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GreenMachine,
Good point!
After being in my new rental for two months I have learned that the management not only charges a $500 fee but deducts the price of new carpeting against the tenants security deposit or at least they claim to.
mquintana,
I have a mini schnauzer that does not shed. He is thirteen years old and been in three carpeted homes with me. Each home had a home inspection and never was there any mention of pet damage. Why should a pet owner of a well behaved pet pay for the careless pet owners?
Don
My questions are similiar. It's bad enough living situations are more expensive than ever, and now to worry about extra extra pet fees...
Because apartment complexes have pet owners over a barrel and they know it.
That pretty much sums it up right there! That can apply for home rentals as well.
When I was living in another state the landlord charged me $500 deposit each for my dogs. So it was $1,000 for my dogs and $850 for me. ...I had no choice....it's a long, scary story.......I'm just glad to not be living in that state.
Luckilly, the place I am in currently the owner is doing a rent to own and he asked for no extra deposit for my dogs. I can deal with that.
As someone else mentioned, it will be so nice to be a homeowner again.
I rent to people with pets. I used to be nicer about it. Now I have a really insanely tight Pet Lease Addendum and I charge a premium on the rent AND a non-refundable deposit.
One woman had a dog that barked CONTINOUSLY and drove all the neighbors INSANE. Calls to police weren't helpful - it was not at night, it was not a crime. She then got a second dog to keep that one company, so so they both barked.
Another got a puppy! And then left it crated all day while she was at work. The dog cried so loud the neighbors were afraid it was hurt inside. No it was just a beagle BUT I had to go inside and found the puppy swimming in pee inside the crate, no food or water. She was a Coast Guard airman, quite a nice woman - CLUELESS about pet ownership.
A current tenant has a lab. It's a waterfront place, any time the dog is off the lease it beelines for the water. They then 'tie it outside' while it dries...of course it barks the WHOLE time.
My SIL is a judge. She has had landlords bring in sections of carpet, soaking in cat urine to prove the point about the damage the cat owners swore was not there. They couldn't smell it themselves, and it wasn't until the carpet was cut away that the damage was 'proved'.
Dog owners will swear their dogs are house-broken and don't chew and are not aggressive and blah blah blah...then they move out and we are dealing with ruined carpets, chewed woodwork and neighbors that say the dog snapped at them.
So why lie to us and call it a 'deposit' if you have no intention of giving it back? That is what seems unfair in my eyes. If it is a fee, then call it for what it is....that way responsible pet owners like myself can have some choice over where we choose to live instead of getting our hopes up that this might be the landlord that is not going to try and rip us off.
So why lie to us and call it a 'deposit' if you have no intention of giving it back? That is what seems unfair in my eyes. If it is a fee, then call it for what it is....that way responsible pet owners like myself can have some choice over where we choose to live instead of getting our hopes up that this might be the landlord that is not going to try and rip us off.
Landlords are always trying to rip off tenants even if they say they aren't. Renting is a complete and total ripoff; I hate it. I hate having to ask someone's permission to paint a wall or hang a picture...or to get a pet. Can't wait to go house-hunting next year, it's going to rock. All those desperate sellers out there better LOOK OUT...I'm going to lowball every house I like until I find someone desperate enough to take my offer. Yep, I'm gonna try to rip them off too.
Actually, I don't call it a deposit, because it's not. And even if I did (which I used to!) the words 'non-refundable' should be self-explanatory. But apparently they weren't so I changed it to "Non-refundable Pet Fee".
That's why I continue to rent to people with pets. Problem is you really can't tell up front. I do insist on a personal meeting with the animal, but even then - you just can't tell. Thus the non-refundable fee. I've waived it in the past, thinking I could TELL a good pet owner from a bad, and well - no, I can't.
Even myself - I mean I have a 2.5 year old Lab myself who is perfectly normal most of the time.
Yet a few weeks ago she went insane during my "extended" (three hours) absence and attacked and killed a feather pillow. It was EVERYWHERE in the house. Not damage to the house of course, but she could just as easily have chewed insanely on the woodwork.
