- Joined
- Apr 30, 2015
- Messages
- 22
Hello everyone, I just wanted to get some feedback on a notice I was going to send to one of my tenants after I dicovered a Cat in there unit the other day. The property is in Grande Prairie Alberta, and my Lease states no pets allowed.
I just wanted to get some feedback on the letter since I have never had to address this situation before. Since there is a bit of a slowdown in the rental market in GP at the moment I was thinking that if they were willing to resign the lease with an additional $50 per month for the cat as well as putting down a Non-refundable pet deposit then I would allow them to keep the pet since they are good tenants and keep the place spotless.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated to make sure i am approaching this in the right way or if the notice is coming of to aggresive or if I am breaking any sort of rule set out in the RTA, although I don't believe I am.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dear James and Megan,
Last weekend while we were doing some new landscaping on the property at 9002 92nd Ave. Grande Prairie, Alberta. We noticed that you had at least one cat in your apartment as it had jumped up in the window while we were doing the landscaping out front.
As you are aware your Lease specifically states in Clause 3 that No pets are allowed in the home. We have included a “no pet” provision in our residential tenancy agreement because:
• Units in which pets have been kept often require more extensive cleaning, repainting, repair, and replacement of items, than do units where there have not been pets; and,
• Other tenants may have allergies to certain animals, or are sensitive to the noise or behaviour of some animals.
If a tenant signs a residential tenancy agreement agreeing to a “no pet” policy, and the tenant brings in a pet later on without the landlord’s permission, the tenant is in violation of the contract. This violation could result in the landlord terminating the tenancy.
As you can see Clause 3 below taken from your lease:
3. Pets
No Pets
If pets are allowed in the premises, the Tenant agrees to a non-refundable pet fee of $__________ in addition to the security deposit, and a pet rent of $_________ per pet per month.
If, during the course of this lease, your pet dies or ceases to live at the property for any reason, you must first obtain written permission from the landlord to have another pet in the premises.
No pets or animals of any sort shall be allowed, or kept in, on, or by the premises, either on a temporary or permanent basis without the express written consent of the Landlord. In the event that the Landlord discovers an animal being kept on the premises at any time, and providing that the Landlord has not given consent in writing to the presence of that particular animal upon the premises, a penalty shall be applied to the Tenant, on demand equal to FIFTY (50%) PERCENT per month, per animal of the then current rental rate for each month or part of the month that the said pet or pets are upon the premises and the tenant must immediately remove the animal. In this paragraph, ‘premises’ includes the Landlord’s common area and premises.
According to section (29) of the Residential Tenancy Act of Alberta any substantial breach of a Lease, such as breaking the no pet clause:
Termination for substantial breach by tenant
29(1) if a tenant commits a substantial breach of a residential tenancy agreement, the landlord may apply to a court to terminate the tenancy or may terminate the tenancy by serving the tenant with a notice at least 14 days before the day that the tenancy is to terminate.
That being said we value you as clients and we believe that you have been good tenants and take excellent care of the property, so in this case we are open to the idea of 3 potential options.
1) Get rid of any pets from the premise immediately and provide us with an email or letter stating that you have gotten rid of the pet.
2) You can give us a notice to vacate with a two month notice and you would be required to keep your pet off of the premise until you have vacated.
3) If you wish to keep the pet there is the possibility of allowing this, however it would be dependant on us meeting the pet and confirming it is a suitable fit for the home. As well there would be an additional monthly fee to keep the pet as well as a Non-refundable pet deposit that would need to be provided to cover cost of additional cleaning. A new lease would need to be signed showing this updated information.
Once again we value you as clients and would like to come to a win-win scenario that works best for you as well as what works best with the guidelines of the property and the other tenants.
Please provide us with your response within 7 days from the date of this letter as to which option you choose. Please provide this response to us either through email at [email protected] or through registered mail to: Suite 1039 # 9899 112 Ave Grange Prairie T8V-7T2.
