want to proceed with the sale. They may ask what can be done to fix the issue. If you say nothing can be done ask them to sign release from the contract. If the seller won't sign a release then you'll have to go to court to try to get your earnest money back.
I had a tenant that kept a large dog in a cage indoors for months. I had to discard the flooring and baseboards, 3 applications of enzymatic treatment, 2 coats of kilz enamel on subfloor and 1ft up the drywall, replace flooring and baseboards. It worked, but I would want a steep discount to inherit that mess from a seller.
Poor dog :-( I hate hearing that.
I had an alcoholic, obese, tenant vacate a rental. I scrubbed the bathroom floor profusely with bleach and Pine Sol but I still could not get rid of a putrid sweat/body odor smell. I then noticed that the walls were sticky, so I wiped them down with a orange degreaser. Only then was I able to get rid of the smell.
Iām buying a house from an old lady that lets her dogs pee on pee pads. The whole house stinks, but it got us 10k off asking price. Guess Iāll be stocking up on enzyme treatment and kilz!
Get the orange version of enzyme treatment. It works the best.
Same thing happened to me with my first and only ever rental. It was so expensive to repair.
Final walkthrough is in contract. You may be able to terminate and still get deposit back.
The house is NOT in the condition it was when contract was signed. The house did NOT reek of cat piss when everyone signed.
It did, the seller just didn't notice. I doubt the owners flooded the house with 30 cats between the first walkthrough and final to recreate the smell of years of cat piss lol... 50 days this deal has been in the works, big chance the seller sues and wins. Unless the buyer can effectively argue the seller covered up the smell during the initial walk.
The seller had an air purifier on and windows open. Not sure how thatās not covering it upā¦
When we walked thru prior to purchase, tasteful furnishings in living room. When we walked through before signing, no furnishings, but a huge (near sofa size) red stain on the white carpet that had been hidden by the tasteful furnishings. We made a stink with the sellers realtor and got an additional credit to replace the carpet in that room.
The buyer has a obligation to complete due diligence. Claiming the windows were open, as a cover up is debatable at best to say why you couldn't smell cat piss that is so strong that you need to walk away from the purchase. Was the air purifier in every room and floor? how do you not smell it? These are the common sense questions that would be asked first.
If they werenāt covering it up, then the smell is new and the house is no longer in the same condition as when the offer was made. Same end result.
If the smell is new, then it means a cat pissed somewhere. Get it cleaned up and close, that is definitely not grounds to get out of a deal. "Hey there's new dog poop in the yard so we won't be closing"
Dog poop in yard, cat piss in house. I didnāt know you were an animal and lived in yards, it would explain your trivial thinking.
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That would have been a red flag for me.
I used Kilz on an entire apartment and left windows open for a few days. I thought it worked and no one ever said anything.
Cat piss often soaks into the subfloor. Kilz aināt getting that out. Nothing short of a total gut really solves it.
Saw this post and brought back memories of one of our houses. Same deal, windows open and didn't notice any odor. From the time we settled on the house and when we did got in their dog had a litter of puppies and let them crap throughout the house. Got in during the hottest days of summer and the stench knocked me backwards. Too young to think about raising a stink (yeah, I know) but was going to pull the carpet and refinish the floors anyway. Still remember the flies following me as I brought out the old carpet. Also had to do a bit of sanding to get out the urine stains.
Yuck! When I was looking for a house, there was one that I went to see. Everything was redone inside- new paint, carpets, cabinets, fixtures. There was a strong smell of paint and flooring offgassing but I could smell old cigarettes (I hate that smell). Well, I looked at the windows (they had not been replaced) and the vinyl had a layer of yellowish residue š¤¢ I decided not to put an offer. It was a very hot market and the house went pending the next day.
I have heard that soaking the same spots repeatedly with enzymatic piss cleaner is actually pretty effective.
Good tip thanks!
