# Non-Pet Friendly Landlords **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 6, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116 "2005-10-06T23:11:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/21 "2005-10-07T01:28:55Z")
In Ontario, it’s illegal to forbid renters from having pets. It’s done anyway, though. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/22 "2005-10-07T01:33:53Z")
Of course most pet owners like to live like human beings, but I think for most landlords, one experience with that minority creature that is a filthy pet owner is enough to close the door. Try to clean rubbed-in-shit out a newish carpet (or throw out a three-year-old carpet) once and you don’t want to do it again. (Definitely been there.) One of my nieces was recently evicted from her apartment because her pets stank up the joint. Two small dogs, a hamster, several snakes, and a bearded dragon. The dogs were the worst of it, I’m sure, but it accumulated. Piss everywhere. If it was raining, they’d let the dogs out on the damned balcony to do their business instead of walking them properly – or leave the door open for them to go out and crap there when they were out. Apart from ruining the suite they were in, the _hallway_ that they shared with everyone on the floor stank of animals and animal waste. This summer, I went out to visit them and found that they were doing pretty much the same thing with their new place. No clue. I knew a dirty white “rasta” that bred rats in his apartment and didn’t keep them in cages. The place was full of cockroaches, and the rats would eat the roaches. They _destroyed_ that place. I’ve known cat owners who happily lived in suffocating catbox stink that permeated their entire living space and everything in it. These are definitely the people who make it difficult to find accomodations for pet owners. When it’s your investment, the reasons for rolling the dice and hoping you’ve got “good” pet owners aren’t very compelling, when the alternative is just to cut that risk right out. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/23 "2005-10-07T01:56:11Z")
> [@groman](#): > > I’m a white male but I wouldn’t move into a place advertising “Whites Only” or “No Women”. Those are illegal, but if it was legal, you can understand why it’d be pretty rare to see a rental nowadays that says “Whites Only” or “No Women”, it would ruin their customer base. Hmmm. Forgive me if I’m reading too much into your post, but I’m not entirely convinced that discriminating against animals is ethically analogous to discriminating against human beings. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/24 "2005-10-07T02:25:49Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Of course most pet owners like to live like human beings, but I think for most landlords, one experience with that minority creature that is a filthy pet owner is enough to close the door. > > Try to clean rubbed-in-shit out a newish carpet (or throw out a three-year-old carpet) once and you don’t want to do it again. (Definitely been there.) Non-toilet trained children poop/vomit on carpet, too. My nephew smeared his own poop on the WALLS, fer pete’s sake. And it is still the pet owner who gets told “no” when it comes to rental situations. ☹ As a pet owner I know the frustration of looking for rentals, but I have done what another poster says: the first line out of my mouth is about my animals. If they say no I say thanks and hang up. There are places out there that will take pets - even multiple cats and 50 lb+ dogs. I found a place even though it took more work. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/25 "2005-10-07T02:40:05Z")
> [@SusanStoHelit](#): > > However, I also work at a property management co. We let the individual owners decide if they want to allow pets. That’s mighty generous of you. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/26 "2005-10-07T02:54:48Z")
When I was single, I lived in an apt complex. I also worked nocs-full time, 5 days a week. I call it my black hole year era. I heartedly loathed every frigging dog in that complex–guess, what? Doggy barks when you’re NOT home. Or whines–and I could hear the darned whine (this was next door). Not all day, but at irregular intervals, and at car honks, loud noises etc. I ended up turning on a fan all day, even in winter, to act as white noise. Twice that year, a kid bounced a tennis ball against my bedroom wall from the courtyard below. I opened the window and asked him to stop, which he did. Strangely enough, I never could get the dogs to shut up. I also couldn’t ID exactly which dogs were doing all the barking–and when the owners were home, I was at work. Kid disturbance 2; dog disturbance approx 350 days ( I went away for 2 weeks). I have complete sympathy for those landlords who “discriminate” against Rover. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/27 "2005-10-07T04:19:36Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I’ve known cat owners who happily lived in suffocating catbox stink that permeated their entire living space and everything in it. God. I went with my boyfriend when he was apartment hunting. He was pretty much set on this one company (that had several places around the city), but each building and even each apartment is unique so you have to go see the individual apartment (which was neat instead of a pain, because you don’t have dozens of identical floor plans). Most places allowed cats. One that we saw was one where the previous owner’s lease was up in a bit so he hadn’t completely moved out. The lady showing it to us said that he had cats. Oh. My. Good. God. The _stench_ of cat urine was completely overwhelming. I am not exaggerating when I say that my gag reflex was going. Even after the guy left and they cleaned, scrubbed and repainted, the smell was still there (obviously lessened by a lot, but still!). The one he chose did not have a cat owner as previous tenant. :: shudder :: ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/28 "2005-10-07T04:27:09Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > Don’t blame the landlords – blame the asshole pet owners who allow their animals to trash the place and bark their heads