Landlords urged to drop ‘no pets’ policy
December 6, 2008 – 9:06 amABC News: Landlords urged to drop ‘no pets’ policy
December 4th, 2008
This article on the ABC News website appeared on the 4th of December, generating a huge debate over the renting with pets issue. It’s great to see articles such as this getting mainstream media attention as animal surrendering rates still on the increase with a lack of pet friendly rental accommodation cited as the number one reason.
As comments were closed by the time I found out about the article, I thought I’d throw my 2c in here.
The bottom line – This must be about responsible tenanting!
Despite the various arguments for allowing pets or not allowing pets in a rental property, when we really start getting to the bottom of it, this debate MUST be about responsible tenanting, not about pets. This allows us to move past strong emotional based viewpoints (for and against) and to focus on something that landlords, property managers and all responsible tenants and pet owners can agree on.
Pets don’t wreck homes, irresponsible tenants do!
Yes, of course pets can cause significant damage to homes, but so can kids, and so can irresponsible adults, particularly when alcohol is involved. The fact of the matter is that a responsible pet owner who treats the home as if it were their own is likely to cause no more damage than the next person. Or in any case, any damage that is caused by the pet will be rectified.
Yes, I would agree that having pets in a rental would potentially increase the chance of damage to a property, but the only way to totally prevent your property from being damaged at all is to not rent it in the first place. Renting will always bring about circumstances that put a property in harms way, that’s just the way it is.
What are we doing about it?
We’re currently working on educational resources that aim to ensure pet owners are being the best possible tenants, as well as promoting the key benefits to landlords and property managers about making a property pet friendly. Our resources will help highlight the pet owners that are doing everything right while providing avenues for other pet owners to start putting their best foot forward.
It’s also my view that the majority of pet owners are great and responsible tenants, but it’s the minority of cases (and bad experiences) that have left landlords and property managers with bad taste in their mouth.
So what’s the way forward?
We’re not on anyone’s side as the only way this situation can truly improve whereby is pet owners and landlords/property managers both make efforts to help one another.
We just hope that we can play an important part in making it easier to find rentals that allow pets, as well as helping to make more of them available in the future through education and awareness.
6 Responses to “Landlords urged to drop ‘no pets’ policy”
I totally agree with this article. We have pets and we have always been the “star tenants” and why? because we do take responsability of our own pets and take care of the place as if it would be ours. We come form the US and found extremely difficult to find a place that is pet friendly. Totally discouraging!!! In cases, I even offer on putting down an extra deposit but they just said NO.
Sometimes kids and irresponsable adults do destroy rental properties much more than a cat or a dog. It should not be based on that criteria.
I am a pet lover and wish landlords and realtors could be more open to people that we own pets.
By Mariana Vona on Jan 28, 2009
Hi Mariana,
Thanks for your comments, I couldn’t agree more.
Cheers,
Ryan
By Ryan on Feb 4, 2009
I also agree with this article – I’ve known grown people who are more destructive than pets (especially stupid drunk people). I come from Toronto originally, and there it has now become illegal to discriminate against tenants on the basis of pet-ownership. It still happens, of course, but potential tenants do not have to disclose whether or not they have pets, and landlords cannot evict tenants purely on the basis that they have pets (they have to prove that the pet is actually causing damage/nuisance in order to obtain an eviction notice).
I think that’s a good step forward – tenants should be judged fairly on objective qualities, like are they responsible, do they have good references, have they been evicted, have they had problems with past landlords, do they have a job etc. Pets, kids, or other things like that shouldn’t be considered because it’s unfair and prejudicial. Responsible people will be responsible pet-owners, and responsible parents, and responsible tenants.
By Tanya on Feb 13, 2009
I work for First National Craigmore Elizabeth in SA; we do our best to encourage landlords to consider well behaved pets when outlining the criteria that they would like for their tenant. Many pet owners are stable and own beautiful pets that are well taken care of and cause no harm to properties. I have 2 dogs and a cat and I am currently renting between building and I consider my animals to be extremely well behaved, but know first hand how difficult it is becoming for pet owners. I feel many landlords have a misconception of pet damage due to a minority, and a pet resume is a great idea, it would certainly give us a little more information to present to landlords who are considering allowing pets. During my years in the real estate industry I have seen very little damage caused by pets and nothing that I would consider as major damage. I will make an effort to advertise more clearly as to what properties consider pets.
By Sandra Maciunas on Feb 24, 2009
Wow, maybe I should have relocated to Toronto. My wife and I have recently emigrated to Sydney from the UK and brought our 2 dogs with us at a great expense. We’ve managed to privately secure a house-sit until December but then we are out on our own. My brother and his wife live in the eastern suburbs and our work is here so we really don’t want to leave the area. I just did a search through the pet friendly rental filter on both Domain and real estate.com. From over 2000 properties in our price range, size, and specifics (ie garden/yard), not a single house was pet friendly. The future suddenly looks very bleak.
As long as this rental system is in place, with the global recession as it is, Australian dog rescue centers are going to be overflowing. Which just means more and more euthanasia.
Just because of an imagined stereotypical owner that I’ve never actually encountered. Unfortunately, the only people who will read this site will be sympathisers. Not the people we need to read it.
By Conrad on Jul 2, 2009
I agree that pets should be allowed we are over here in SA with our two baby dogs and cannot find a rental house near to where we work. Our dogs go with us to work and are well trained it is so unfair when people like us do the right things and get treated like we don’t look after things or our animals
By Julieann on Feb 5, 2010