Wednesday, 20 August 2008 10:19 am

Should You Allow Pets?

Lots of potential renters have pets, so allowing pets makes your property available to a larger pool of potential tenants, and thereby increases your chances of renting your home faster and even for slightly higher rates.  If you already have pets, your home may be more likely to appeal to another pet owner.

Disadvantages of allowing pets:

There is a greater chance of damage to your home when pets are present.  And it may be difficult to recover the full replacement cost for older items, such as carpet, if they are damaged by pets.  Damage from pets can easily exceed a renter's security deposit.  Many times damage such as pet odor and flea infestation can be hidden at the time of move-out and, therefore, not noted on the final inspection in time to make deductions from a tenant's security deposit.  Also don't overlook the reluctance on the part of many non-pet owners to rent properties which have previously allowed the presence of animals.  (In much the same way as some non-smokers often will not rent properties that have previously allowed smoking).

On balance, because of the potential risk involved, we would recommend against allowing pets into a rental property.  However, if you decide to allow pets you could take extra precautions, such as charging a non-refundable pet fee or allowing only adult pets whose behavior can be verified.

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