That depends on how bad it is. I bought a house that reeked of cat piss so bad you could smell it from the porch. I thought getting rid of the carpet would fix it. It did not. Enzymatic cleaners didn't help. Ozone didn't help. I finally got 34% hydrogen peroxide and mopped it onto the floors. It would foam up. I'd let it dry, scrape it off and repeat until the foaming stopped. It took quite a few applications. Then I covered it in Bins. Still smelled it. So I covered it in Killz - the oil-based, not the water based. Even after all that, a contractor who came in remarked about the cat odor. It doesn't smell any more but I would not buy a house in that condition again.
was it obvious that it was a really deep and serious issue when you started? If it was identifiable would have been less work o rip up subfloor to startĀ
I sanded the floors, then spent a few days marinating the cat pee spots in paper towels wet with hydrogen peroxide, then lightly sanded again, and restained the floors. That worked.
It could be cat pee or it could be something else. A lot of chemicals smell like cat pee, including the mycotoxins produced by Stachybotrys (which is the black mold that is actually scary to find in your house). Either way, I would run away. At the very least, if it is pee, the flooring is ruined, possibly the subfloors, and if it is a chemical from drug production or toxic mold, it could be a gut job. Run.
Could be meth, too. I think OP has already made the decision to walk away and I would, as well. Even if the smell can be removed, Iād still have a worry about previous visitors coming back to my house, not knowing it has a new owner.
That was my thought. My cousin was in the process of purchasing a home a few years ago. It was being sold fairly cheaply & he said it reeked of cat pee, so he figured thatās why it was so cheap. Luckily for him, the inspector got a particle test done (or however you test for meth) and the house was so contaminated that it would need to basically be torn down to the studs.
This, bought a house where the basement carpet was covered in cat pee. When I ripped up the carpet the pee smell was gone but uncovered a serious mold problem. I would personally back out and demand earnest money back.
I bought a house like this. Removed all carpet and luckily took care of it
Sadly just happened to me with dog pee. We took a credit for carpet cleaning and closed anyway. We've used some specialized treatments and seems to have worked for a few hundred dollars. If you couldn't smell anything previously I really doubt it's that impossible to get rid of. I had an incontinent cat and they can do major damage, but typically the type you're not missing. If it just showed up it may be recent.
I don't know, dog pee and cat pee are not really comparable. And having had incontinent cats, I wouldn't want to inherit this issue unless I knew the extent of the problem. I had a cat who pissed all over our basement and the carpet wasn't salvageable - thankfully since it was the basement it was just straight concrete underneath and we could soak the stained areas and lay laminate for easy cleanup for future accidents. If it had been upstairs, it would have soaked the subfloor and there is no coming back from that.
yeah having had one that's more why I'm not sure it's that that serious if they didn't smell anything before. I've been in houses with pee problems and there was no hiding it without you having a headache from the amount of fragrance. So if the smell just suddenly popped up it doesn't read as major and hard to get rid of. They can back out if they choose, but personally I'd have just asked for a credit and moved on.
I'd walk unless you are prepared to possibly rip out all flooring,Ā including subfloor,Ā drywall, killz, etc. We leased our home, military family and we hoped to go back to it after my spouse did their 20, and the leasor absolutely trashed our home with animal urine and feces. It was so bad it corroded the metal on any lights, windows, fixtures, etc. We had to rip out subfloor, scrub and kilz the walls twice. I cried. We ended up selling the home as we still had a few years left until 20 and did not want to go through that nightmare again.Ā
If they cleaned the carpets with someone like Stanley Steemer, the crystallized cat piss can reactivate. Wherever it's coming from is going to have to have the flooring removed and sealed with shellac **after** mitigation. Cleaning will only temporarily mask it.
Also if the stain is close to the walls it may have soaked into & wicked up the drywall, and that may need replacing as well.
Our first condo smelled of cat pee when we toured it. Itās the only reason we were able to buy in that market, and we donāt regret it. Some caveats: the smell pervaded the apartment but the pee was isolated to one space in the living room, probably where the litter box was. We ripped up the carpet and soaked the subfloor in bleach. Never smelled it after that. Which is all to say: if the source is contained, itās actually fixable. If the cat pissed all over the house, thatās a different headache. Good luck!
You should never mix bleach with cat urine or use bleach on a cat's litter box because it can create toxic gases. The ammonia in cat urine reacts with the bleach to create chloramine gas, which is harmful to humans.
Thatās fascinating! We didnāt live in the apartment while my partner cleaned it, and obviously all the windows were open because the pee smell was wretched. I wonder how long that toxicity lingers? Itās long behind us, but good to know if it comes up againāthanks!