off at all hours. They’re the ones who ruin it for the rest of us. > > Scarlett, conscientious and considerate pet owner Amen, amen AMEN. I think those of us that are responsible pet owners are even more “pet nazis” than the non-pet friendly landlords. Nothing beats taking your dog out for a walk in the dog walk (read: poop) area to do her business and havng to tiptoe around poop mines. Or walking by someone’s balcony (yes neighbor two doors over I’m talking about YOU) and having their dog bark its stupid head off at full volume the whole time you’re out in that area. Of the 63% of Americans that are pet owners, I would wager that a full half of those are asshole pet owners. The poor landlords are just trying to do the best they can. I don’t know about your area, but we do have no kid communities in my town. I wish I could afford to live there too!!! As with irresponsible pet owners, it seems that more often than not, people who have kids are irresponsible and inconsiderate parents leaving their kids outside screeching bloody murder, nearly running people over on their bikes on the sidewalks… grrrr Sorry, back to the mean ole landlord thing. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/29 "2005-10-07T04:35:45Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > Amen, amen AMEN. > > I don’t know about your area, but we do have no kid communities in my town. I wish I could afford to live there too!!! There are a few around…Because nobody has filed a complaint. When I lived in utah there were still places that said no kids in their ad…I was tempted to call HUD on them. [http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/FHLaws/yourrights.cfm](http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/FHLaws/yourrights.cfm) > [@](#): > > Unless a building or community qualifies as housing for older persons, it may not discriminate based on familial status. That is, it may not discriminate against families in which one or more children under 18 live with: > > A parent > A person who has legal custody of the child or children or > The designee of the parent or legal custodian, with the parent or custodian’s written permission. > Familial status protection also applies to pregnant women and anyone securing legal custody of a child under 18. > > Exemption: Housing for older persons is exempt from the prohibition against familial status discrimination if: > > The HUD Secretary has determined that it is specifically designed for and occupied by elderly persons under a Federal, State or local government program or > It is occupied solely by persons who are 62 or older or > It houses at least one person who is 55 or older in at least 80 percent of the occupied units, and adheres to a policy that demonstrates an intent to house persons who are 55 or older. > A transition period permits residents on or before September 13, 1988, to continue living in the housing, regardless of their age, without interfering with the exemption. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/30 "2005-10-07T05:00:42Z")
> [@bdgr](#): > > There are a few around…Because nobody has filed a complaint. When I lived in utah there were still places that said no kids in their ad…I was tempted to call HUD on them. > > [http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/FHLaws/yourrights.cfm](http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/FHLaws/yourrights.cfm) Aaaah. That would be why then. Now that I think about it, the one I’m thinking of is for those 55 and up (I think it’s 55, could be higher). That’s a shame too. Kid free zones would be absolute heaven. ---
**Author:** ![lorinada](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5e925/32.png) [@lorinada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorinada)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/31 "2005-10-07T05:59:29Z")
Or it could be that if you call HUD and ask how to make a complaint, they laugh at you for thinking there are actually enough compliance officers to investigate every single discrimination complaint that came in. I was told by HUD itself that they only enforce discrimination laws when (1) the owner is receiving federal money or (2) they get \*several hundred \* complaints against the same owner. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/32 "2005-10-07T07:52:32Z")
> [@lorinada](#): > > Or it could be that if you call HUD and ask how to make a complaint, they laugh at you for thinking there are actually enough compliance officers to investigate every single discrimination complaint that came in. I was told by HUD itself that they only enforce discrimination laws when (1) the owner is receiving federal money or (2) they get \*several hundred \* complaints against the same owner. Then calling would be a good thing…the more people who call, the more things like this get fixed. I suspect though that its pretty regional how many compliance officers are available. Given that Hud down here runs comercials all the time begging people to call in complaints I suspect the experiance would be differant. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/33 "2005-10-07T15:09:49Z")
I work in rental property management. Pets are almost always negotiable. We will put in the lease that only two dauschounds or whatever are allowed in the apartment. We’re pretty lenient about any animal under 30 pounds, but do demand an additional pet deposit. Even so, the damage caused by pets can be mind boggling. Speaking of discrimination, New Jersey law states that if a landlord lives in a two-family, they can refuse to rent the other apartment to any one for any reason, or even for no reason. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/34 "2005-10-07T15:33:04Z")
I like apartment buildings that limit pets. I have a turtle as a pet, and someday I will get a bird, but not in this apartment. Our complex has the “under 20 lbs” rule and I really appreciate that. And they really defend doggies and kitties, but they’re also good about making sure people clean up after them, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/35 "2005-10-07T16:20:26Z")
