Apartment Pet Policy

One of the most common questions landlords face when managing their apartments is whether or not to allow pets in their property. We all know the negative side of having pets: they can pee on the carpet, scratch hardwood floors, chew on cabinets corners… You get the idea. But if you don’t consider the positive aspects of allowing them in your rental units you could be selling yourself short.There are two significant positives effects that allowing pets can offer. The first, which is pretty obvious, is that it increases your potential tenant pool. Since many landlords don’t allow dogs and cats in their buildings, those that do get to take advantage of the pet-owning population. By allowing pets you could scare off some prospective tenants who only want to live in a “no pets” building, but in practice that doesn’t seem to happen that often. In reality, most people like animals and are fine with them being around as long as they are not a nuisance. This is where a sound pet policy comes in (see below).

The other benefit to allowing pets in your building is a little more questionable. This other benefit is that many times pet owners are better tenants than non-pet owners. That is not to say that owning a pet makes you a better tenant, but statistically the odds are better. Consider the fact that if someone owns a dog or cat, and is properly taking care of it, they are at least a reasonably responsible person. If they can keep their dog up to date on their shots and make them behave, they probably are going to be more likely to stay upon their rent too.

So lets say you buy into these theories. The question then becomes how to manage the pets coming into your building. There are many different ways to handle things, but for simplicities sake I will share only my personal favorite things to consider:

Breed

The first thing you need to do is determine the limitations of your units. If you have large apartments with a large back yard you can probably handle a larger dog. If you have a matchbox apartment with no yard at all, maybe not. To be safe, I would just avoid larger breeds. Breeds like Great Danes and German Shepherds are just too big for most apartments. Another thing to stay away from is allowing dangerous breeds. That means no Pit Bulls or Rottweilers. You might even want to stay away from well behaved, but somewhat intimidating species like Doberman Pinschers. One way to encompass most of these qualifications is to simply limit the weight of any dog in your building to 50 lbs. That should cover just about everything. As for cats, unless someone wants to have a pet leopard in your apartment, I wouldn’t worry about the breed.

Animal Specifics

So you’ve nailed down your breed policy considering your personal tastes and the limitations of your units. Now you need to consider the specific animal in question. A common requirement for both dogs and cats is that they be spayed or neutered. This one is really more a matter of opinion. I don’t think enforcing this rule is a cure all for problems, but it doesn’t hurt. Animals with this procedure are less aggressive. That is a fact.

Another wise requirement is that the prospective tenant provide the vet records for the animal. You screen people so why not pets? If a tenant can prove that their pet is up to date on their shots and has regular vet visits, its a safe bet that they will be one of those good tenants I was talking about.

Financials

The last thing that you need to consider is how much to charge for a pet. Some owners like to charge a monthly pet rent, but I’m not a fan of this method. I rather prefer to do a single nonrefundable charge prior to the tenant bringing in the pet. This is more of a statement of good faith than simply paying an extra $10 a month. As for the dollar amount, I have always considered $100 for cats and $300 for dogs to be appropriate.

So there you have it. My take on allowing pets in your apartments. Once you formulate your policy, make sure you advertise it with your rental ads. If you accept pets let people know. Otherwise it kind of defeats the purpose.

I’d also like to point out one last thing to all you doubters out there. Rememeber that children can be just as destructive as animals. Maybe even more so. But you can screen any pet coming into your building and refuse to rent to someone on those grounds if you don’t feel comfortable with the animal. Dogs and cats aren’t a protected species (unless its a helper animal of course). But kids are protected. You can’t screen a child and you can’t refuse to rent to someone because they have children. With pets you actually retain control. Some food for thought the next time you have a vacancy.