finding a rental allowing multiple cats
Brandy Alexandre
>So, my question is: How honest should I be about the number of
>felines. My preference is to be upfront and pay a pet deposit
>so I don't have to worry about being found out or possibly evicted.
>On the other hand, I'm worried that if I'm truthful I won't be
>able to find a place. I've toyed with the idea of saying I have
>two rather than four cats. Have any of you with multiple cats faced
>this situation recently and how did you deal with it? I'd
>appreciate any suggestions (apart from being separated from my
>kitty cats).
I think you need to be honest in that you are a "pet owner". I would like to
see an apartment manager put himself in a position to say that 4 cats are more
destructive than one. He could have one that's ripping up another unit
and yours may all be darlings. Make sure the apartment accepts pets and pay
the pet deposit. If he questions you about it simply ask him why he would
need to know that. Also, I know in Los Angeles you are not permitted to own
more than 6 cats, have you made sure that 4 cats are legal in the new area?
Brandy
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CR,,,
>In article <3j08qe$e...@usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu> pst...@helix.hgen.pitt.edu (Pam St.Jean) writes:
>
>>So, my question is: How honest should I be about the number of
>>felines. My preference is to be upfront and pay a pet deposit
>>so I don't have to worry about being found out or possibly evicted.
>>On the other hand, I'm worried that if I'm truthful I won't be
>>able to find a place. I've toyed with the idea of saying I have
>>two rather than four cats. Have any of you with multiple cats faced
>>this situation recently and how did you deal with it? I'd
>>appreciate any suggestions (apart from being separated from my
>>kitty cats).
>
>I think you need to be honest in that you are a "pet owner". I would like to
>see an apartment manager put himself in a position to say that 4 cats are more
>destructive than one. He could have one that's ripping up another unit
>and yours may all be darlings. Make sure the apartment accepts pets and pay
>the pet deposit. If he questions you about it simply ask him why he would
>need to know that. Also, I know in Los Angeles you are not permitted to own
>more than 6 cats, have you made sure that 4 cats are legal in the new area?
>
>Brandy
>
here in phoenix, as well as two years ago in cedar rapids iowa,
not only did i have to say i had a pet, i had to sign a paper
which stated that i had only one and i had to give a description
of the cat and it's name.
my advice is, if you can, buy your own property. sometimes that
isn't an option. when it isn't, rent in the largest complex you
can find because the people who work there pass many, many more
windows each day than in a smaller complex. also, make it a
complex which allows a pet (i have YET to find any apartment
which allows more than one pet per unit) and go ahead and tell
them about one. never, EVER allow the maintenance people into
your apartment without you being there and even if you are, hide
the illegal pets. if you ever get a notice about an "inspection",
take the illegal pets out of the apartment (i took mine to the vets
for the day, poor things!) but LEAVE THE LEGAL PET. this gives the
appearance that you aren't trying to hide anything.
for those of you who want to say "you're being dishonest", you're
right. however, when i got my cats, i made a committment to care
for them until the end of their days. this committment is just
between me and my cats and me and my creator. furthermore, my
cats have never, EVER damaged anything but me (one is a biter)
and paper. they don't make a mess unless they're sick and i'm
responsible enough to clean the carpet if need be. i think that
apartment complexes charge enough deposit to cover replacing the
ordinarily cheap carpet if someone's pet did mess it up. also,
i think it's ludicrous that because you are a renter, you can
not own pets or you cannot own more than one.
fyi, i OWN rental property and they have cats AND dogs and they
clean the carpet every six months. it's NOT a problem. after the
tenants move out, i have 30 days in which to inspect the property
and if there is any damage i can deduct the cost from the deposit.
JULIANNE WEIGHT
: for those of you who want to say "you're being dishonest", you're
: right. however, when i got my cats, i made a committment to care
: for them until the end of their days. this committment is just
: between me and my cats and me and my creator. furthermore, my
: cats have never, EVER damaged anything but me (one is a biter)
: and paper. they don't make a mess unless they're sick and i'm
: responsible enough to clean the carpet if need be. i think that
: apartment complexes charge enough deposit to cover replacing the
: ordinarily cheap carpet if someone's pet did mess it up. also,
: i think it's ludicrous that because you are a renter, you can
: not own pets or you cannot own more than one.
I admire your creativity, really. When I had children, I made a
committment to care for them until they were grown -- but I waited to
have them until I was certain I could fulfill that committment. I also
didn't have more than I felt I could reasonably support. If you were to
move to Los Angeles County with your four cats, the local laws would
regulate that you get rid of one.
