How are landlords regarding pets?

ButtercupTheCow

Hi all,
I am currently in the market for renting a 1 bed apartment/cottage/flat somewhere along the DART line.
The problem is I would like to bring my elderly cat with me.
I have checked Daft.ie, and searched for places listed as "Pets Allowed"- there's feck all.
How easy is it going to be to persuade a landlord to accept an elderly, quiet, housetrained cat?

If all goes to plan, a few months down the line I will possibly be getting a small dog, but nothing is for definite with that yet.

Graces7

ButtercupTheCow wrote: »

Hi all,
I am currently in the market for renting a 1 bed apartment/cottage/flat somewhere along the DART line.
The problem is I would like to bring my elderly cat with me.
I have checked Daft.ie, and searched for places listed as "Pets Allowed"- there's feck all.
How easy is it going to be to persuade a landlord to accept an elderly, quiet, housetrained cat?

If all goes to plan, a few months down the line I will possibly be getting a small dog, but nothing is for definite with that yet.

Very variable.

Most who will not accept pets uses the "no pets allowed" option though on daft.

So the fact they have not specified "pets allowed" does not mean they are not.

Ask is the thing to do when you view.

GalwayKiefer

I know a few people who have pets and are renting, myself included. Generally the one's who allow pets want an extra deposit (equivilant of a month and a half as opposed to a month for example). Agencies don't seem to like dealing with pets so try and deal with landlords directly and ask them.

silja

Depends on what you are renting; professional flats are less likely to allow pets than houses with garden. I had real difficulty finding a city center place to allow 2 cats, so ended up buying. But that was a few years ago- with current economic situation, landlords may be more ameniable.

jd

Be careful with pets and apartments. The landlord may be bound by his leasehold not to allow pets on the property. If the management company decided (or is asked by a resident) to uphold a no-pets clause things can get messy.

deman

How long is a piece of rope?

Every landlord will have different regulations on pets. You should ask each potential landlord about their policy.

Sigma Force

I think landlords should start being more clear about pets, with more and more people needing to rent incl. families who may have 2.5 kids and a dog they need to become more flexible.

I don't see why a decent landlord wouldn't allow you to keep one quiet cat, cats they seem to be more bothered about dogs I think perhaps because of fussy neighbours. I think just be honest when looking for a place even advertise yourself on what you are looking for.

If you are set on getting a dog then be honest from the start that way you won't suddenly be told by a landlord to get rid or the pet or leave the house.

Some relatives have rented before and the signed agreement incl. that they pay for any damages the dog might do to the property some landlords are happy enough with that as long as it's in writing.

The first house I rented years and years ago I said nothing, the landlord didn't seem to mind we had a hamster, gerbil, good few cats and eventually a small dog but we were lucky.

The second house we rented was strictly no pets because the last tenants had a dog or two and they destroyed the place. Saying that when we left that house the new tenants had a small dog running around in their back yard so it all depends on the landlord and the individual animal as well.
I don't think our previous landlord would of approved of 3 dogs but they didn't mind one small one obviously.

We plan on selling and renting with any luck the pets allowed issue is the only worry we have and it's something that we know will limit us.

One thing you may have on your side if the area you are looking at has a lot of houses for rent and a lot of houses lying empty landlords cannot afford to leave properties empty for long so if you have a well behaved pet then they'd be foolish to turn you down. If I was a landlord and had a choice of loosing the house to the bank of have a responsible paying tenant with a cat I'd go with the tenant even if I wasn't for animals.

iguana

As jd said it will be harder with an apartment or even a duplex/townhouse in a managed complex. In those cases the property owner is still subject to the rules of the complex so even if they personally are happy for you to have a pet they don't actually have the right to allow it.

You are more likely to be able to have a pet in a freehold property as then it's just the landlord's decision.