Story #2

A Bad, Bad Kitty in Parker Colorado

I had a listing in my neighborhood a couple of years ago.  The home was beautiful and a very popular model.  It was right at the start of the housing decline – and although we were not hit nearly as hard as the rest of the country, we still and continue to feel  the impact.

I represented the seller in this transaction and everything was pretty typical up through the closing, but when the buyers moved into the home the sh*t hit the fan.  In this case it was cat urine and the source could not be pin pointed!

They ended up tearing out all of the woodwork and carpeting from the main floor study because the cat had apparently done some serious damage in that room.

Even after all of that work, the odor was still unbearable!   They noticed odor got worse when they turned on the powder room fan.  At this point, I was getting calls from the other agent hoping I might be able to shed any light on what had transpired with the cat.

I called the seller several times to ask if they had ever had any issues with the cat urinating in the study or powder room.  They swore up and down that the cat was rarely, if ever even in the house.  And how dare I question them about their cat.   “It was not their fault the new buyers had a particularly sensitive olfactory system!”

Well, at this point, I didn’t believe my seller was being truthful and was also questioning the property disclosure that made no mention of cat issues.   I also felt terrible for the new home owners – who now happened to be my new neighbors!  I wanted to cooperate with them and help them in anyway I could.

(A sellers property disclosure needs to be filled out to the best of the homeowners ability and full disclosure must be made of any known material defects.  The property disclosure is NOT to be filled out by the Agent because the agent has never lived in the home.  I tell my agents to pass the property disclosure to the seller with surgical gloves, tell them to fill it out, and then pick it back up.  Now everything is electronic, but you get the point.)

I knew I personally had no knowledge of any non disclosure issues when I listed the house, so I could not be held responsible, but I felt I had a moral – if not ethical obligation to help the new home owners if I could.

To make a long story short, the new homeowners had an HVAC contractor look at the vents – and you would not believe what they found.

Apparently the cat had been urinating in the vents for long time because there was A LOT OF IT in the ducts.   Even more disturbing was as the contractor was tearing out all of the venting and duct work he kept getting whiffs of a flowery/potpourri aroma along with the cat urine!

When everything had been removed  and brought out into the sunlight, it was quite a site…and clearly not something the cat did all on it’s own.  The urine had crystallized because a liquid of some sort had been poured down the vents in an effort to flush out the cat pee!

The seller would not even take my calls at this point and informed me I would be getting a call from their attorney because I was harassing them!

The new homeowners clearly had a case against the seller I represented, but they would have had to take it to small claims court or mediate in order to get any money or damages awarded to them.  At that point they just wanted to be done with it.  So, the seller got away with this one, but I am confidant “Karma” will get them in the end!

Is there a lesson to be learned from this?  Let me know what you think!

Anne