We had our first march out after living in a house for 3 1/2 years. We owned 3 dogs for all of that, 4 for the last year. At the pre-march out, the first thing the chap said to my DH when he turned up was 'you've had a menagerie in here then?'. He then spend ages 'inspecting' the lawn, saying 'well, you can see the dogs have damaged this. You know we can't put a family with small DC in the house if you've had dogs in the garden?', to which my DH replied the dogs had not been on the lawn the entire time we'd lived in the house as we'd fenced off the large patio area so the dogs only had access to that, not the lawn.
So then the chap said that if there was event he tiniest hint of the smell of dogs in the house upon his return, we would be billed for all the carpets and they'd be subject to deep cleaing/fumigation.
So, he's been this morning, and suprise, suprise, he has billed us for every carpet, bizarrely, except the hallways, saying there is a 'strong smell' of dogs in the house. Apparently they now have to be deep cleaned and if the 'smell' is gone, the bill will be torn up.
The welfare officer seems to think this is standard practice if you've owned a dog/dogs. Is it really?
I understand the house can't smell of dogs, but we have painted the entire house, including some glossing and washed every bit of woodwork. We have shampoo'ed the carpets twice, with two different, very good cleaners, put fresh curtains up (well, we took down and packed away the army curtains when we moved in) and had the dogs out of the house and the windows open for 10 days.
The bill is large and I feel pretty annoyed that he is saying the house still smells of dogs, I don't believe it does, not least as the dogs weren't allowed upstairs, yet we are also being billed for those carpets, and spent the majority of their time in the tiled kitchen.
Are they usually like this?