In fact one of the doors in my house has HUGE gouge marks on the back of it - where the former owners locked their dog in the bathroom for while they were painting or something and the dog just RUINED the door.
That's why I continue to rent to people with pets. Problem is you really can't tell up front. I do insist on a personal meeting with the animal, but even then - you just can't tell. Thus the non-refundable fee. I've waived it in the past, thinking I could TELL a good pet owner from a bad, and well - no, I can't.
Even myself - I mean I have a 2.5 year old Lab myself who is perfectly normal most of the time.
Yet a few weeks ago she went insane during my "extended" (three hours) absence and attacked and killed a feather pillow. It was EVERYWHERE in the house. Not damage to the house of course, but she could just as easily have chewed insanely on the woodwork.
In fact one of the doors in my house has HUGE gouge marks on the back of it - where the former owners locked their dog in the bathroom for while they were painting or something and the dog just RUINED the door.
They were good pet owners, too, they really were!
I have to say, even though it's frustrating with the new pet policy, for people like you who own personal homes and rent them. I can understand your situation with pet owners. Here is a perfect example of a good landlord and fair opportunity. I think what frustrates me more is the big corporation landlords. They are much more the one who can be unfair or gorgers.
So, for those of you who are landlords for personal home properties, I salute you in your protection of the home you took a risk to buy and then rent.
But, sometimes, landlords can get out of control with fees, deposits and rents. You know they do...
We try not to. But every time a tenant moves we end up adding a paragraph to our lease and jacking up the security deposit.
We started out with a basic lease we got online - that has grown to FIVE PAGES of small print.
No, you can't drive across the septic tank. I don't care if that stretch of lawn looks so open and easily accessible. It's not allowed. Really, it's NOT.
And no, you can't paint the apartment without our approval. We used to say, SURE go ahead - please do a good job and use neutral colors. Not anymore. We added this prohibition after a tenant painted the master bedroom dark purple with gold accents. (The same tenants chose dark blue with pink woodwork as the color scheme for the bathroom.)
We never realized we would have to stop a PERFECTLY REASONABLE nice tenant from painting the wood kitchen cabinets Sky Blue.
How about the ones who trained their "tiny harmless" dogs to pee on a small piece of special carpet? Guess what - turns out the dogs don't know one piece of carpet from another!
Or the tenants who erected a TRAMPOLINE (can you say CANCELLED INSURANCE, anyone?). Or that same trampoline would attract another tenant (34 years old) who drank 18 beers and then decided to jump on it? Really high? And hit the ground when he landed?
How about the ones who decided to get a junk car to fix up and had it up on blocks for months? Holy Moly! Who would do such a thing in a rental space?
We try not to. But every time a tenant moves we end up adding a paragraph to our lease and jacking up the security deposit.
We started out with a basic lease we got online - that has grown to FIVE PAGES of small print.
No, you can't drive across the septic tank. I don't care if that stretch of lawn looks so open and easily accessible. It's not allowed. Really, it's NOT.
And no, you can't paint the apartment without our approval. We used to say, SURE go ahead - please do a good job and use neutral colors. Not anymore. We added this prohibition after a tenant painted the master bedroom dark purple with gold accents. (The same tenants chose dark blue with pink woodwork as the color scheme for the bathroom.)
We never realized we would have to stop a PERFECTLY REASONABLE nice tenant from painting the wood kitchen cabinets Sky Blue.
How about the ones who trained their "tiny harmless" dogs to pee on a small piece of special carpet? Guess what - turns out the dogs don't know one piece of carpet from another!
Or the tenants who erected a TRAMPOLINE (can you say CANCELLED INSURANCE, anyone?). Or that same trampoline would attract another tenant (34 years old) who drank 18 beers and then decided to jump on it? Really high? And hit the ground when he landed?
How about the ones who decided to get a junk car to fix up and had it up on blocks for months? Holy Moly! Who would do such a thing in a rental space?
I can go on. But won't.
Sending my sympathy. I could never be a landlord.
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...I had no choice....it's a long, scary story....
...I'm just glad to not be living in that state. 
