HELP! Didn't know about cat in property until moving in date!

[katapigeon]

Hello All!

 

I really wish if I wouldn't need to keep coming back here because of rogue landlords!!!

 

So the brief story is,

 

I am due to move out from my current place and found this nice, clean, new room in a house only 2 streets away,

so hiring a man&van won't break the bank but the room is quite pricey for the area

- was in hope to get quality for my money.

 

Everything was nice, clean and fresh smelling when I viewed the room and property last weekend.

I was shown around by the tenant who has the cat but she didn't say a thing of course and as I didn't see obvious signs (nor smells) of a pet,

I didn't ask if there were any pets as in my experience people always tell about this sort of thing upfront.

 

I signed contract this Wed 19th of Sept 2012 and paid 1 month's rent upfront and 1 month's rent worth of deposit and got keys handed to me.

 

Says in my contract that besides of other rules, I am not allowed to keep pets so it gave me the impression the same rule applies to everyone else in the same property.

 

I went round there tonight just to check how my stuff gonna fit in the new room as I am due to move in tomorrow or the latest on the day after.

 

Only now I found out about a cat being kept in the house!

 

The cat belongs to a mum and daughter (daughter is about 18-20) who rent another room upstairs.

Just now when I was there, the cat was in my new room, having a nap on the double bed

but the 2-seater sofa in the room was also covered in cat fur,

and there was this reeking stink of ('scuse the language), cat p*ss as it's a male cat and as we all know, they 'mark' their territory around - in this case in my new room!!!

 

Do I just have to put up with this now???

 

I am not allergic to cats but the landlord didn't know that before I paid for the room so I might as well could be.

I am also outraged by how stinky my new room is now!

I'm afraid this smell will remain and airing the room or using air freshener not gonna be much help as the smell gone into all the furniture.

I feel depressed and ripped off.....

 

The other problem is that my job is to work for a family looking after their kids where one of the parents is actually allergic to cats.

 

Now I'm also worried, that just by living under the same roof with a cat,

it will leave enough traces on my clothes, hands, handbags, etc to be enough to trigger the allergic reaction,

which would very likely upset the parents when they realize it's me.

 

Can anyone advise what is the best thing to do now and if I have any legal rights to resolve this?

 

I feel like I should be getting a discount on the rent at the least!

 

I will be moving out from there ASAP as the smell is churning my stomach, feeling sick already having to move in there!

 

Thanks for any help!

Edited September 21, 2012 by katapigeon

[mariner51]

Your individual AST is for room only, not communal areas. It is difficult for LL to enforce a No Pets policy even if condition of T AST.AllI can suggest is to note cat smell & fur on your room in move in inventory if not yet signed. or invite LL to your room to experience smell etc, before suggesting prof deep clean at LL expense, due ro other Ts cat, for which they may have been granted permission to keep.

[Conniff]

Personally I think you are going over the top about the smell.

[Dotty50]

Have you approached the landlord? Your second sentence in your first post mentions rogue landlords but this may be something they are not aware of so I would certainly be getting them round to see your new room and the problems you have.

 

I agree what you are saying about the smell, Tom's can be pretty awful when they spray, but it will go and then you need to ensure that the cat cannot access your room again.

[katapigeon]

Personally I think you are going over the top about the smell.

 

I wouldn't stay up til 2am to write my story here if the smell wasn't THAT horrible!

[sparkeyrjp]

Personally I think you are going over the top about the smell.

 

For a representative of the site team that comment is unwarranted and facetious , To a person who does not keep cats , there will ALWAYS be a lingering odour if a cat is present .

 

And so say the OP is overreacting at the smell left by a tom marking its territory is beneath contempt

Conniff you owe the OP an apology

[katapigeon]

Have you approached the landlord? Your second sentence in your first post mentions rogue landlords but this may be something they are not aware of so I would certainly be getting them round to see your new room and the problems you have.

 

I agree what you are saying about the smell, Tom's can be pretty awful when they spray, but it will go and then you need to ensure that the cat cannot access your room again.