Just because you clean up after your cat's messes and have the carpet
cleaned on regular basis doesn't fix the problem -- the backing and
padding are ruined. I have yet to find a tenant who tells me their pets
had "accidents" and that they would be replacing the carpet before they
moved out. And no, usually the deposit isn't enough to cover replacing
the carpet, especially if there is other damage to the unit.
: fyi, i OWN rental property and they have cats AND dogs and they
: clean the carpet every six months. it's NOT a problem. after the
: tenants move out, i have 30 days in which to inspect the property
: and if there is any damage i can deduct the cost from the deposit.
How do you propose to inspect the backing and padding? I'm playing the
devil's advocate here, mostly -- I have had tenants with pets. But
almost always, I've had to replace the carpet, no matter how good the
tenant was about cleaning up after their pets. Every time that happens,
I swear I'm never going to rent to someone with pets again -- but as a
pet owner myself and as a former renter who had problems finding a place
that would allow my cat -- I find it very hard to say no.
Julie
Meredith Tanner
JULIANNE WEIGHT <jul...@netcom.com> wrote:
>
>Just because you clean up after your cat's messes and have the carpet
>cleaned on regular basis doesn't fix the problem -- the backing and
>padding are ruined. I have yet to find a tenant who tells me their pets
>had "accidents" and that they would be replacing the carpet before they
>moved out. And no, usually the deposit isn't enough to cover replacing
>the carpet, especially if there is other damage to the unit.
on the other hand, it's been my observation as a
renter that after two years of renting an apartment,
the carpet usually looks bad enough (even when i
didn't have cats for those two years) that the
landlord would probably need to replace it before
renting again anyway. and i don't have a lot of
guests, nor do i rebuild engines on my living room
floor -- it's just that most landlords use pretty
cheap carpet in rentals (i bet you do), and it wears
very quickly.
here's a question: why have wall-to-wall carpet in
your rental property? if the floor beneath is a
hardwood floor, you can have a polyurethane finish
put on it that ought to repel any pet urine damage.
if it's not, you could install either inexpensive
wood parquet tile (which you could replace by the
tile if necessary) or ceramic tile (which wouldn't
be damaged by pet urine at all). if you're worried
about scratches on the floor, you could just require
that the tenants keep a certain percentage of the
floors covered with area rugs (which the first two
apartments i lived in required). no problem.
or just put a clause in the lease that if there is
pet damage to the carpet, the tenant will pay to
have it replaced with carpet of equal quality.
our current apartment has carpet, and i fully
expect to have to pay for it to be replaced; while
our guys never fail to use their litter, one of
them loves to claw and chew on the carpet and has
caused some damage. you can't watch him all the
time. if we're asked to pay for replacement carpet,
we will. i didn't know this would be a problem,
since the only other place these cats had lived
had hardwood floors. you can bet the next place we
rent won't have carpet; i actually don't like wall-
to-wall carpet anyway. i much prefer wood floors.
if you're a tenant looking for an apartment and
having trouble because of no-pet clauses, why not
*offer* to have a clause placed in the lease saying
that you will be responsible for replacing any carpet
damaged by cats?
m
--
"Oh, there has been much throwing around of brains." -- Wm. Shakespeare
Stephanie Mabee
in the Phoenix area. My husband and I have two cats and we had a hard
time finding a place last June.
After about two weeks of driving around and looking at places with no
luck, my husband was ready to find a new home for his cat. I just stuck
with it and finally found a place where the manager said sure, we'll
allow two cats.
So, we headed over there and checked out the apartment and we liked it
(amazingly, this apartment is one of the nicest and least expensive that
we looked at). When we signed the pet agreement though, the policy said
one animal per unit and it has to weigh less than twenty pounds.
So I explained again that we had two cats and the manager told us it was
no problem. We modified the pet agreement and lease to reflect that, BUT
have never received our signed copy. I don't want to push the issue
because this really is the only complex that allows multiple cats.
The point is that is an option if you can convince the manager to allow
the cats and modify (and initial the changes) the lease. Usually a
manager that owns a pet will be easier to convince.
Another problem we ran into was that places that had a one cat only
rule also requested that the cat be declawed and spayed/neutered.
One manager had the audacity to ask me why declawing wasn't an option
for our cats. After all, she was willing to make an exception for the
second cat if they were both declawed!
Good luck to the original poster, I hope you and your kitties find a
nice place to live.
Stephanie, Ty, PoMo and Mogwai
CR,,,
>CR,,, (@oms07.engnis) wrote:
>: for those of you who want to say "you're being dishonest", you're
>: right. however, when i got my cats, i made a committment to care
>: for them until the end of their days. this committment is just
>: between me and my cats and me and my creator. furthermore, my
>: cats have never, EVER damaged anything but me (one is a biter)
>: and paper. they don't make a mess unless they're sick and i'm
>: responsible enough to clean the carpet if need be. i think that
>: apartment complexes charge enough deposit to cover replacing the
>: ordinarily cheap carpet if someone's pet did mess it up. also,
>: i think it's ludicrous that because you are a renter, you can
>: not own pets or you cannot own more than one.
