Tenant`s friend brought a dog in....now what?

[Dan Golby]

Hi all,



I have a bit of a strange situation and was wondering how others might handle it.



I rent out a basement suite to a guy who has a job operating heavy equipment on an oilfield site. He is my best tenant I've had so far, he is a former home builder and former landlord himself.



The suite is a 2 bedroom and in the first few months it was like a revolving door for tenants because they come to town for work then quit (or get fired) within a month or two. We initially would put both names on the contract and would have to change it often and it was a pain.



Due to this situation my tenant agreed to take on the entire lease himself and we would allow him 1 roommate. He is actually stable, financially secure, and reliable, so it has been great so far.



The problem came today when his most recent roommate had his wife visiting from out of town. I was outside watering my freshly laid sod and she came out of the suite with a little dog. We have a no pets rule for our suite. When I told her this she said that the dog would only be there for a couple of days and kind of shrugged me off.



Afterwards I called our tenant (the one holding the lease) and informed him of what happened and told him the dog had to be out immediately. He was unaware of what was happening because he has been staying at a campground with his wife who is also visiting. The funny part is that they are only staying in the campground because they have a dog and I told him his dog couldn't stay in the suite so he towed his RV about 15 hours to my town so that they could have their dog with them.



He called back later and said the dog will be gone tonight. I will be heading back in the morning to water the new grass again, hoping it is all over with, but I'm wondering if I should take any further action? Maybe get the carpets cleaned and make them pay for it?



Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[cagoodrow]

Sounds like you have taken to proper steps to resolve the situation at this point. It may be a different story if the dog is not out of the suite as promised.



I would hold off with any cleanings until you have a better understanding of the impact the dog had. Perhaps schedule a suite visit to investigate further. My feeling is that given the dog was there for a limited amount of time, the impact of carpets etc would also be minimal (but you will never know until you check).



A question though: why do you have a strict no pets rule? I ask this because when I started investing I had the same stance, but a presentation by Jared Hope changed my perspective. Currently I allow pets in all my suites, given that they are well trained and do not bark or whine excessively (I have suited houses). I stress the importance of an up/down mutual respect relationship and a loud dog would put that at risk. I also then charge a monthly pet fee (kind of arbitrary depending on the size, type of pet), ranging from $50 to $75 per pet. I do not charge any extra damage deposit, or any additional deposit upfront as a result. In these instances I have an extra $600-900 a year in cash flow. I upon move-out inspection, I deem it necessary to cleaning/replace flooring etc (outside or normal wear and tear), I can do so using their damage deposit. Also the 600-900 will cover me if I choose to hire a professional carpet cleaning company for a one-time visit, as an example. In my opinion, if I have to spend 600-900 dollars once a year to have the place "restored" to a pet-free environment, I no worse off. But I figure the likeliness of me having to that every year is a small. Also, at least in Edmonton, the number of pet-friendly places are scarce, therefore allowing me to charge a slight premium for rent.



Any other questions, let me know. Best of luck!

 

[Sherilynn]

I prefer to go pet-free when carpets are involved. I agree that there isn't anything left to be done until the tenant moves (providing the dog is actually gone).



Also, when allowing a tenant to get a roommate, you may want to consider stipulating that the roommate must still submit a full application and be approved by you.

 

[Dan Golby]

Thanks for the feedback!!

We had an agreement with our tenant that he would at least give us names/contact info of his roommate, but in one case the roommate didn't even have a phone. Once all the smoke clears on this I will be talking to him about this again.



The update for today is the dog appears to be gone. I did a couple of drop ins to water the grass but I didn't go inside. One of the neighbours that I work with was in her yard all day so she makes for a good spy!!



I keep it as no pets house because I like to keep it as simple as possible. The house doesn't have a fenced yard and I would rather have the option of advertising a "pet-free" atmosphere rather than deal with the upstairs and downstairs tenants fighting about who has the nicer dog....or cat I guess. The house is only 1 year old and I really believe that 1 bad pet can do more than $900 damage in a short time.

My very first house I bought in my hometown for $7000 furnished (yes seven thousand), it was a 100 year old shack but it was good enough for us. After we moved in and started cleaning stuff we discovered cat urine all over the carpets, it was a major pain in the butt and cost a lot of time and money to repair. I have no desire to go down that road again. If the house were better set up for it then maybe I would consider it, or if it was a non-suited house then I might think about it some more, but it just doesn't suit the house or area.

 

[Sherilynn]

I hear ya.



We had a suite with carpeted bedrooms, and 2 tiny dogs completed destroyed it in less than 2 months. We had to remove the carpet and underlay and completely disinfect the floorboards. The place absolutely reeked and I am certain that the only reason we found good tenants before the cleanup was because the new tenants were hair stylists and their nasal passages were already fried by perm & colour solutions.



I still accept some pets (with a monthly pet premium), but never for carpeted suites.

 

[invst4profit]

I am in agreement that a no pet policy is the best route to take with rentals. The reality is that even the best pets leave odors and destroy flooring, doors etc. In my opinion there is no such thing as a good pet in a rental and eventually all landlords learn that lesson (usually the hard way).



Regrettably in Ontario we can not prevent tenants from having pets and legally we can not charge extra for pets or collect a damage deposit. The regulations here are designed to insure tenants do not have to take any responsibility for their actions.