As to \*\*groman’\*\*s question of why this should happen, it’s simple – supply and demand. As a landlord, all things being equal, when demand is high, I can and will discriminate against people with dogs. Why not? I’m taking a chance on the tenant, why should I take another chance on the dog? I’ll discriminate against smokers, too. But if the rental market gets slack, and I’m looking for a tenant, these restrictions disappear one by one until I get somebody in there. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/36 "2005-10-07T17:29:25Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > God. > > I went with my boyfriend when he was apartment hunting. \ > > Most places allowed cats. One that we saw was one where the previous owner’s lease was up in a bit so he hadn’t completely moved out. **The lady showing it to us said that he had cats.** > > Oh. My. Good. God. > > The _stench_ of cat urine was completely overwhelming. I am not exaggerating when I say that my gag reflex was going. **Even after the guy left and they cleaned, scrubbed and repainted, the smell was still there (obviously lessened by a lot, but still!).** > > The one he chose did not have a cat owner as previous tenant. :: shudder :: So let me get this straight. Your boyfriend didn’t rent the place with the stench, and yet somehow you found a reason to go back there for second helpings of it after the tenant had moved out. Wow. Dopers, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/37 "2005-10-07T18:02:32Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > So let me get this straight. They looked at while it was still occupied, and again after it was cleaned up. You’ve never viewed/shown a prospective rental more than once? If a place looks good, except it’s dirty, and the current occupant is in the process of moving out, it’s not uncommon to look it over again in a week or so to get a better idea of what it’s about. Talking about cat stench, the last house that I rented was previously occupied by cat people. They had made ad-hoc cat doors by _cutting the corners out of the basement doors and the door to the “cat room.”_ (Apparently missing the concept that pet-doors had flaps to keep heat in and vermin out.) I took the cat-room as my bedroom, because it had a nice studio/solarium extension on it. When I moved in, the solarium was decorated with what I thought of as “kitty crime scene.” (Reverse stencils of cats in various poses, outlined in splashes of purple paint.) It was clearly the room where the litter box was kept. It had cork-lined walls. I repainted that room, scrubbed the floors with bleach several times, and burned I-don’t-know-how-many boxes of incense in there. It still smelled of cat-piss (especially when the humidity went up) for over a year. Fuckers. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/38 "2005-10-07T18:43:21Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > So let me get this straight. Your boyfriend didn’t rent the place with the stench, and yet somehow you found a reason to go back there for second helpings of it after the tenant had moved out. > > Wow. Dopers, eh? :rolleyes: We went there when the owner was still there, and then we went after the owner had left and the apartment building owners had painted, scrubbed and bleached the place to within an inch of its life, since they said that the smell would be gone after they cleaned up. It wasn’t, which was a shame since it had really nice high ceilings and a good layout. That’s why, _after we looked at it post clean-up_, he decided on another apartment instead. Oh wait, of course, you’re right. My boyfriend obviously rented another apartment but said, “Gee, let’s just stop by this ol’ stench place to see how it’s doing, eh?” and went to a completely different apartment complex and saw it just for fun. Wow. Dopers, eh? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/39 "2005-10-07T18:50:50Z")
> [@Case Sensitive](#): > > Hmmm. Forgive me if I’m reading too much into your post, but I’m not entirely convinced that discriminating against animals is ethically analogous to discriminating against human beings. Why not? We’re all sharing the same space rock under roughly the same terms of survival. We’re all living and breathing cute fuzzy things. I mean, obviously the majority of people will disagree with me, but then again the majority of white people 150 years ago probably didn’t believe discriminating against other races was ethically analogous to discriminating against actual human beings. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116/40 "2005-10-07T19:14:37Z")
While I sympathize with the OP (I desperately want a cat, but my current apartment doesn’t allow them), I know the landlord’s side, too. A friend of mine used to work for a rental company and you would not believe the things that people did to their property, even without pets – give these people a living being to take care of, and all hell broke loose. I remember on one occasion seeing an apartment after a horrendous and expensive clean-up. My friend pointed out one bedroom to me with a carpeted floor. She said, “We got complaints about the smell of the apartment. When we investigated, we came in and the floor of this room was just covered in excrement from the dog. When we asked the tenants, they just shrugged and said ‘Oh, that’s the dog’s bathroom’.” They had kicked out the tenants (eventually; tenants who pay their rent are terrible to try to evict), but the deposit didn’t nearly cover the damage, and the tenants were poor enough that it would probably have involved a suit and a garnishment to get their money back, presuming the landlord could track them down. Sure, they might recover the money eventually, but the time and effort involved as well as the nasty nature of the clean up makes the management think, “is this worth bothering?” Sadly, this is why all of the new and vaguely nice apartments in this area don’t allow pets. I found one older apartment that was nearly half again as much as where I am now, for a smaller apartment with a dodgy wooden stair coming up to it, and I would have had to pay an additional deposit AND monthly fee ($75) to have a cat. As much as I’d love a kitten, _yikes_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-pet-friendly-landlords/325116.md?page=3)