Renting an apartment with pets

[CT_LFC]

Wife and I were considering renting an apartment and when we called the leasing office they said they have a 2-pet maximum at their complex, which really sucks because we have 1 dog and 2 cats. However, our 2 cats are old (15+) and 1 of them barely ever leaves our bedroom and as soon as she hears a new voice she hides in the closet, to the point we've had people come over to our house a few times and say "i had no idea you had another cat".

On that end, how strict are associations in regards to checking/monitoring that you only have 2 pets? neither my wife or I have ever rented so we have no experience in this area. We're relocating out of state so renting this apartment in the neighborhood we're targeting would give us a lot of flexibility while hunting for a new house and not have to rush, so trying to get an idea of the risks associated with "sneaking in" a 3rd pet.

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[SH556JL]

Every landlord or management company is different. You can be honest and hope there are flexible or you can be dishonest, hope they don’t find out and fuss. There’s also the grey area with emotional support animal(s).

 

[CT_LFC]

they'll allow ESA's but you need to be diagnosed by a therapist that you need an animal for emotional support, so that is not really an option.

We asked 2 different places and both were hard line on only allowing 2.

In terms of "how" they generally find out that someone has more pets, is it from other residents or do the management companies do any kind of checks?

 

[Apples491]

I rented with cats in the Denver area for almost a decade. I balked at the, almost universal, $350 non-refundable deposit and $50 per pet per month fees so I spent the bulk of that time hiding my two cats. The bottom line is, apartment management companies would rather not allow pets at all. For every 10 tenants that have a pet and leave the place unscathed, there's 1 that absolutely ruins it. So they punish everyone for the few.

I only had one complex that ever did any sort of inspection and it was more for smoke detector batteries and gross damage to the property. They were required to announce the inspection ahead of time, so I just grabbed a room at the local pet friendly hotel for a night. That was still cheaper than their idiotic pet fees. It would be much harder with dogs.

If I were in your position and was fine with the money aspect, I'd tell the complex I have two pets and not worry about it.

 

[CT_LFC]

I rented with cats in the Denver area for almost a decade. I balked at the, almost universal, $350 non-refundable deposit and $50 per pet per month fees so I spent the bulk of that time hiding my two cats. The bottom line is, apartment management companies would rather not allow pets at all. For every 10 tenants that have a pet and leave the place unscathed, there's 1 that absolutely ruins it. So they punish everyone for the few.

I only had one complex that ever did any sort of inspection and it was more for smoke detector batteries and gross damage to the property. They were required to announce the inspection ahead of time, so I just grabbed a room at the local pet friendly hotel for a night. That was still cheaper than their idiotic pet fees. It would be much harder with dogs.

If I were in your position and was fine with the money aspect, I'd tell the complex I have two pets and not worry about it.

thanks for the input. We know we wouldn't be able to hide the dog, so we'd just say we have 1 dog and 1 cat, but the cats are old and one of them lays on our bed for 20+ hours a day and hides in the closet the moment she hears any voice that is not ours so i basically have no concerns about her being found.

Because this is just a stop gap until we find a house to buy, we'd only be going in with a 6-month term so we may not even be there all that long.

 

[CDRMidnight]

Hopefully they won’t make you write up a ‘pet resume’ for the critters while going through the application process… I had to do so a couple of times while renting in the Bay Area a while ago, still shaking my head about it.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[millerjl]

Have gone through this a few times... Tell them 1 dog and 1 cat. If anyone ever sees the second cat and says anything, you can just say you are pet sitting for a friend. As this is so short term, you will likely never have an issue and they will never know. When I was renting a house once, I had 4 cats and 2 dogs... wife would put all the cats into the car in their carriers whenever the owner wanted to come check something and park down the street.

 

[SH556JL]

they'll allow ESA's but you need to be diagnosed by a therapist that you need an animal for emotional support, so that is not really an option.

We asked 2 different places and both were hard line on only allowing 2.

In terms of "how" they generally find out that someone has more pets, is it from other residents or do the management companies do any kind of checks?

Plenty of online therapists will write you one for your anxiety.

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