Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Maryland
Cat urine problems apparent AFTER home purchase
I recently purchased a home and during the inspection, I noticed there was cat urine on some areas of the carpet. I was told by both my inspector and real estate agent that a good carpet cleaning would remove it. The house smelled of air fresheners, so I was not concerned.
After moving in, I found no less than 5 air fresheners. After removing them the urine odor was unbearable. Two carpet cleanings was unsuccessful in removing the odor, so I ripped up the carpet to discovered that the urine had rotted the carpet tack strips and penetrated into the flooring in numerous areas of the house. Now, much of the flooring underneath needs to be replaced at a very large expense and some areas may not be able to be replaced at all.
Given the odor, there is absolutely no way the previous owner didn't know about the smell. Especially since she used multiple air fresheners to cover it up. Do I have any recourse?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Cat urine problems apparent AFTER home purchase
Your assertions as to the non-obvious nature of the cat urine seem to be undercut by your other assertions as to how prominent an issue it is.
An argument that the cat urine is a non-discoverable defect that was known by the seller and purposefully not disclosed is a possible tact albeit not with out problems.
Replacing all the sub-flooring is quite an expensive remedy for this situation. You may want to consider painting the flooring several times with suitable paint to encase the flooring within a covering of paint (or other suitable substance).
Did the previous owner have a cat? Was the cat removed from the house when it was shown to you? You may want to consider trying to get compensation to share the costs of encasing the smell.
BTW: I applied the "encasing" approach with much success after our cat left.
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