Two of our parks are in rural settings. Naturally, we get bears, deer, etc roaming which in general aren’t nuisances. Certainly nothing for a park owner to do anything about other than the obvious enforcement of trash rules, etc. For whatever reason this year we’ve had a ton of woodchucks. Burrowing under sheds, homes, etc. Their presence isn’t caused by anything particular tenants do (like feeding a feral cat, for instance).
As a park owner would you take care of this issue or push it back on the resident who’s lot / shed / home has the animal burrowing under it?
Wow.
I had a RAT problem at one of my Country Parks.
We simply hired an exterminator and passed the expense along to the tenants. It was $200/month after an initial $500 or so.
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I purchased a live trap and loan it to my tenants when they have a animal problem.
Large enough for cats, coons, skunks, ground hogs etc.
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@SDGuy good strategy. I usually shrug these things off as “hey you’re living in the woods what can you do” but in this case it’s definitely causing some havoc in the area so it probably warrants some action
@Greg thanks Greg that’s a good thought too. Good thing to have around for the occasional wandering cat too.
What do you do with the animals once they are caught? Our local SPCA no longer takes cats.
I used to do that same thing.
“Hey, you moved out to the mountains, of course, there are critters.”
Then I almost got sued. It took me all of 15 minutes to call the manager to say “Set up an exterminator and send out a $3.00/month rent increase to cover the costs.”
From that day forward our response to any critter complaint was “Oh, we have a guy for that, here is his number.”
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We never have a problem with city people dropping off their cats near our community. Foxes, wolves, fishers and bears keep all stray cats under control.
Decided to go that route too. At the end of the day it might happen 2 times a year, in this case it will be $500 to get them out. Just another small thing we can do as owners to make tenants feel like the lot rent is “worth it” and maintain a professional park.
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@EricBarshinger we have a few non-spca non profits… at a minimum they spay/neuter and release.