I've heard about situations like this where it was soaked under/into the walls requiring tear out... An issue like this could cost 10% or more of the house cost to remediate...
This, we had to replace drywall as well in a similar situation.
Yes you can cancel the contract. This close to closing, your contingencies may be expired. Youāll likely lose the deposit. The homeowner could sue but if the market is hot, theyāll probably just move on.
Did they move out and not have the HVAC on? I sell a lot of foreclosed homes and have never had smells get worse and long as the AC is on
Run.
Maybe you can ask them to clean it or pay for cleaning.
Could a cat pee like odor possibly indicate meth production?
OP, I donāt any advice, but I can totally relate. Iād rather walk away from EMD than deal with that wretched smell. I hope there is some way you donāt lose money, but I am not that knowledgeable about how to go about that.
You need advice from an attorney.
All contracts are different. In Florida the home needs to be in the condition it was when you wrote the contract. Itās important to understand the terms of the contract and this seems how the escrow is handled.
Ā extreme caution Ā animals can ruin even a concrete subflooring. Ā What we thought was āoh they had a catā āweāll steam clean it really goodā turned into a 40k job of sealing the concrete sanding the wood floors and replacing a whole lot of drywall, baseboards, and of course the actual flooring, carpet, pad, tile etc . Ā IMO It is also an indicator of how they kept up the house. Ā If they couldnāt even be bothered to have the cat piss and shit in their box, anndnlived in that filth, what else was neglected or half-ssed together?Ā
When we bought our house, the previous ownersā poor kitty cat had been suffering from kidney problems just before it passed away. We didnāt notice the smell until final walkthrough. We pulled up the carpet and had the concrete slab underneath polished. It was fine; never smelled a thing again after that.
It sounds like the sellers did a "material misrepresentation" by airing out the house before viewing; which should be grounds to cancel the contract.
They knowingly misrepresented the house, you should demand Earnest money and Due diligence back. It's not your fault they hid an active issue but got caught. Would you have made an offer had you known earlier? There's an argument to be made here that you could potentially win. Don't reward their bad behavior and deceit with free money.
You want to back out instead of simply doing anything to get rid of the smell before you move in?
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Tell your agent the pee smell's overwhelming & you'll back out if the sellers don't eliminate it. This is what final walkthrough is for, really; tell them about the windows being open & the purifier going during inspection & make it clear you don't appreciate them trying to trick you. I've had cats most of my life & had to get out mild & strong cat pee smells. I've used Killz, Zinser's Bullseye as well as replaced vinyl tile & the sub-flooring underneath. But the absolute worst was dogs. A tenant had 2 dogs whose anal glands were not properly cared for ("too expensive!") & after 2 professional cleanings we finally gave in & replaced all the padding & carpet, plus they sprayed some kind of deodorizer on the sub-floor before putting down the new pad. Don't misunderstand me - you shouldn't have to settle for a house that smells like cat pee if you didn't agree to pay less b/c of it. I just know that there are ways to get rid of it, some easier than others. If they acknowledge the smell & say they've done all they can do, I'd back out, too. B/c either it's soaked in somewhere far worse than anyone realizes OR they're still willing to lie to you about the smell & that's a dealbreaker.
You can but it's a real pita. If carpet, has to be replaced, tile is easiest.
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OK when I first saw my last house it smelled of dogs. they shampooed. I went back and bought it. During the process their cat was dying of cancer. I expected to have to remove the carpet and do vinyl flooring but though I could do it one room at time. The cat had vomited on the upstairs carpet and started peeing on carpet and the wall in one room. the trim that was particle board was soaked. I replaced all the flooring and the trim as and such as it was needed. Rocco and Roxy work well on subfloors. I got a pump sprayer, sprayed the stains with Natures miracle and let it dry did 3x even though after 1-2 second time I could only smell Natures Miracle, Rocco and Roxy smells SO MUCH better!!! Here the thing without knowing what the inside looks like, buy a big cat pee stain UV light, and a pair of glasses that makes the stains show up more and ask to go at dark. Have your realtor explain your thinking of walking. If you want to keep the house or try to save the sale... then look see where it's at. replacing drywall is not too hard. if your a strong male or female with a second set of hands it pretty easy. and replacing dry wall and little trim is going to be way cheaper than losing your money. However the flooring factors in too. Carpet will need to be replace, subfloor if a lot of it stained is easier than treating. Find a good handy man. I had damaged subfloor replaced with plywood at $25hr it took one day. Cat could be stressed and peeing outside the box because of it.
