Landlord of cat-infested home stuck with $50k bill
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Landlord of cat-infested home stuck with $50k bill
August 15, 2009
One of 94 cats and kittens the Nanaimo SPCA seized from desperate
conditions at cedar home after owners were evicted.
One of 94 cats and kittens the Nanaimo SPCA seized from desperate
conditions at cedar home after owners were evicted.
Photograph by: Krista Bryce, Nanaimo Daily News
NANAIMO � A cat-hoarding tenant left her Vancouver Island landlord with
a $50,000 mess.
Nanaimo businesswoman Irene Wenngatz owns the home where SPCA officials
rescued 94 cats and kittens from deplorable conditions on Monday. The
SPCA was contacted by bailiffs who were in the process of evicting
Wenngatz's tenant.
SPCA investigators said the home in Cedar, which is a Nanaimo suburb,
was overrun with cats, the floors were thick with animal waste and dead
cats and kittens were being kept in a freezer. Although 94 cats were
taken from the home, a number of animals were left behind.
Wenngatz had been trying for months to remove the tenant, who stopped
paying her rent eight months ago, she said. The homeowner said she was
caught up in a nightmarish delay with tenancy arbitrators that may have
allowed her former tenant to acquire more cats.
Wenngatz purchased the property two years ago.
The former Alberta resident said she can't believe the bureaucratic
haggling she had to endure with the arbitrators, especially since she
said she was deceived by her former tenant from the beginning of their
relationship.
"She told me she had no pets," Wenngatz said.
She later learned that her former tenant had given another area
landlord the same grief.
A couple of months after renting the woman the home, the woman stopped
paying her rent. Wenngatz estimates the tenant owes her about $18,000
in unpaid rent.
Once she started the arbitration process, Wenngatz went to the home and
was shocked by what she saw.
"There were cats everywhere. She had tore out the carpets and kicked
holes in the wall just for them," she said.
She took pictures so that she could show the arbitrator. Still, the
process dragged on and on.
"This should have only taken a couple of weeks but eight months, that's
ridiculous. There are times I can't believe how different things are
here than they are in Alberta," said Wenngatz. "God only knows how much
damage was done during the negotiations with the arbitrator and before
he made his ruling and when I first started proceedings to get an order
of possession. I couldn't stand being in there when I was taking the
pictures. The place stank."
The arbitrator finally ruled in Wenngatz's favour in late June and her
tenant was given two days to get out.
Wenngatz's former tenant could not be reached for comment.