Current owners of our new house (under contract) have stopped picking up after their dog.

[Anonymous]

The same problem happens to pretty much every buyer who rents back during the fall. While the house is for sale = immaculate yard with no leaves to be seen. During rentback = Hey I'm only going to be here another two months. Why should I rake up the leaves?

[Anonymous]

Not sure there is much you can do about this - it isn't a question of the house itself, but the yard. It sucks.

We just bought a house and had a somewhat similar experience in that the owners totally let the yard go before closing...didn't care except that there was poison ivy everywhere (we have 3 young kids).

It sucked, but we couldn't force the owners to do anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree about getting an estimate for a clean up, and if its still bad when you do your walk through have your agent get them to put the cost of the clean up in escrow to be paid when it is done. We did something like this when we bought our house because it wasn't broom clean - there was a lot of junk and other stuff left behind, and we didn't want to deal with it, so our agent got the seller to put money is escrow to pay for one of those junk hauler companies to clean it out later that day.

the contract calls for the house to be broom-clean and free of personal property, but doesn't call for the yard to be free of dog shit. you don't know what you are writing about.

[Anonymous]

OP,
The dogs were shitting and peeing in the backyard before, you just didn't know it.
There is dog shit and dog pee in every park in the land!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I don't want to ask them to do anything, I feel like the damage (or mess) is done. I know it may seem like a weird question, but is the yard "contaminated" in a way that rain won't fix? I swear I'm not crazy about cleanliness, but fecal bacteria is no joke. How long it live on a surface? I'm going to google this. I mean, would you scoop up a pile of dog shit and then immediately set your baby down in that spot? See my point here?

its fine. run a sprinkler for a few hours after you clean up the poop. and if you like, wait a week after cleaning up the dog shit if that makes you feel any better. there is a lot of "shit" in your yard that you don't know about - bird shit, insect bodies, mouse shit, dead mouses, snakes, spiders, whatever else.

[Anonymous]

OMG

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I don't want to ask them to do anything, I feel like the damage (or mess) is done. I know it may seem like a weird question, but is the yard "contaminated" in a way that rain won't fix? I swear I'm not crazy about cleanliness, but fecal bacteria is no joke. How long it live on a surface? I'm going to google this. I mean, would you scoop up a pile of dog shit and then immediately set your baby down in that spot? See my point here?

LOL. You're getting worried about nothing. Scoop the poop, wait for one or two good rains, so about a week or two after scooping (and assuming it has rained once or twice) then you're fine. I would be more concerned with chemicals previous owners had used.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, for all you know you were there the day before the weekly poop scooping.

[Anonymous]

Hey and remember awhile back there was some research showing that kids growing up around animals and in less than perfectly clean conditions were less likely to have allergies!

[Anonymous]

Not everyone cleans up after every time Fido goes outside, esp if there is a fence and they just let the dog go out. I too would be more worried about chemical fertilizers and weed control formulas then a few piles of poop

[Anonymous]

Maybe

[Anonymous]

Maybe the owners are sneaking out in the middle of the night shitting everywhere bc your inspector missed the plumbing problem

[Anonymous]

op, that would really gross me out, too. I would price a poop-scooping service and if there is poop in the yard during your walk through, ask for a personal check from the sellers to cover the cost of the cleanup. Normal people would be embarassed that they were caught doing this and really, who expects someone else to clean up their dog's shit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:op, that would really gross me out, too. I would price a poop-scooping service and if there is poop in the yard during your walk through, ask for a personal check from the sellers to cover the cost of the cleanup. Normal people would be embarassed that they were caught doing this and really, who expects someone else to clean up their dog's shit?

what color is the sky in your world?

[Anonymous]

If you don't have a dog (and we don't), the thought of picking up some random dog's poop is totally disgusting. That said, I would assume nothing about the sellers, and instead get a service lined up to come out on/near the closing date. I would also plan to pay for that service.