Pets or No Pets on my Rental Property is a struggle that property owners and managers struggle with. There are numerous pros and cons to implementing a pet policy. You will have to do your research and explore what will be best for your individual property.
Some of the Pros to allowing pets would be:
- Statistics show that 50% of renters have pets. With that being said, you would limit your potential renters if you decided to have a no pet policy.
- Most residents who have pets stay longer in their property. This is due to the fact that finding pet friendly rentals is difficult in some areas.
- If your property accepts pets, residents will be less likely to sneak a pet into the property.
- The market in some areas allows you to get a higher rental rate or even charge a monthly pet rent.
Some of the Cons to allowing pets would be:
- Liability- you may be liable for an animal that bites one of your residents.
- Current Residents and Prospective residents may be afraid or allergic to animals and this could be an issue that arises.
- Pets can cause property damage
- Pets can disturb other residents and neighbors.
These are just a few of the Pros and Cons to accepting pets, the list could go on and on. There are definitely ways to protect yourself and your property should you decide to accept pets.
- Check with your insurance company to find out what your liability coverage is for residents who are bitten by a dog or injured by an animal on your property. There are certain breed restrictions with most insurance carriers. Find out what the breed restrictions are and write your pet policy to reflect those.
- Screening your applicants- We all screen for credit worthiness, eviction history, criminal history, etc. But do yourself a favor and contact previous landlords and ask questions pertinent to the pet.
- Ask for the breed and weight of the dog. A lot of management companies require that you provide a picture of the pet, or bring the pet to the office to have the picture and weight taken.
- Write a very clear pet policy and what is expected of the resident. Have the resident sign the pet policy along with a pet addendum to the lease agreement.
- Charge a separate pet deposit as well as a non refundable pet fee to cover some of the costs associated with carpet cleaning, de-fleaing after move out. You will want this deposit and non refundable pet fee to be substantial. In my area, it is standard to have $150 pet deposit and $150 non refundable pet fee paid BEFORE the pet is brought into the property.
Different areas and markets will determine the amounts of deposits etc. Do your homework and see what your competitors are doing, check with local insurance agencies to see if they can give a standard recommendation for the area, adopt a strong pet policy and enforce it.
My market area for Bryan-College Station definitely calls for accepting pets. We have Texas A & M Veterinarian School so it is imperative that owners consider that when deciding whether or not to accept pets.
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