Would you buy a house that smelled of dog?

[Newdad19]

We have sold our property and of these we have viewed to buy there is one that ticks all of of the boxes in terms of size, location and layout.

However the vendors have 5 small dogs and when we viewed there was a noticable smell of dog throughout, which theyd also attempted to mask with candles etc. Would this put you off or is it redeemable? Assuming we would need to recarpet the full house but am worried that wouldnt resolve it.

Anyone purchased a house with similair?

You’d probably have to recarpet and scrub everything. We had a dog smell in the house we’re in now, once we’d removed the (for some reason two layers of) carpet it was fine

It wouldn’t bother me - a good clean and kick of paint and it will be fine.

Depends if it was just dog fur smell and I could afford to replace the carpets/flooring or whether the dogs had pissed/shit everywhere and it would be soaked into the floorboards.

Yes. The smell is in their soft furnishings, which will go when they do. Air it out, new carpet, fresh coat of paint and you're good to go

The house we bought had one dog living there, got the keys from the estate agent and literally came in and ripped the carpets out because my goodness it stunk super bad once it was empty and that was with one dog.....

Yes we did... literally heaved every time I came home for the first 6 weeks until we had got some carpets up and paint on. It was truly worse than I ever imagined it could of been I can't lie.
Only bought the house cuz of the potential as it was identical the the house id grown up in. 3 months on we are getting there but every room needed decorating and fuming!

Didnt smell too much like piss just a distinctive smell of dog really.

Should also note I dont have anything against dogs :-) but think the fact there was 5 in the property is what has made it so strong.

I'd definitely still get it, but plan to remove the carpets before you move in!

@peonytruffle is the smell gone now?

Well the smell isn't going to be in the plaster and bricks. It will be in soft furnishings. As soon as they are gone the smell will be too.

Yeah, it'll be fine. Do budget for new carpets/flooring throughout though, include that into your calculations if you weren't already.

@jcq17 whats the smell like now? Totally gone?

When we bought our house they had a dog and weren't the cleanest overall. We just ripped up all carpets and gutted the whole place (cleaning) and it's never smelt since.

Thanks for the encouraging replies. Would you factor the cost of that into your offer and tell the owners?

Trying to deal with it tactfully!

My parents moved bought a house in December that stunk of dog, I made me heave. It was incredibly dirty aswell. One professional cleaning company for a weekend, and then them scrubbing it and repainting/ putting their furniture in and you would never know. It was a lot of work initially tho. They kept their furniture in storage and we all cleaned every day constantly for about a week. A few new carpets in the worst rooms, but honestly it’s a stunning house and they are very happy there. I’m so pleased they overlooked the state it was sold in

No I wouldn't factor that into the offer - that would be laughably ridiculous. Of course you can offer whatever you like, but if you mention you had reduced the offer because of that they would rightly think you were loons.

You need to factor in the cost of new carpets. Whether you take that off your offer is down to you and the actual post survey valuation.

Well yes, if there are carpets they would need changing. But most places don't have many carpets and any there are normally need replacing regardless

@newdad

Yes, but it was truly grim for a while. Carpets and underlay had to go

We did, our previous owner bred Pugs and the house smelled like a dog basket. She had 10 of them!

there were Tiled floors downstairs which really helped, but after decorating and cleaning the carpets upstairs , there was no trace of dog.

The worse damage was chewed woodwork- skirting boards, banisters, doors- which I have to admit had been well covered and we didn't spot them when we viewed. Expensive to fix and hard to rectify. And chewed thermostatic radiator valves!

I looked at an empty auction property a few months ago and it was stripped out to shell , think very basic , just empty rooms , no bathrooms kitchen heating and most of the doors skirting out too - much work needed , yet it still needed more taking out as it stank of dog , that warm big dog smell that's not rank but definitely dog , I think the plaster, floorboards and joists were impregnated with dog odour , worst I've ever smelt , there were claw marks up the walls in an upstairs room poor dogs must have been shut in there .

I'm sure the place you have viewed will not be anyway near as bad and once you get rid of the soft furnishings , carpets etc , give it a good deep clean and air , possibility some painting it will be fine

Of course if it's dog piss then that can get into floorboards.

Get a professional cleaning company in. Carpets all steamed cleaned (you could probably get the whole house done for a couple of hundred pounds) and woodwork and windows and everything scrubbed. Lots of windows open and that might just been enough. I'd definitely try that before rushing in and replacing all the carpets.m

If it's the perfect house in every other way then go for it.

Yes, it would put it me off through and I would factor it in to the offer as I’d have to make changes to the property to eradicate the smell.