UK landlords are used to tenants moving cats and dogs into their properties, even when the tenancy agreement says “no pets”. It’s a common problem. Tenants like to share their homes with pets, which is fine until they start to cause damage. Stories of homes where dogs have defecated everywhere and cats have scratched carpets abound, but a Canadian landlord has had a much worse time.
Nightmare Tenants Move In
The landlord formed a good first impression of his new tenants when he leased a three-bedroom rental property in Ontario. Unfortunately, shortly after the tenants moved in, they started introducing livestock into the house. This might have been tolerable, except they failed to clean up the mess. There were reports of a goat, chickens, rabbits, dogs and cats living inside the house, which nobody bothered cleaning up after. They also didn’t bother paying any rent on the property.
Long Eviction Process
It took the landlord seven months to obtain an eviction order to get the couple and their son out of the property. By the time they did move out, the damage was horrendous. Timber floors were soaked in urine and there was mess everywhere. The landlord hired professional cleaners, filled two large skips with rubbish and animal carcasses, and ripped up the floors in an attempt to rectify the damage.
He now says he will only let his rental property out on short-term lets, as this will make it easier to evict problem tenants.