>
>I admire your creativity, really. When I had children, I made a
>committment to care for them until they were grown -- but I waited to
>have them until I was certain I could fulfill that committment. I also
>didn't have more than I felt I could reasonably support. If you were to
>move to Los Angeles County with your four cats, the local laws would
>regulate that you get rid of one.
what creativity? i'm usually not accused of having any of that.
i AM certain i can fulfull the committment to my three cats. i am
also able to support all three of them reasonably.
if i said four instead of three it was a typo or temporary insanity.
i have three.
>
>Just because you clean up after your cat's messes and have the carpet
>cleaned on regular basis doesn't fix the problem -- the backing and
>padding are ruined. I have yet to find a tenant who tells me their pets
>had "accidents" and that they would be replacing the carpet before they
>moved out. And no, usually the deposit isn't enough to cover replacing
>the carpet, especially if there is other damage to the unit.
i see you answered a question that i asked later. please disregard that
question...you'll see it.
>
>: fyi, i OWN rental property and they have cats AND dogs and they
>: clean the carpet every six months. it's NOT a problem. after the
>: tenants move out, i have 30 days in which to inspect the property
>: and if there is any damage i can deduct the cost from the deposit.
>
>How do you propose to inspect the backing and padding? I'm playing the
>devil's advocate here, mostly -- I have had tenants with pets. But
>almost always, I've had to replace the carpet, no matter how good the
>tenant was about cleaning up after their pets. Every time that happens,
>I swear I'm never going to rent to someone with pets again -- but as a
>pet owner myself and as a former renter who had problems finding a place
>that would allow my cat -- I find it very hard to say no.
well, at least you haven't forgotten what it was like.
how to you inspect the backing and padding????? are you kidding????
it's not THAT hard. pull it up and look. yeah, yeah, i know, that'd
sure be an awful lot of work pulling up an entire apartment/house of
carpeting just to see if it's been ruined. of course, if you can't
tell that it's ruined, and you can't smell it or see any evidence of
it, then is it really ruined?
furthermore, how did you know it was ruined unless you DID pull it all
up and look?
>
>Julie
JULIANNE WEIGHT
: In article <juliew8D...@netcom.com>,
: on the other hand, it's been my observation as a
: renter that after two years of renting an apartment,
: the carpet usually looks bad enough (even when i
: didn't have cats for those two years) that the
: landlord would probably need to replace it before
: renting again anyway. and i don't have a lot of
: guests, nor do i rebuild engines on my living room
: floor -- it's just that most landlords use pretty
: cheap carpet in rentals (i bet you do), and it wears
: very quickly.
Depends on your definition of cheap. The last carpet I put in was
$20/yard, but I rent houses, not apartments. The reason landlords put in
cheap carpet is because they get tired of putting new (expensive) carpet
in every time someone moves out. There's no point in putting in
expensive carpet if you have to replace it again in two years anyway.
(Always expect the worst!) :-)
: here's a question: why have wall-to-wall carpet in
: your rental property? if the floor beneath is a
: hardwood floor, you can have a polyurethane finish
: put on it that ought to repel any pet urine damage.
: if it's not, you could install either inexpensive
: wood parquet tile (which you could replace by the
: tile if necessary) or ceramic tile (which wouldn't
: be damaged by pet urine at all). if you're worried
: about scratches on the floor, you could just require
: that the tenants keep a certain percentage of the
: floors covered with area rugs (which the first two
: apartments i lived in required). no problem.
I have children, but I'm not going to decorate my house like Chuck E.
Cheese's just to reduce their damage to the place. Wood floors get
warped if they get wet, including urine. People don't like the look or
the accoustics of all wood or ceramic floors and an apartment or house IS
a place for people to live.
: or just put a clause in the lease that if there is
: pet damage to the carpet, the tenant will pay to
: have it replaced with carpet of equal quality.
That clause is already standard in most contracts, but it's extremely
difficult to collect over and above the security deposit. The tenant
will deny THEIR pet caused the damage (it pre-existed their tenancy, it
was cheap carpet to begin with, etc.) or you may get a judgment but no
reimbursement.
: if you're a tenant looking for an apartment and
: having trouble because of no-pet clauses, why not
: *offer* to have a clause placed in the lease saying
: that you will be responsible for replacing any carpet
: damaged by cats?
