What's with the "no pet" policies? (San Diego: apartment, renters)

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by MrNiceGuy06

I was surprised too w/San Diego's rep. for being such a dog friendly city. And the apt. complexes that do allow for pets charge ridiculously high pet rent charges. Every leasing office I visited said the same thing, one or two bad pet owners ruined it for everyone.

I used to rent out one of my rooms and I let a "friend" rent it with his two dogs. I tried to be nice and only made him give a $1000 deposit but at the end of one year his dogs had done more then $1000 damage to my house. The carpets were damaged, my leather sofas got scratched by dog claws because he (unlike my parent's family dog) didn't train his dogs to stay off the furniture, the dogs got excited when ever he came home and one day one of them literally jumped through the front room window breaking it, when he'd leave they'd scratch at the door damaging the wood, and the paint in the hall ways was damaged because the dogs would rub up against the walls getting dirt and oil on the walls leaving the hallway with dark smudges from dog height to below.

In short there are a lot of bad pet owners out there and property owners don't need to be bothered risking damage to their property by renting to a pet owner so why should they? It's just not worth the hassle (repainting, replacing carpets, fixing other damage). I love dogs, was raised in a family which owned dogs, but my dad was kind of a control freak and he was tireless in training the dogs so our dogs were extremely well behaved. You could walk them without a leash and they would ALWAYS obey verbal commands and stay heeled without running off even if they saw a cat or squirrel or something. I used to go jogging around Lake Miramar with that dog off the leash all the time and he always behaved well and the rangers knew both me and the dog so they let us get away with technically breaking the leash laws.

The problem is most dog owners don't train their pets as well so all it takes is one bad owner and everything changes. It sucks but that's reality.

[MrNiceGuy06]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

I used to rent out one of my rooms and I let a "friend" rent it with his two dogs. I tried to be nice and only made him give a $1000 deposit but at the end of one year his dogs had done more then $1000 damage to my house. The carpets were damaged, my leather sofas got scratched by dog claws because he (unlike my parent's family dog) didn't train his dogs to stay off the furniture, the dogs got excited when ever he came home and one day one of them literally jumped through the front room window breaking it, when he'd leave they'd scratch at the door damaging the wood, and the paint in the hall ways was damaged because the dogs would rub up against the walls getting dirt and oil on the walls leaving the hallway with dark smudges from dog height to below.

In short there are a lot of bad pet owners out there and property owners don't need to be bothered risking damage to their property by renting to a pet owner so why should they? It's just not worth the hassle (repainting, replacing carpets, fixing other damage). I love dogs, was raised in a family which owned dogs, but my dad was kind of a control freak and he was tireless in training the dogs so our dogs were extremely well behaved. You could walk them without a leash and they would ALWAYS obey verbal commands and stay heeled without running off even if they saw a cat or squirrel or something. I used to go jogging around Lake Miramar with that dog off the leash all the time and he always behaved well and the rangers knew both me and the dog so they let us get away with technically breaking the leash laws.

The problem is most dog owners don't train their pets as well so all it takes is one bad owner and everything changes. It sucks but that's reality.

Yep.

[lucyluc]

As a landlord for 20 yrs I have finally had it and instituted a NO PET policy. Why????When pets do damage the premises, the tenant always denies it and you have to take them to court. Cats especially can do massive damage.I rented to a nice lady once and she said she had 2 cats,it turned out she had 6.Yes, when she left the place APPEARED clean,but she had put air fresheners in the house and soon the brand new carpet showed evidence of major urine damage.The carpet layers took extra long to put in new carpet...upstairs it had damged the subfloor and they had to bring in special chemicals they use when there are dead bodies in the house.They said cats are way more destructive than dogs. They also backed up to the corners of the room and pissed on the walls!After over 20,000 in damage over the yrs from pets I refuse to ever allow pets and am very happy I did.I have had door jambs chewed down by puppies....pets are incredibly damaging.