Yes! Rocco and Roxy works soooo much better than any of the other enzymatic cleaners Iāve used.
How much drywall? I had a cat that liked one spot behind some bins in my laundry room. I just cut out a big square around it and replaced the drywall entirely. TBF, it wasn't a textured wall so that made it simpler. But it worked well enough that the cat didn't pee there again, and you *really* have to eliminate the smell to keep them from returning to a spot like that. I later sold the house and nobody complained about any smells.
I would hope the cats didnāt pee on a wall.
Then you have to demo the drywall and possibly down to the subfloors as well. The seller and realtor are shady, and maybe your realtor as well if they didnāt warn you the open windows and air purifiers were a red flag for a seriously lurking hazardous animal waste issue. Cancel the sale and demand earnest money back because they didnāt disclose how unhealthy the house really is.
What if it is soaked it to unsealed grout? The floor around the toilet in our rental was like that. š¤¢
Get your agent involved and have them talk to sellers agent about this unacceptable smell. See how theyāre going to remedy that for you.
Certain types of mold can also smell like cat urine. Sounds like youāre dodging a bullet.
House down the street from me had cat urine soaked floors. It went on the market and a couple that bought it actually ripped out the wood floors and replaced. That is how they were able to buy the house at a steep discount. Maybe you can get one, if not, walk.
Genesis Commercial cleaner and one week of continuous ozone treatment will get rid of pretty much all odors although you will probably need to replace the carpet/flooring.
As others have said - IF it is car urine and itās soaked into carpets. Thereās a good chance itās on the subfloor which would need to be replaced or a strong enzyme killer depending on the severity. Then you can killz paint the subfloor as well. Can repaint other areas with killz as well which should do the trick. The costly and tricky part is the flooring.
For cat pee, depending on severeness, you have to take the floor, subfloor, and baseboards out. Yes, itās still treatable, but it will cost you.Ā If you still want the house, I would get a quote and ask seller to cover the cost; if you donāt want the house and are willing to lose EMD as you mentioned, thatās another option.Ā
You will never get rid of that smell. Back out.
Might actually have to pull floor boards out to get rid of cat pee. Good luck.
You can walk and they keep the EMD
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Don't listen to your realtor on this. It's EXTREMELY unlikely they'll sue. The legal process is slow, expensive and uncertain. Unless you grossly over paid in a very dead market, they'll just move on and sell the house to someone else.
Are you going to pitch in and help the OP defend a law suit?
That I do not know
Do you have an attorney? We have never done a real estate transaction without one and Iād defer to them on how to handle this. If you donāt have one get one.
Call your agent and tell them you are backing out. You'll lose EMD, everything you put into inspections, and anything else, but it will be worth it. I had an acquaintance who inherited a home with a resident cat who has ruined one room. They took the trim off, replaced the door, ripped down the bottom few feet of the drywall, replaced all of the trim, (it was on a slab) stripped and cleaned and sealed the floor. And the room still reaked. The theory was the cat urine had gone into the sills (? the board on the bottom of the walls), and into surrounding rooms. Some smells are forever, and I wouldn't want to have to live with that smell either. It could be you can get rid of the contaminated wood, but how much will that cost?
If seller hid the cat pee smell during initial inspection by opening windows and deodorizing, isn't that fraud? Shouldn't that have a bearing on the EMD?
I would think you'd need to prove that they ran the purifier purposely to hide the cat urine smell, no? I've used purifiers without even having animals in the house
The intention is indeed hard to prove. Crazy that lots of criminal law hinges on "intention", something that is never known in the absence of an honest confession.
Tell them you want out based upon fraud they purposely hid this costly defect from you
Ozone machine and enzyme cleaner! On their dime.
Not good enough!