I'd like to see it and I'd love even more to believe it would actually
happen. I'm still trying to collect $5,000 from my last tenant, who
claims all the carpet damage was caused by the earthquake. Somehow I
don't think ketchup stains and smells the backing quite like urine!
Julie
Meredith Tanner
>: floor -- it's just that most landlords use pretty
>: cheap carpet in rentals (i bet you do), and it wears
>: very quickly.
>
>Depends on your definition of cheap. The last carpet I put in was
>$20/yard, but I rent houses, not apartments. The reason landlords put in
>cheap carpet is because they get tired of putting new (expensive) carpet
>in every time someone moves out. There's no point in putting in
>expensive carpet if you have to replace it again in two years anyway.
>(Always expect the worst!) :-)
that's exactly my point. if the landlord is expecting
to have to replace the carpet (and padding, i would
assume) anyway, then why exactly is it such a crisis
if the tenant's cat damages it? i don't care if the
carpet's cheap. my point was that it's silly for a
landlord to make a big stink about pet damage to
carpets if he/she is expecting to have to replace the
carpet anyway. and if the landlord is really so
concerned about the carpet, i STILL don't see any
problem with a clause in the lease stating that the
tenant will be responsible for replacement of pet-
damaged carpet. pet owners who are certain their pets
will behave shouldn't have any trouble with that, and
if they do, i'd expect the terms of the lease would
stand up in court. they signed it, they agreed to it.
>I have children, but I'm not going to decorate my house like Chuck E.
>Cheese's just to reduce their damage to the place. Wood floors get
>warped if they get wet, including urine. People don't like the look or
>the accoustics of all wood or ceramic floors and an apartment or house IS
>a place for people to live.
i like the look AND the acoustics of all wood floors.
(nor do i recall ever having seen a hardwood floor in
Chuck E. Cheese's.)
>: or just put a clause in the lease that if there is
>: pet damage to the carpet, the tenant will pay to
>: have it replaced with carpet of equal quality.
>
>That clause is already standard in most contracts, but it's extremely
>difficult to collect over and above the security deposit. The tenant
>will deny THEIR pet caused the damage (it pre-existed their tenancy, it
>was cheap carpet to begin with, etc.) or you may get a judgment but no
>reimbursement.
aren't there usually walk-throughs of an apartment to
determine what damage was already there when the tenant
moved in? don't the tenants have to sign that? i'd
expect you could use that in court to prove the damage
wasn't there before the tenant took residence.
look, i don't want to argue about this forever or
something, i was just asking a couple of questions
and making a couple of suggestions. you are under
no obligation to listen to me. it's just been my
experience that if people will actually negotiate
instead of basing their actions entirely on prejudgements,
often a compromise can be reached that is acceptable
to everyone.
>I'd like to see it and I'd love even more to believe it would actually
>happen. I'm still trying to collect $5,000 from my last tenant, who
>claims all the carpet damage was caused by the earthquake. Somehow I
>don't think ketchup stains and smells the backing quite like urine!
i've paid for damages over and above my security deposit
on two occasions -- one place charged me $50 because they
said the place wasn't "clean enough" (as though they weren't
going to have a maid go over it themselves anyway; i had the
damn place as clean as i could get it), and the other charged
me $100 for a "ruined stove" (one burner had blown, and i'd
asked the landlord to repair it several times, and they never
did, and then they charged ME) and another $75 for "trash
left in yard" (trash left at curb when moving out, which i
assume would have been picked up by the garbage collectors
if the jerks hadn't come and inspected the place before trash
day.) i didn't feel like arguing with these landlords; i'd
rather spend $175 on things i wasn't responsible for than a
whole lot more on a lawsuit. i don't have the time or the
money for that kind of crap.
perhaps other people are more nit-picky than i am about
their security deposits; i always assume when i hand it
over that i'll never see it again, and no matter how hard
i try to clean a place before i leave, i never do see it.
(i don't bother working so hard anymore. if they're going
to take my money anyway, let THEM clean it. of course,
i'm speaking of apartment complexes here, not private
homes. i've never rented from an individual. i expect
that would be very different.)
Diane Mackay
of our security deposit back. Including the pet deposit. We had 2 cats
and the occasional hairball hacked on the carpet too! :)
I also expect to get it all back if/when I move out of my present
apartment. And I have 2 cats still :) The carpet in this unit I'm in now
should have been replaced before I moved in. The previous tenants had
spilled what looks like red nail polish in both bedrooms :/ Neither of my
cats use that color ;)
Diane :)
Julie M. Thomson
: When my roommate and I moved out of our apartment a year ago we got ALL
If there is no damage, you should not only get your damage deposit back,
but you should get interest on it. That's Canadian law, at least.