I'm unclear as to my rights here, and his obligations. Can I ask him to keep his cats from crossing onto my balcony? I don't feel that I should be the one who has to keep their balcony door closed at all times. I should be able to freely enjoy my property without the nuisance caused by my neighbour's cats.
Anyone have an experience similar to this? I don't want to make the cats' lives difficult, but I also don't want a home that stinks of cat pee.
Have you told your neighbor about the problem? Sometimes peeing in the wrong place is a sign of a health issue that needs to be checked.
How close are your balconies?
If it's just to your apartment, then consider netting to deter them, after talking to your neighbour first though.
And that is the problem. Instead of very gently shooing them away, you welcomed them into your home and they now see it as their territory. You say cats plural and they so am I right to assume two cats? Do they both visit together or individually? Do they both pee or just one of them? If they were regular visitors and this peeing is new, I would tell the owner what is happening, phrasing it not as a complaint, but out of concern for cat's health.
Putting up a netting as mentioned sounds a good idea
https://www.tierimrecht.org/de/recht...ck-hinterlsst/
Translation courtesy of Deepl, because my little grey cells have already had enough exercise today
If a cat causes damage on a foreign property, the damaged neighbour may have to pay for it himself. In most cases the owner is liable for the damages caused by his animal, but he can still not be held responsible in every case. You can find more information about the so-called pet owner liability, here.
(My note - follow the link in the German text, it's a general statement on liability wrt pet ownership. )
TIR then continues:
A cat owner - unlike a dog owner - cannot be expected to constantly supervise his animals. For this reason, he does not necessarily have to take responsibility for damages caused by a cat on a foreign property. But he is liable at least if he has already been legally obliged to prevent his Büsi from entering other people's property and apartments and still has not taken the necessary precautions.
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Damage caused by a free roaming cat is a tricky one in law, as cats are considered by nature 'semi-wild'.
So first step, talk to the cat owner. Try to find a solution together, emphasizing preventing future visits. Ask him what he might suggest to deter his cat. Toss in a comment about the damage - hopefully if he has any moral sense he'll voluntarily offer to pay for cleaning.
However, be prepared that some cat owners will shrug off any responsibility.
If that happens, your choice is to either resign yourself to paying for the damage or to try to take the matter further - but be aware that the latter is likely to cost you more than it might be worth.
So... that's a bit about the legal situation.
Were it me, I'd focus on looking for common ground with the owner and finding a practical solution to deter visits. And for that, I'll defer to the forum cat experts.
Tom
If he refuses than give him a nicely signed letter and tell him that any damages occurring in your home due to his cats as of two weeks will be on his costs.
Would you consider getting a litter box? Maybe that would prevent them from peeing on your bed, etc.
A neighborhood cat was coming into our house last summer, through our garden door when it was open or when someone would open it. She would just walk right in and plop down on our sofa like it was her own house. It wasn't really a problem for us until the cat's owner got angry that she was coming into our house and tried to blame us for it. Needless to say, if she tries to come in now, we have to shoo her out.
* maybe not a good idea if it could cause the cat to freak out and fall off the balcony, though.
Or get a screen for your balcony door which allows you to open it, but doesn’t allow access. Something like this maybe.
And nothing.. Didn't soak a thing.. I think cats were scared of the actual device .. So it worked in the sense of keeping them away but i wanted to soak them..
Soon as i removed the device .. Cat crap over the garden again.. I might just sit it there like a scarecrow.
Its called Katzennetz/Katzenschutznetz
I had a bit of an altercation yesterday with a dog owner in my building, young guy who has a Malamute type of breed that seems to live on his balcony most days. When he can't be bothered taking it for a walk he takes into the courtyard with a ball and the dog jumps on all the plants, flattens them and digs, it also disturbs the stones in the central feature that's for draining rain away. I've complained to the agent before who says dog owners don't have permission to do this. As I'm on a mezzanine level I've had the ball off my French doors before.
Anyway, he was out there yesterday and I was a bit startled when I saw him as my shutters were up, when I looked out he gave me the one finger salute. 5 mins later he rang my bell, I answered and he said he wanted to know why I have a problem with his dog (he's an arrogant little sh1t, nobody here likes him as he's a weirdo). He stayed down the hallway, but purposely put his big dog in front of him off the lead so it was between us, I can only assume to try to intimidate me as I'm late 50s and a woman.
Wrong woman to intimidate I'm afraid, you don't mess with one who's half Scots, half Irish and feisty with it. I made my points and he weedily said "I can see we are not going to get resolution on this", so I just said fine and shut the door.
He's in the habit of leaving the front door to the building wide open when he takes his mutt out, as I can see it from my flat I always go down and shut it because anyone could walk in and nick a bike from the veloroom.
The older guy often had a couple of women on his balcony on Friday nights who looked like geriatric streetwalkers with skirts up to their backsides and leather rock chick jackets
There's another 2 flats on his floor and the neighbours say they suspect he's in there all day smoking weed, aside of being with the dog he doesn't seem to go out. There's always stuff in the courtyard that's fallen from his balcony, beer cans, dog toys and a couple of weeks ago it was an ashtray, about 20 fag butts and an empty packet which our cleaners cleared away. The couple under him were really annoyed as they could see the mess from their balcony. Poor dog is really scruffy as well. He just doesn't care, a shame as this is such a great building with nice people.
But I've just setup my automatic sprayer for tonight, with the motion sense camera .. Fingers crossed for some wet cats.. They've been absent last few night due to the rain probably.