Tenant wants to get a dog

[Goodstuff]

This was originally rented as "NO PETS".



Anyone had any experiences like this? If so, how did it turn out?

Any advice?



Thanks.

 

[AndrewMacDonald]

Which province are you in? The rules vary by jurisdiction.



I had this experience about 2 weeks ago. Here in Ontario, the RTA does not allow you to
enforce a no pet clause, so if the tenant wants to get a pet (or 2, or
3, or 4) you can't stop them. Unfortunately it is also illegal to collect a pet deposit in Ontario as well.



Here was what I concluded after some advice from other REIN members:

Hi Everyone,



Thanks for the feedback, its been very helpful. We
decided to let them get the dog since they are good tenants and have
paid on time and kept the unit fairly tidy so far. We made sure they
understand they will be liable for any damage caused by the dog and used
it as an opportunity to bring up our rent-to-own program which they're
interested in since they like the house and want to stay.



Another investor suggested we allow them to get the dog since they could
do it anyways, and actually asking out permission showed a lot of
respect. He also made a good point by noting most landlords won't accept
them with all their pets so they'll be more likely to stay with us for a
longer time.



Hopefully this all works out well and we may even get them set up on rent-to-own.



Thanks for all the help.



Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Alvaro Sanchez]

Late last year, one of my tenants contacted me with the inquiry about adopting a dog. We have leases with no pet policy (which they signed). Since they always pay on time and are great tenants, I told them that yes, that I would be happy to change the clause for them as an exception as they were such a great tenants.



I also mentioned that the building has a pet policy (condo board) which states that if the dog becomes a problem, it would have to go and that fines could be made. (They agreed)



While my general policy is not to allow pets, I am actually thinking that if such clause is removed then a would capture a bigger share of the market as there is a lot of people with pets. They have difficult time getting into units due the no-pet policy.