 

 

The landlord knew about the cat all along. Yesterday when I was there checking the new room, the landlord walked through the front door within 10 minutes after my arrival, said brief hi to me and quickly went upstairs with some other people, as apparently the boiler needs fixing too and they have no hot water in the house at the moment. The cat was standing on the stairs and landlord just walked past it.

By the way, since the day I have made full payment to him for deposit and rent upfront, he is not responding to my communications, including when I asked him to txt me a msg to confirm receiving my money. The bank said it'll take 2 hours to appear on his account but it took him hours to finally reply. Maybe some ppl reading all this now think that I am a whining, annoying kinda person but I can assure you that I am not. My current landlord would be more than happy if I stayed in my current place. So it's not like I keep ringing the landlord's phone every 5mins with something to complain about. It's just that it's a new place and if it would be exactly in the same condition as it was when I viewed it, then I wouldn't need to be writing here. So for example, when I signed the contract in front of this new landlord and he gave me the keys, I said to him that is it ok if I go to the room now because I need to check how my stuff will fit in. He said, yes ok but we agreed you are only moving in your stuff on Sat, to which I nodded and it's true. No probs with that. Before I left him, he said, the mum and daughter in the house have got a lot of stuff and they are trying to shift some of it to somewhere else to free some space so there might will be 1 or 2 boxes of stuff around in the house. I said to him, as long as I can take measurement in my new room with a tape measurer along walls, between wall and wardrobe, etc. it's fine with me. But when I got there the same evening, on Wed this week, my new room was absolutely flooded with boxes of stuff, up to the ceiling and covering up every piece of furniture that if you didn't know there was a wardrobe, you couldn't see it! Now in my dictionary, there is a difference between '1 or 2 boxes will be there' and 'your room is flooded with stuff, don't waste your time going there'. Hope everyone gets the full picture now.

So finally yesterday evening I could actually take the measurements I needed and that's when the stink hit me for the first time together with seeing cat fur on sofa, bed, etc.

Did call landlord on Wed evening about why he couldn't tell me not to go there wasting my time, to which he replied that he did tell me there are boxes.... I asked to notify me when I can come to take the measurements. He never did, I just went there yesterday. This morning I sent him the following txt msg:

 

'Good Morning! I am txting you to say that I haven't been aware of a cat living in the house until yesterday evening! I also found yesterday that now there is an unbearable smell of cat wee in my new room and cat fur covers all the furniture, these hasn't been occuring at the time of my viewing. Can you please make sure for all traces of cat fur and cat smell (!!!) to be gone, thanks. I have cancelled my move in for today to allow sufficient time for this to be carried out and I will be awaiting You to notify me when the room is clean and free of pet odour. Also one of the parents where I work is highly allergic to cats so it would've been only fair to indicate this issue to me prior to signing the lease!'

 

Yes I am angry but who wouldn't be? Last sentence is not made up about someone being cat allergic in the family for whom I work for. I am not sure if this will become an issue or not with the family but in case if it does, I wanted this new landlord to be aware of it.

[katapigeon]

Could I pull out from moving there without losing my money? On another forum, someone says I could but the landlord would get to keep half of what's been paid or at least the costs of the cleaning, etc additional costs that occured due to my complaint. I can justify this last one for cleaning costs but not to keeping half or more of my money.

Also I am not sure what is happening now if it is being cleaned or not as I got no reply from LL. Shall I also email him?

[ashmk]

Trap it in a box and take it for a long drive.

[katapigeon]

Trap it in a box and take it for a long drive.

 

Normally I would find it funny....

Surely noone would get suspicious who's responsible for the cat 'disappearing'.... I do like cats but not in my home thanks!

Would never hurt a pet, it's not their fault!

[ashmk]

Normally I would find it funny....

 

Wasn't a joke

[Dotty50]

http://england.shelter.org.uk/

 

Have a look here, it should give you more information about your rights etc, if it were me, I'd stay where I am and advise the landlord in writing why you have not moved in and see what response you get.

 

Did you think to take any pictures of the state of the room filled with boxes?