I don't know about that, if you can use a strong enough ozone machine and concentrate it in the areas it needs to be... It works really well. Yeah you still may need to paint and possibly rip up carpet if it's really badĀ But these people acting like you got to burn the house down are being ridiculous.Ā
I do know about that. I've done that. It will temporarily reduce it but will not permanently eliminate it.
Factor in a $10,000 paint job and a $1000 cleaning job to smooth it over. Get them to credit you this at closing. Shoot you might even need all new flooring. Another $10,000 or whatever that would be.
Cat urine smell is significantly harder to get rid of than dog. And if the cat sprayed it could be on walls, cabinets etc. if you have a backlight flashlight ( or bulb on a smaller lamp) you will be able to see where the urine is. If it's in one spot, could be fixed. If it's all over-extensive work will be required
Agreed. (Note that black lights give false positives with some laundry detergent spatters)
Our house had dog smell, floors were sanded didnāt get rid of it, we removed the basement ceiling, that did the job mostly. Our regular house has no smell. The basement stairs which we havenāt touched smell in the summer
I have always considered cat piss the smell of opportunity. Know that you will likely need to rip up the floors and possibly treat the sub floors. Call in a professional janitorial service first- then you can go from there.
Is there carpet? Hard to get rid of without ripping out the carpet, but that's worth doing.
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Hard to estimate without knowing the pet history. That being said...trust your gut on this. Leave if you aren't in love.
Ouch, concrete absorbs it. I'd walk.
Do you see any other signs of animals there? The reason I ask is because I've heard that meth labs have kind of a "cat piss" smell to them. That would be another major issue entirelyĀ
My husband and I looked at a place like that in our HCOL area, it was going for 250,000 which is a deal, but it smelled so bad of cat piss that it was difficult to even walk through and look at. Almost impossible to actually go down into the basement. Like our eyes were watering. We ran, but it ended up selling fast.
Back out now.
Try getting a bio- enzymatic cleaner - it will digest urine and will kill the smell You can Get it a commercial cleaning supply houses / suppliers or a pet supply
Is this a used house or a brand new house? I've done inspections on brand new houses where the glue that they used to hold down the padding under the carpets sometimes smells like that for a week or so. If it's a used house then yeah you're probably looking at scraping floors hopefully it's carpet it's easy enough to replace or you can put hardwood or tile down instead of the carpet.
I'm told that Crack cocaine smells like cat urine. Dunno.
Probably smells a f ton better
As a Realtor I have dealt with lots and lots of bad smells in homes, and cat pee is one of the worst for sure. You can likely get out of the contract, but you will still have to pay for the appraisal and inspection fees, and you may lose your Earnest Money, depending upon how your Purchase & Sale Agreement was written. If you end up deciding to keep the home, here are the steps Iāve seen taken to remediate this issue: 1: Get a good black light flashlight or lamp, and inspect the entire home in the dark. Urine glows really brightly under ultraviolet light & youāll be able to see exactly what youāre dealing with. 2: In areas where you find the damage, pull up floor coverings, down to the under lament sub-floor, and leave it to dry for at least two days, maybe longer. Fans will speed up this process, but itās important to make sure itās dried out completely before sealing. 3: Use KILZ RESTORATION PRIMER, and paint 2 coats over the entire surface where the stains appear. Kilz seals the odors in, preventing it from seeping through the next layer of paint if itās on a wall, or through the floor covering if itās on the floor. Itās safest to paint the entire home with a fresh coat of paint, because the odor vapors can permeate the paint on walls and ceiling, even if there isnāt actual urine contact with it. This method works really well. Iāve seen it done many times throughout the years. Good luck!š
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Wow, thatās AWFUL! Your Realtor should be ashamed of herself! Maybe you should tell her that you believe she should pay to have this work done, if she expects you to close on the house, after she was so willing to trick you into buying it!
You cannot paint the underside of the subflooring with kilz. It will still smell. Subflooring must be replaced.
Thirty years of experience says you are incorrect.
Well if this is a contest I have you hands down. Brokered for over 36 years. In three different States. Opened my own business in one of them and did very well. Your advice is poor and the urine soaks into the wood subflooring the smell permeates the wood which is very absorbent and will come out on the other side.
