i do agree that the landlord has the right to be mad at the tenants that
had ferrets in that apartment, however, i'm not sure i'd blame the damage
on the ferrets.  i'd have to place blame on the renters for not taking care
of their apartment and/or properly training their ferrets.  i also agree
that it's tenants like that that ruin it for people like me...let me share
my story.  (i realize it's long, BIG, and i hope it doesn't cause you too
many problems)
 
we moved into this apartment in july of 98 and the lease we signed said
nothing about "no pets".  so we brought the ferrets in and lived happily
for quite a few months.  then we got some new neighbors who liked to
complain about a lot of things, but never brought the problems they had to
the source (they never mentioned anything to us or to our other neighbor
about any problems they had with all of us...they'd just run to the
landlord).  so anyways, one day i got a call from our landlord and she was
asking about our other neighbor's car then she brought up the question of
whether or not we had pets.  and i had no reason to lie to her because
afterall i didn't know we weren't suppose to have them.  i told her we had
ferrets and she said there was a no pet policy and i told her i never saw
that in the lease...blah blah blah.  and i told her that i'm not going to
argue with her about it and she said that she'd work with us on it.  she
said that we could pay them an extra $100 deposit just in case there was
any damage and the ferrets could stay, but if we didn't want to do that the
ferrets would have to go.  so of course we paid the $100.  ok, everything
was fine and dandy again.  so around june of this year they called again
trying to tell us that the neighbors that complain about everything were
complaining of a odor.  we didn't agree there was an odor but we said we'd
be extra careful just in order to please them.  so in july we renewed our
lease (big mistake) and the ferrets were written into the lease.  however
it stated that if anyone complained about odor they'd have to leave or we'd
have to move out.  we didn't have much of a choice about it at that time
because there was nowhere for us to go (due to our financial situation).
so we signed and figured we start looking for apartments when it came
time for us to sign the lease next year, or possibly before that.  so our
complaining neighbors moved out right around the time we had a leak in our
kitchen.  the landlord gave us a few problems with that but that's beside
the point.  so he came over unannounced one saturday and fixed the leak.
while he was here he said that he could smell an odor coming from the
ferrets.  you have to remember that he put off fixing the leak when we told
him to come over and there was mildew under the sink and a huge water spot
on our carpeted kitchen floor...so there was an odor, but it was NOT
ferret!!  the ferrets were kept in our bedroom and i cleaned their litter
box out everyday, sometimes twice depending on how much they went.  anyways
the bedroom door was closed and he swore up and down he could smell a
ferret smell in the kitchen.  we've had people over to our house before and
nobody has ever said there was an odor (you could say they were just being
nice but most were family or close friends so they would've said if there
was a ferret odor).  if we hadn't cleaned the litter box and had the door
open you could at times smell them if you were right by the bedroom door,
but nowhere else in the apartment.  so anyways, i didn't agree there was
a smell when the landlord was here but i said i'd work on it, and he said
he'd work with us.  so the following monday or tuesday i cleaned out the
ferret cage (lysoled it, new bedding, new litter...the works!!) and
pinsoled the whole apartment and it was smelling better than when we moved
into it!  i went to take the garbage from the cage out and the landlord
was there and i thought he was showing the girl who was going to clean the
carpets in the other apartment what he want done.  she was inside the
aparment when he told me that i looked exhausted and i said i am because i
was just cleaning out the ferret cage.  then the girl came outside and i
went back in.  later that night the landlord called me up and said they
were trying to show the apartment that day and that the girl they showed it
to smelled an odor and heard me say that we had pets and she inquired about
owning pets in the apartment.  and when they told her no she left and they
didn't think they'd be hearing from her again.  so anyways, they said that
they didn't think it was going to work out with the ferrets and that they'd
either have to leave the apartment or we'd have to be out in 30 days.  they
gave us time to talk it over and we decided the best thing to do was to
move them over to my in-law's house that way we'd be able to look for an
apartment without a time limit to move out.  when my husband called her to
tell her that she tried to get him to say that we were going to be out in
30 days and he had to get a bit snotty with her.  you have to keep in mind
a couple things.
 
1. the previous tenants in apt. #1 smoked A LOT!!  the landlords
themselves said that it just reeked of cigarette smoke.  so it seems to
me that it would be impossible for them to smell an odor when the smoke
covered up just about everything.
2. we're all on the same heat exchange and the neighbor we got along with
said that she could smell their cigarette smoke.  therefore if there was
a ferret odor she would've been able to smell that too, and that just
isn't so.
3. the landlord claimed he had never smoke and he had never owned a
ferret, so how exactly would he know a ferret odor from a people odor?
4. after pinesoling the whole apartment, how on earth could there have
been an odor?
5. we offered to have them come over and inspect the apartment for damages
after we moved the ferrets over to my in-law's house so that we could get
our $100 deposit back, but they refused.  they said that the deposit was on
hold until we moved out because they'd have to look for damages,
particularly odor damage.  doesn't it sound a little odd?
6. we gave them an info sheet on ferrets when we sent them the $100 deposit
(it included the positive and negative aspects of owning a ferret) and they
still believe that ferrets spray urine like cats.
 
currently dweezil and opie are living at my in-law's house and doing quite
well.  we go over there everyday to let them out to play and feed/water
them.  we hope to be in a new apartment sometime in january or february,
and this time we're sure they accept pets!!
 
sorry for the long post, it's just that i wanted to tell you all that
just because you think your landlord is going to work with you doesn't
necessarily mean they're not going to change their mind along the way.
 
holly
[Posted in FML issue 2899]