Regular inspection, sir. Regular inspection.
Almost any lease gives you the right to do so. You can use repairs as an excuse if you need to.
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I understand you aren't in this business, so I'll try to explain. This is a business and the way you make money is by not having turn over. If we had time to inspect all the units the tenants would find it intrusive. Also, if upon doing an inspection we determined that the floors needed to be done how do you do this with a tenant in the apartment? Also, the smell until the polyurethane drys 12-24 hrs is very hard to live with. All these factors, tenant irritation, smell and impracticality of doing the work in an occupied unit leads to a simple solution NO PETS.
There is no way to determine who is going to be a responsible pet owner and who isn't. Eviction is a long expensive process and you lose good tenants who don't want to be around the problem during the process.
What we are seeing now is pet friendly buildings are have occupancy problems because pet owners are finding these buildings have aggressive animals in them and the buildings are not as well maintained. I know because I get calls from pet owners all the time and they tell me.
I'm not sure where you are, but in GA landlords have it easy. Eviction is a VERY simple process before a magistrate.
I took a course once on "tenant's rights" - short answer, they ain't got any, not in Georgia anyhow.
You send the guy in to change the light bulbs or the furnace filter, he smells urine or faeces, you issue a warning if you like . . . or just start the eviction process. Excess turnover is certainly an issue, but who says a pet deposit has to be $400? One month's rent? Judgment for the excess damages?
I'm not in the real property rental business (don't have the patience or the temper for it) but my husband used to assist at evictions in his younger and wilder days (he and another large young man would accompany the petite 98 pound landlord when she served the notices, just to head off any trouble) so I've had a ringside seat, so to speak.