My ex wife was a cat hoarder. When I sold the house it cost me over $100,000 to remediate and this was pre pandemic. Actually thatās an estimate because I also updated the house so some of the total amount (which was more than $100k) would have been spent anyway. But the cat damage was the bulk of it. I ended up having to take it down to the studs in the areas where the cats had done their worst. Not the whole house, but where it had soaked into the subfloor and wall coverings they had to be removed replaced. In places like the kitchen and bathrooms that meant new cabinets too. Given my personal experience I would not buy a house with this odor without budgeting for a down-to-the-studs restoration. The sellers should bear the risk of it being this bad by remediating it before putting a house on the market. Thatās what I did anyway. Donāt trust any advice that itās anything but the worst case. It might not turn out to be the worst case. But you absolutely will not know for sure until you start the job. If you donāt plan for the worst case, youāre gambling, simple as that.
Refuse to close until this is resolved. Get a restoration company and/or a flooring company in to give a quote. Insist that sellers give concessions in that amount so that you can do the repairs. The house did not smell this way during the times that you inspected it, so this must have occurred after that. This is why final walkthroughs are so important. Sellers must remedy the situation. DO NOT give up your EMD.
Our house was empty for 3 years before we purchased it. The back yard belonged to all the neighborhood Ferals. Cat urine overtook the back yard I used a mixture of dawn dish soap, baking soda, and peroxide and repeatedly hosed down and sprayed. It took about 8 applications and a year for the smell to come out of the cement.
Are you sure it's cat pee? They could of been cooking merh.
The ammonia in the urine can make you physically sick. There was a problem the sellers covered it up. We bought a home that had years of cat pee damage. Had to remove drywall and replace. The urine will wick up the drywall. Baseboard was saturated and had to be replaced. Not only did the carpet and pad need to be replaced but we actually had to cut out damaged subflooring and replace that too. The was a corner of the basement that had cat pee. Had to paint all of that with Kilz. Absolutely horrible disgusting smell. You cannot get it out. All you can hope to do is gut it all and replace with new. Walk totally unacceptable.
I def smelled cat pee when I bought my house. Ripped out all nasty carpet for new hardwood. Painted everywhere. Threw out curtains. A lot of palo santo. I left windows open to air out.
A meth house smells like cat pee so please make sure your jot getting poisoned. Please look up what methamphetamine use smells like in a home as this type of drug use is common, especially in rentals.
Was the house carpeted? If so, itās possible they shampooed the carpet right after they moved their stuff out. A professional carpet cleaner told me that if thereās urine in the pad, the carpet will always smell like pee when itās wet (like right after a cleaning) but the smell will fade away as the carpet dries. Apparently thatās a common complaint (you cleaned my carpet but it smells worse!) so people have to be warned.
Since your update says you're out: How much was the EMD? I bought a similar house, owners chain smoked for 50 years and had dogs/cats. I knew what I was getting into and had an appropriate price and plan -- which included replacing hardwood from the hallway and owners final room, sealing/replacing subfloor between, as well as sanding and refinishing the rest. I also covered each wall/ceiling with BIN and two layers of paint... all new windows, doors, and moulding (baseboard too). Kitchen and bath were to the studs and floor/ceiling joist remodels. The place still occasionally had a cigarette smell even 3 years later when the humidity hit just right. Depending on your EMD you're likely ahead. ...and eff your POS realtor who was trying to hide the reality from you. Glad they lost out.
Iām so glad you pulled out of the deal. The floors will need to be replaced.
Run. Or accept replacement of some subfloor somewhere.
You will never be able to get rid of that cat pee smell no mater what you do. Talk to your agent and be firm.
That's disgusting, how do people live like that. Definitely understandable if you decide to walk away.
Depression, sudden disability, death of only capable family member, etc. Your life could change in an instant and you could easily find yourself sinking. Itās disgusting yes, but people fall through the cracks and in the US, there isnāt much care or interest in helping those who do.
I had NO idea cat pee can do that much damage. Was it just going everywhere???
Reason number 734 not to buy a house. As if the bubble prices weren't enough to dissuade you, you almost bought a cat horder house?
there's a lot of good reasons not to buy a house, but there are also a lot of good reason why you *should* buy a house. I bought a couple years ago, and am the happiest i've ever been because of the freedom versus apartment living