[DR TORQUENSTEIN]

Originally Posted by lucyluc

As a landlord for 20 yrs I have finally had it and instituted a NO PET policy. Why????When pets do damage the premises, the tenant always denies it and you have to take them to court. Cats especially can do massive damage.I rented to a nice lady once and she said she had 2 cats,it turned out she had 6.Yes, when she left the place APPEARED clean,but she had put air fresheners in the house and soon the brand new carpet showed evidence of major urine damage.The carpet layers took extra long to put in new carpet...upstairs it had damged the subfloor and they had to bring in special chemicals they use when there are dead bodies in the house.They said cats are way more destructive than dogs. They also backed up to the corners of the room and pissed on the walls!After over 20,000 in damage over the yrs from pets I refuse to ever allow pets and am very happy I did.I have had door jambs chewed down by puppies....pets are incredibly damaging.

well you just got a bad tenant then...who not only lied about how many pets she had, but they were not potty trained as well. that's just bad pet ownership.


my cats have never once pooped or peed anywhere but their litter box, which gets emptied everyday and taken outside to the garbage.

[lucyluc]

its a gamble to rent to tenants with pets period.After 20 years even the good tenants who paid rent on time still left a damaged house. I did have 1 person with a cat who did no visible damage...maybe that was you.

[DR TORQUENSTEIN]

Originally Posted by lucyluc

its a gamble to rent to tenants with pets period.After 20 years even the good tenants who paid rent on time still left a damaged house. I did have 1 person with a cat who did no visible damage...maybe that was you.

maybe it wasn't seeing how i live in fl and this is the only house I've ever rented.


don't be bitter.

be more thorough on your walk-throughs and don't be quick to give back their security deposit until you're 100 percent sure everything's good.


again, my cats don't **** on the floors because I'm a good owner.

[lucyluc]

I would not mind renting to people with pets if they would admit the damage and just PAY for it without me having to take them to court. The deposit never covers the damage.I just replaced new carpet that was urine damaged.The new carpet was 3200,I put in laminate floors for 5300. I too love animals,ok I have a dog but the stress of renting to people with pets wasnt worth it and right now the rental market is really good for landlords and I have plenty of people who dont have pets.Also people dont realize how much HAIR needs to be cleaned up.As an example, cat hair goes everywhere...every vent in the house has to be cleaned; the ceiling fans too, the tops of the kitchen cabinets and even the bottoms of the cabinets catch hair.It can even clogg up window tracks.Most tenants wont clean that and I am very picky I want new tenants to move into a squeaky clean house.

[DR TORQUENSTEIN]

Originally Posted by lucyluc

I would not mind renting to people with pets if they would admit the damage and just PAY for it without me having to take them to court. The deposit never covers the damage.I just replaced new carpet that was urine damaged.The new carpet was 3200,I put in laminate floors for 5300. I too love animals,ok I have a dog but the stress of renting to people with pets wasnt worth it and right now the rental market is really good for landlords and I have plenty of people who dont have pets.Also people dont realize how much HAIR needs to be cleaned up.As an example, cat hair goes everywhere...every vent in the house has to be cleaned; the ceiling fans too, the tops of the kitchen cabinets and even the bottoms of the cabinets catch hair.It can even clogg up window tracks.Most tenants wont clean that and I am very picky I want new tenants to move into a squeaky clean house.

While I agree with most of what you're saying, this is why some landlords, like mine, charge double security + a pet deposit.

for me, that was 4500 dollars.

there's no way my pitbull/cats could do that much damage in this house.

the prices you stated for the flooring are a bit high...not only that...normally, when a dog/cat messes up a carpet/wood floor, it's usually where they spend most of their time.

my cats never leave my room and my dogs stay out back on an acre.

Then again, I'm probably a model tenant. LOL

I keep my house **** and span and my pets are very well trained.

The only mess my dogs make is on the porch, tracking in mud when it rains, but I'm so anal that I pressure wash the porch every other week

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by DR TORQUENSTEIN

well you just got a bad tenant then...who not only lied about how many pets she had, but they were not potty trained as well. that's just bad pet ownership.


my cats have never once pooped or peed anywhere but their litter box, which gets emptied everyday and taken outside to the garbage.

I agree she got a bad tenant but that's the whole point. It only takes one bad tenant to cost a landlord money and then after that s/he decides to never rent to a pet owner again. In markets with low rental vacancies they can get away with it too.

[DR TORQUENSTEIN]

Originally Posted by Oerdin

I agree she got a bad tenant but that's the whole point. It only takes one bad tenant to cost a landlord money and then after that s/he decides to never rent to a pet owner again. In markets with low rental vacancies they can get away with it too.

I totally agree. Just, as a pet owner, I see the op's necessity for pet-friendly homes. It's a shame that people that shouldn't own pets ruin it for everyone that is responsible with them.