These days, the majority of tenants have pets. They want to move into a home with their cats, a small dog, or even a larger animal. As a rental property owner, you need to think about what can happen if you decide not to allow pets in your property. It eliminates a large part of the market and has other consequences for your property.
Keeping Tenants Honest in Your Investment Property
Sometimes, tenants will sneak pets into a no-pet property. When this happens, you have no way of knowing what kind of animal is in your home, and what it’s doing to your property. If you allow pets, you can collect a pet deposit to offset any maintenance costs like carpet repair or cleaning. Allowing pets will also give you the opportunity to educate tenants on what you expect. If you don’t allow pets in your investment property and your tenants sneak them in anyway, you won’t be able to provide that education.
Providing a pet policy allows you to tell tenants what their responsibilities will be when it comes to their pets. You can tell them how to clean up after the pet, and where it should go to the bathroom. You can establish rules that pets cannot disturb neighbors, bark excessively, or cause damage to the home. We collect a picture of the pet from tenants so we know what kind of dog or cat is moving in.
Dangerous Breeds in Your Investment Property
Some dog breeds are considered aggressive by homeowner’s insurance companies. At Invest West, we do not allow these breeds in our properties. For example, Pit Bulls are popular, but we don’t allow them because we want to protect other tenants, and we want to protect the owner’s investment. If the dog hurts another person, the owner is liable to cover any damages caused by that pet. So, there are liability and insurance issues involved with dangerous breeds.
Avoiding Pet Damage in Your Investment Property
It’s a good idea for owners to allow pets because you have the opportunity to collect a pet deposit and provide education to the tenant. Part of our process is to do a thorough move-in inspection so any pet damage is documented. If there’s a concern when a tenant moves out, the issue will be easier to handle and you can get the property rent-ready.
We believe it’s always the owner’s choice whether or not to allow pets. If you have any questions about pets, property management, or real estate investing, please contact us at Invest West Management.
