Pets & Apartments

Hi Mrsimba,

Did you say “fleas-ible“???? [laugh4] Just kidding!!! [lmao]
Yes I agree, I think it is feasible, however as Auspop said, not too many landlords like the idea of pets!! Some landlords are okay with it, but you would need to check with them first!

All the pets pests eh [rolleyesanim] best,

Jo

[][blush2][]

I stand corrected, terribly sorry mrsimba, I forgot you were referring to apartment living, and as such Kay Henry is quite correct; it is not an individual landlord matter; you need to consult with your body corp.

Please forgive the oversight on my part……Knew I should’ve got that new eye-glass perscription filled!!!! [blink][blush2][blink]

Cheers,[guilty]

Jo

Aussiemike, [idea] You clever little vegemite you!!!!! [juggle] [laugh4][laugh4]

Seriously though, (out of curiousity) would your body corp regs not also extend this exemption say to cover someone who was “sight impaired” thereby allowing them to have a guide dog???

Cheers,

Jo

Our efforts to find a place to rent were definitely hampered by the “no pet” clause in many of the places we looked at. In the end we found a landlord who agreed that two cats would make a lot less mess then two toddlers so we managed to rent from him.

Question for AussieMike: As a property investor/landlord myself (or was until recently cashing in), I was very aware of the landlords terms and conditions and made sure I would be comfortable renting from them while abiding their wishes. It’s pretty much what I would expect of my tenants. Do unto others and all that… Don’t you find yourself in a situation where you have conflicting values by using a loophole to circumvent your landlords requests ?

Please note, I am not trying to make a value judgment here, I am just trying to understand what peoples thoughts are when they are tenants as opposed to landlords.

Baloo,

No i don’t feel bad at all. In fact it is a landlords responsibility to know the body corporate laws and ask the relevant questions. We were never asked if we had pets. I think they assumed a couple with no children renting a $1,000 per week apartment would not have any “extras”. Well thats there problem. In fact we are excellent tenants. We have paid our rent 6 months in advance, the dog is groomed weekly and is well trained so it won’t do any more damage to the apartment than we will and in fact the other tenants (the building is mainly owner occupiers) all have small pets.

We have allowed our tenants to have pets as I think that as long as you have good tenants then they will ensure that the pets do not do any damage to your property. My wife and I have never been able to have children because of her infertility and our dog has therefore provided extreme enjoyment for the two of us. I find it fascinating that a landlord would say no pets but what about no children. I mean a small child can do more damage to a property than a pet.

So will the landlord regret their decision. I don’t think so. We will provide good income for their property, it will be extremely well maintained and we will not be making any demands of the landlord. So I think they will just have to deal with it and realise that in a society that is choosing to marry later, have less children etc. pets are a wonderful part of life. It amazes me that some people think that if a tenant has a pet that they will allow it to shed hair everywhere, never clean up after it, let it crap all over the place and make the place stink. I mean some people need to get a grip.

Baloo,

It is generally a landlord that either doesn’t have pets or thinks that they will destroy a property. Of all the properties we have owned we have always allowed pets but obviously most tenants haven’t had them. Of the 5 or so tenants who have had pets we have never had problems. We also requested that the carpets be steam cleaned and that all surfaces were clean and no residual smells were left behind but that is what you expect of any tenant. I could tell you of one tenant we had who had a small child and they were prone to wetting the bed. It had got into the carpet and had left a urine stain that we couldn’t remove and we had to replace that small piece of carpet. Did it bother me. Of course not. Humans have to live and breathe and sometimes these things happen. Anyway don’t get me harping on about pets and renting. In New York City almost everyone who rents an apartment owns a pet. And every weekend they are out in Central park with them. Same in London. Same in Paris. But then us aussies are usually a few years behind the rest of the world.

I can understand that pets are an important part of their owners lives. Apart from the obvious benifits of guide dogs for the disabled, pets provide therapy and research has shown that caring for a pet can provide significantly improved outcomes for those who are sick or lonely or whatever. We have not said no to a tennant having a pet.

That said, there was a place that we moved into several years ago (as tennants) and the owners were adamant that NO PETS were allowed. There was an unpleasant odour that lingered in the house and the agent assured us that it was just because it had been locked up for a while and needed to be aired out. After a fortnight of airing 24/7 the smell was just as bad and we decided that as we were on a 12 month lease we would get the carpet cleaned ourselves. After a you beaut bells and whistles cleaning job the smell was only slightly better.

After locking the house up for a day we invited the agent over to see what she thought of the smell now. After her visit the owners decided to lay new carpet. This is where it gets scary.

When the carpet guy pulled the carpet up we found that the dog urine had soaked through the carpet and that the only way to remove the underlay from the floor boards was with a shovel. The guy doing the carpet actually took photos because he thought people would not believe it.

Later the lady next door told us that there were about a dozen little white terriers living there with the old lady before us.

Later again when the plumber came to fix the tiolet he shared his relief that we had moved in. The plumbers had drawn straws that morning to see who had to do the job at the “smelly dog house”. He said that it was like some thing you’d see on one of the current affairs TV shows.

So there is a compelling argument to say no to tennants having pets although cases like this are probably not too common. Don’t know what the PM was doing while things degenerated to that state but she always did her 6 monthly inspections when we lived there.

Cheers
Sonja

You kiddin me right? I seen houses wrecked by little kiddies but landlords cant discriminate against them can they?

In my opinion, kids and pets are not the same thing. Children (although messy and destructive at times) are people and should not be refused housing. I also believe that parents have an obligation to accept responsibility for their childrens actions.

For example our PM told us that the tennant was moving out of our IP. OK that happens. Several days later we came home to find a message on the answering machine that went something like this:

“Hello this is Lisa from the real estate agency. The tennant would like me to ask you if it is OK for her to buy a rug to cover up the spot in the lounge room where the fire was. Please call back and let us know.”

I got on the phone immediatly and asked “what fire in the lounge room???!!!” It turns out that her 7 year old son had lit a bonfire in the middle of the lounge room while she was bathing her younger two children. She thought it would be acceptable to buy a large rug to cover up the damage. Needless to say, the new carpet came out of her bond.

As a parent I can suggest that if you want to deter families with children then buy IPs with no bath. We don’t even consider a place that has only got a shower simply because of the kids.

Cheers
Sonja