"pet friendly" rentals in SF and the bay area ?? Really?? (San Francisco: apartment complexes, insurance)

[Dancsipok]

So my husband and I are trying to relocate from Jacksonville, FL to San Francisco... We are awesome tenants. For real... Never been late with payments, never been late with bills, I'm an engineer and he's a chef, we have no kids, we are super quiet and have a slight OCD ergo we are extremely neat and clean. For gods sake we spent our own dollars to put new paint in our rentals and fix little things you know... We are athletes, he's doing BJJ and I'm an MMA fighter. We don't smoke, we don't drink...

But we have one major sin... We have two dogs. What's so sinful about that is one of them is a pit bull. The other one is a vizsla. We are strict dog owners and both of our pups are well behaving, social and clean. They are adorable, especially the pitbull. Anybody meets him falls in love with him, he's not just handsome but he's calm and loving. Not to mention we exercise them a lot, every day.

We used to own ours home so it never occurred to me that some people might ban my precious animals from their rentals.

Last month when i got laid off and we decided to move to Cali I took a quick look at Craigslist and rent.com and saw a gazillion pet friendly rentals, so I called my landlord, cancelled my rent and we were ready to move to SF on the first of July.

Then I got a reality check...
Pet friendly in the bay area means cats, small dogs, and basically every kind of dogs except pitbulls and "aggressive breeds".
Who the hell put pitbulls in the agressive category anyway? Oh well, he does do agressive licking on your face sometimes... Maybe this is it...

I called several apartment complexes, private landlords, etc., but they've all said the same thing : oh, yeah yeah, we're super dog friendly, if it says woof we love it to death..... Say what? A pit bull? Oooooo, nooooo sorry, no pits.... They don't thrive in community environment.

Are you effin kidding me? Who are you to know where my dog thrives?

How the heck can I prove that my dogs are just like two cats... Better actually because they don't shed and don't **** in the house... (no comments on this one please, I love kitties, I used to have one when I was younger. But they do stink and when you walk through a door yes you will know a cat lives there, but you will never smell my dogs, you will never see dog hair on anything and they don't touch anything in the house)

So here we are, we have 6 more weeks and it seems absolutely impossible to find something real close to the city..

I'm done complaining and explaining how wonderful dogs pitbulls and vizslas are... The only question remains: are they going to turn me into one of those cold hearted bastards who put their pit in the pound for saving her own family?

It's a vicious circle...

- Save pitbulls from euthanasia! - you're the good guy
- Own a pitbull - you're the bad guy
- Go extra miles (and miles and miles) to find a pitbull friendly rental - you're a good guy
- Put your pit back in a pound because you haven't found one - you're a bad guy

What the hell am I supposed to do?????????

If anybody can help PLEASE HELP!!!
I'm desperate and we are running out of time. I've been researching for a month now and not a single place approved my dogs...

[NYC809]

Sorry but didn't you know, prior to getting the pitbull, that you would run into this issue? Perhaps the response that you're getting in SF is alarming because it's accepted in FL?

I would not want a tenant with a pitbull no matter how nice Fluffy was...

Good luck with the search, I hope you're able to find something very soon.

[beb0p]

I don't know what to tell ya. Back when my dog was still alive I had to live in Sausalito because I couldn't find a place on the other side of Golden Gate Bridge that accepts him, and he was a Labradore.

On the business side, many insurance companies ban Pit from their coverage, so there's little that a landlord can do if their property insurance does not cover it. I remember that only two insurance companies in the nation do not have Pit on their ban list.

I wish you luck, but if you do find yourself having to give up your precious; note that there is a "no-kill" pound in Santa Clara, about 40 mins from SF.
.

[Voltige]

Breed specific legislation. Not just the Bay Area..... I hope you find something that works out for you.

[ashlandbus]

Could be worse, when I lived in Denver, the entire city banned pitbulls in the city limits. I would recommend looking in Oakland. I see a lot of pitbulls all over.

[clongirl]

Uh..a pitbull mix just attacked and bit my dog in the face yesterday in the dog park. I have no sympathy for you. Don't move here. In addition...you talk too much.

[uptown_urbanist]

Wasn't it San Francisco where the woman got mauled to death by neighbor's dogs in her own apartment building a few years ago? I think it was. In any case, these days it's tough to get an apartment, ANY apartment, even if you don't have animals. Having a pit bull is obviously going to make it much, much tougher. That's not Bay Area-specific, though; I think it's been that way everywhere I've lived. It's the breed, not the dogs, although in general the rental market is so tight that it's tough to find a place even if you don't have pets. Sorry it's so tough, but that really should not come as a surprise. That doesn't help you, of course. You may have to become a whole lot less picky about where you are willing to live. Are you stuck coming to SF or is there still time to consider other cities? Maybe you'd have better luck renting in a single family house? Good luck!

[NYC809]

Originally Posted by clongirl

Uh..a pitbull mix just attacked and bit my dog in the face yesterday in the dog park. I have no sympathy for you. Don't move here. In addition...you talk too much.

lol

[TheGreatCurve]

A lot of kids and adults have been mauled or killed by pit bulls. So, sorry, but I agree that they should be banned.

[TheGreatCurve]

Originally Posted by ashlandbus

Could be worse, when I lived in Denver, the entire city banned pitbulls in the city limits. .

That makes Denver sound like a nice place to live then.