Renting with dogs

Jowo_2

puddy wrote: »

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i cannot understand this outlook from landlords, its like someone saying to you 'no you cant bring your elderly parent to live here, she might smell a bit'.

Well, there's always a possibility that the the humans who reside in a rental property knaw the furniture, have fleas, make noise that aggravate the neigbours, shed hair everwhere, whose natural body odour permeates the fabric of the building and who urinate and defecate on the floor coverings and where the next set of tenants find they are allergic to them.

But it's more likely that their pets could do this.

I am an animal lover with a previously clean cat until it had a stroke and left me stinking presents all over the house because it would step in its own mess and wander through the property.

originalmiscellany

just repeating what was said before...
We've just agreed a dog owner (2 greyhounds) but had to think long and hard about it! As non animal lovers, the thought of 2 slavering dogs, pooing in the house, ripping the carpets up, weeing on the laminate floor, stinking the house out was our first impression!

However, we've taken the "gamble" of having the owner in, as we need the rent, and to be honest, his references have been excellent.

Having spoken to the manager of the house, he says that they're not as bad as we imagine (greyhounds are supposed to be extra clean (relatively)!) and that ultimately at the end of the contract and when he leaves the deposit can be used to steam vacuum, repaint and replace the carpet if necessary, therefore the house can be returned to its original state...

Milliewilly

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

Your 100% correct. To non-dog owners they smell and they smell bad no matter what the owners say.

I just bought a new house (stilll got the old one to sell but that's another story) and its amazing how much you can be put off a house you are looking at just by the smell of dogs having been there.

I am not criticising dog owners as thats your right if you want to keep them but they are quite antisocial to non dog owning people.

Yes people become acclimatised to their doggy smelling house and can't smell it themselves, like cigarette smoke and cat wee.

tigger23

originalmiscellany wrote: »

just repeating what was said before...
As non animal lovers, the thought of 2 slavering dogs, pooing in the house, ripping the carpets up, weeing on the laminate floor, stinking the house out was our first impression!

That really is a worst case scenario though tbh.

Our dogs are impeccably behaved - they have never ripped up any carpets, or as another poster suggested, knawed at furniture. They will occassionally poo in the kitchen if we don't crate them and we're out for a long time - but the kitchen is tiled and easily cleaned and disinfected. We have spoken to our neighbours, who have confirmed what we already knew - that they never hear a peep out of them in the time we're out of the house, they simply sleep snuggled up together.

We are responsible owners and so we worm and flea them regularly - they have never actually had worms or fleas. And although we do wash them regularly also, the only thing we can't do anything about is the smell to non-dog owners. BUT, as one landlord has come back to us today and said "we would consider 1 dog, but 3 is too many" - this just gets me :mad::mad::mad: So if we had 1 alsatian, 1 doberman or even 1 labrador (all popular breeds) we'd be OK - 3 massive dogs in comparison to our teeny tiny ones, much more capable of damaging property and digging up the garden. I don't understand this differentiation between 1/2/3 dogs at all and it's driving me up the wall.

ninky_2

i understand your predicament but also have sympathy with the landlords.

i have allergies to dogs and cigarette smoke. my system picks up these allergens if dogs or smokers have lived in a property - even some time ago.

i'm afraid that even if dogs are small and well behaved they still leave dander and hair behind them along with smells that can be hard to remove even with adequate cleaning.

i guess your option would be to go for less desirable properties (location and/or decore wise) where the landlord might struggle to find tenants and therefore be more flexible.

redlady_1

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

I'm affraid you lost all credibility with that one, animals are not humans.

I'm a veggie as well so more caring than your average meat eater when it comes to animals, I do however recognise they are smelly brutes and wouldnt want them in my house (animals, well in particular dogs, not children)

It was meant as a tongue in cheek joke but as you have seized upon this point I can assure you I have been in a house which was just the most dreadful mess with two uncontrollable kids. I didnt even want to drink from the cups. What I was trying to say is that it is down to the individual rather than whether or not you have pets or kids. If you are house proud with a bit of self respect then it matters not with kids or animals, you will keep a clean, tidy and well ordered house - which includes keeping any animals clean and tidy. Cleaning a carpet should not just be something done once in a lifetime and its carpets that mainly hold the smells.

moromir

redlady_1 wrote: »

If you are house proud with a bit of self respect then it matters not with kids or animals, you will keep a clean, tidy and well ordered house - which includes keeping any animals clean and tidy. Cleaning a carpet should not just be something done once in a lifetime and its carpets that mainly hold the smells.

I'm afraid I'll take you up on that.

A clean child does not smell.

A 'clean' cat or dog still smells distinctly catty and doggy.

I've yet to meet anyone that regularly shampoos their carpets. Lets be very honest here, it would be an extreme minority of tenants that bothered to move their furniture out of every room for two days on a regular basis just to shampoo the carpets.

~moneysavingnovice~

I've got a dog. I love him to pieces bur he does smell. He's not allowed on the furniture or in the rooms with carpet which limits the amount he can make the house smell but around his bed etc it does always smell despite me regularly washing him and his bedding etc. Plus there's the hair- my dyson animal is on daily.

Hypocritical maybe, but if I was a LL I wouldn't let to tenants with pets!

ninky_2

lls often put limits on the number of people who are allowed to live in a property so it seems perfectly reasonable to put limits on the number of dogs. as for your argument that your dogs are small....well you could argue that three small people take up less space than one big fat one - but i don't see that used as an argument for human overcrowding!

redlady_1

The day you let your house it becomes a business. The object of a business is to maximise profit. If that means renting to people with pets (as there appears to be a lovely gaping hole in the market to do so) with all the protection in place, then I would be quite mad not to do so.

My cottage is one of 5 within the immediate area. 3 are rented out, 2 are owned. All of the rented properties have dogs, the two that are owned do not.