Pet Rental charges are becoming too high

annetheman

csgohan4 said:

Cat dander can linger round for up to a year, nothing will ever be spotless, that is a risk a LL takes and understandably not every pet owner is equal. Hence it will cost extra for wear and tear. 

There's only one way to get around this: Shark Pet Vacuum, regularly, minimum 3 times a week. I have no issues with dander (which I can see on the black clothes of other people with cats who aren't as rigorously clean as I am).

This stops it ever lingering on the carpeted areas for long enough to really "sink in". I also have a very large Berber (thick pile) rug which covers 80% of the floor in the only carpeted room in my flat, the rest of the flat is parquet and stone tiles.

Like you said though, not all pet owners are equal. Some might not vacuum as much but honestly, my main concern with the vacuuming is that I don't want dander on my OWN belongings, not because I'm that concerned about the carpet, which I will have deep cleaned as usual in an end of tenancy clean.

onwards&upwards

There are loads of things tenants can do or different hobbies/lifestyles that can cause damage/mess/nuisance so I don’t really get why pets are always singled out. 

Kids, musical instruments, bike repairs, heavy use of kitchens by cooking/baking enthusiasts, dying hair in the bathroom monthly, anything that involves shifting large or heavy objects regularly, frequent parties/gatherings, heavy drinking or drug use, hoarding, poor hygiene/messiness, messy hobbies es like woodworking or painting or pottery etc etc etc I bet there are loads I don’t even know about!

All of those might cause more problems than a well trained miniature schnauzer or bichon frise (neither of those shed hair) or one of those bald cats if it’s litter trained. 

General_Applause

onwards&upwards said:

There are loads of things tenants can do or different hobbies/lifestyles that can cause damage/mess/nuisance so I don’t really get why pets are always singled out. 

Kids, musical instruments, bike repairs, heavy use of kitchens by cooking/baking enthusiasts, dying hair in the bathroom monthly, anything that involves shifting large or heavy objects regularly, frequent parties/gatherings, heavy drinking or drug use, hoarding, poor hygiene/messiness, messy hobbies es like woodworking or painting or pottery etc etc etc I bet there are loads I don’t even know about!

All of those might cause more problems than a well trained miniature schnauzer or bichon frise (neither of those shed hair) or one of those bald cats if it’s litter trained. 

Indeed. It seems that only renters can be allergic etc. I don't know any house buyers who have walked away from a property they like just because the previous owner had dogs or cats.

Freecall

General_Applause said:

Indeed. It seems that only renters can be allergic etc. I don't know any house buyers who have walked away from a property they like just because the previous owner had dogs or cats.

Actually I'm not so sure.  The likability of a home is very much influenced by smell, albeit at a sub-conscious level.

Think about all those who try to make a place seem attractive by brewing fresh coffee etc just before a viewing. 

jimbog

PetRentalHelp said:

 Our pet has caused no damage and I’d welcome to show this to a future landlord by letting them inspect our current flat 

How much would you be prepared to pay a prospective landlord for the visit?

shinytop

A deposit based system for pets won't really work because you can't take a picture of a bad smell.  The carpet might look perfectly clean but if the dog or cat has repeatedly !!!!!! on it the smell won't go away and the carpet needs binned. I'm speaking as  as a pet owner, not a LL.  

diggingdude

General_Applause said:

onwards&upwards said:

There are loads of things tenants can do or different hobbies/lifestyles that can cause damage/mess/nuisance so I don’t really get why pets are always singled out. 

Kids, musical instruments, bike repairs, heavy use of kitchens by cooking/baking enthusiasts, dying hair in the bathroom monthly, anything that involves shifting large or heavy objects regularly, frequent parties/gatherings, heavy drinking or drug use, hoarding, poor hygiene/messiness, messy hobbies es like woodworking or painting or pottery etc etc etc I bet there are loads I don’t even know about!

All of those might cause more problems than a well trained miniature schnauzer or bichon frise (neither of those shed hair) or one of those bald cats if it’s litter trained. 

Indeed. It seems that only renters can be allergic etc. I don't know any house buyers who have walked away from a property they like just because the previous owner had dogs or cats.

You haven't visited many houses for sale then. I had to rip out everything in my purchase due to a smelly dog and scumbag tenants who were in it before me.
Why would a landlord risk doing all that when threading have to?

AdrianC

And, of course, landlords are never viewing individual putative tenants in isolation. Their choice is never "Mr X plus dog... or nobody."

It's "Mr X plus dog... or Ms Y without dog."

davidmcn

I keep on looking at the subject line of this thread and wondering how much it costs to rent a pet.

gary83

annetheman said:

If I were moving into a rental now, I think I'd just ask my current landlady to write a "pet reference" and use that as argument against any additional pet rent proposed. Could you try that? Also no harm in just askin "no pets allowed" property landlords to make an exception.

I'm buying Shared Ownership and asked my Housing Association via a long email with photos of my cat, current flat and reference details for my landlady if they would allow my little guy and they said yes, even though contract stipulates no pets in the block (which would be hard to enforce with a quiet, indoor-only pet anyway). 

Edit to add: still haven't bought it yet though  

you got lucky with your HA there, if it were me (somebody who’s pretty obsessed with their own pet) then the  answer would have been no, if the contract stipulates no pets then I’d have made you stick to that to avoid issues down the line.  have they produced a specific contract just for you that has the no pets clause taken out? Are you 100% sure that legally your on a sound footing with your dispensation if any problems come up?

Looking at a few hypothetical situations What happens when somebody else moves into the flat and asks for permission for a pet, or moves in a pet with no permission which then starts causing issues and the new pet owner turns around and says but upstairs/next door have a pet, why can’t I have one?

What happens if other people living there have a fear or are allergic to cats, you move in and they start having a reaction or problems, why should they just quietly put up with that? after all they bought in a no pets complex, they didn’t think it’d be an issue.

Final & worst thought, what happens if & when your cat eventually passes on and you can’t, when the time is right, get a new companion because you only had permission for this one cat due to a lengthy email trail, references and pictures for this one particular cat.