If we do not receive a response from you in 7 days we will take this as your notice to vacate and we will post a 14 day notice to evict as per the requirements laid out in the RTA.
Sincerly,
Matthew Varga
I just wanted to get some feedback on the letter since I have never had to address this situation before. Since there is a bit of a slowdown in the rental market in GP at the moment I was thinking that if they were willing to resign the lease with an additional $50 per month for the cat as well as putting down a Non-refundable pet deposit then I would allow them to keep the pet since they are good tenants and keep the place spotless.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated to make sure i am approaching this in the right way or if the notice is coming of to aggresive or if I am breaking any sort of rule set out in the RTA, although I don't believe I am.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dear James and Megan,
Last weekend while we were doing some new landscaping on the property at 9002 92nd Ave. Grande Prairie, Alberta. We noticed that you had at least one cat in your apartment as it had jumped up in the window while we were doing the landscaping out front.
As you are aware your Lease specifically states in Clause 3 that No pets are allowed in the home. We have included a “no pet” provision in our residential tenancy agreement because:
• Units in which pets have been kept often require more extensive cleaning, repainting, repair, and replacement of items, than do units where there have not been pets; and,
• Other tenants may have allergies to certain animals, or are sensitive to the noise or behaviour of some animals.
If a tenant signs a residential tenancy agreement agreeing to a “no pet” policy, and the tenant brings in a pet later on without the landlord’s permission, the tenant is in violation of the contract. This violation could result in the landlord terminating the tenancy.
As you can see Clause 3 below taken from your lease:
3. Pets
No Pets
If pets are allowed in the premises, the Tenant agrees to a non-refundable pet fee of $__________ in addition to the security deposit, and a pet rent of $_________ per pet per month.
If, during the course of this lease, your pet dies or ceases to live at the property for any reason, you must first obtain written permission from the landlord to have another pet in the premises.
No pets or animals of any sort shall be allowed, or kept in, on, or by the premises, either on a temporary or permanent basis without the express written consent of the Landlord. In the event that the Landlord discovers an animal being kept on the premises at any time, and providing that the Landlord has not given consent in writing to the presence of that particular animal upon the premises, a penalty shall be applied to the Tenant, on demand equal to FIFTY (50%) PERCENT per month, per animal of the then current rental rate for each month or part of the month that the said pet or pets are upon the premises and the tenant must immediately remove the animal. In this paragraph, ‘premises’ includes the Landlord’s common area and premises.
According to section (29) of the Residential Tenancy Act of Alberta any substantial breach of a Lease, such as breaking the no pet clause:
Termination for substantial breach by tenant
29(1) if a tenant commits a substantial breach of a residential tenancy agreement, the landlord may apply to a court to terminate the tenancy or may terminate the tenancy by serving the tenant with a notice at least 14 days before the day that the tenancy is to terminate.
That being said we value you as clients and we believe that you have been good tenants and take excellent care of the property, so in this case we are open to the idea of 3 potential options.
1) Get rid of any pets from the premise immediately and provide us with an email or letter stating that you have gotten rid of the pet.
2) You can give us a notice to vacate with a two month notice and you would be required to keep your pet off of the premise until you have vacated.
3) If you wish to keep the pet there is the possibility of allowing this, however it would be dependant on us meeting the pet and confirming it is a suitable fit for the home. As well there would be an additional monthly fee to keep the pet as well as a Non-refundable pet deposit that would need to be provided to cover cost of additional cleaning. A new lease would need to be signed showing this updated information.
Once again we value you as clients and would like to come to a win-win scenario that works best for you as well as what works best with the guidelines of the property and the other tenants.
Please provide us with your response within 7 days from the date of this letter as to which option you choose. Please provide this response to us either through email at [email protected] or through registered mail to: Suite 1039 # 9899 112 Ave Grange Prairie T8V-7T2.
If we do not receive a response from you in 7 days we will take this as your notice to vacate and we will post a 14 day notice to evict as per the requirements laid out in the RTA.
Sincerly,
Matthew Varga
