Episode 16: Landlord Animals Part 1
As a landlord, animals are a very touchy subject! Some pets are not appropriate for certain properties, and sometimes the animals are not pets at all! In this episode we define what a "pet" is, how to figure out what the rules for your area are, and then reasonably try to accommodate the pets for your unit. Also, I reveal what MY pet rules are for my own rentals. This is part 1 of 3 for the landlord series, all about animals!
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Full Episode Transcription
Welcome to My Life as a Landlord, where we untangle all things housing and educate the
curious. If you're looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've
come to the right show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to
it. Hello. Hello. Welcome to another lesson, another episode of My Life as a Landlord. I am Dr. Jen,
your educator, and this week's lesson is all about animals. Those of you who have been with me for a
while, you know, I have five content buckets. One is for landlords, one is for tenant perspective. Then, of
course, we do real estate developers, real estate investment, and then other solisbury adventures. So
we've got five content buckets, and on this week's episode, I'm talking to landlords. Landlords. We're
talking about animals. And there is so much in this topic that I have decided to break it up into three
parts. So today is part one. Part one is pets. We're going to talk about the difference between pets and
non pets, but parts two and three are different. So today's episode is about pets. The next episode for
landlords, we're going to talk about service animals and emotional support animals that are animals in the
home, but are not necessarily. They're not pets. And so we have to be careful when we're talking about
service animals, emotional support animals, and then animals. Part three are not pets and they're not
anyone's responsibility, but they are wildlife. There are other intrusive animals that can cause quite a bit
of mischief. And so we will talk about all three of those. And I have a feeling there are so much
interpretation on the subject of animals from a landlord perspective. We will very likely go beyond just
these three initial podcasts about animals as a landlord. But for today, we're going to talk about pets. So
let's jump right into it. What is a pet? 1s Usually people think it's a doggie or a cat or it can be many other
things. So let's talk about what it is. A pet is a tenant responsibility for an animal that they're declaring,
right? Declared domesticated, non aggressive animal that will live in and around the home that they're
renting for either pleasure or companionship. Now, that was a lot of words, but if you think of every
single aspect of that definition of what a pet is, if you change any of those words, that's where all of
these interpretations come from. Where if it's not domesticated. It's an aggressive animal. It doesn't live
in around the house. It's not under the tenant responsibility. Then that's where you've got different aspects
of these animals. Which is why there's so many podcasts. This is the first time I've done a series like this.
Parts one, two and three. And so I'm glad that we started with pets. I'm glad we started with this one
again. I'll read it. It's a tenant's responsibility for a pet as a declared domesticated, tamed, non aggressive
animal that lives in or around the home for companionship or pleasure. That's. 1s The most basic and
common definition that I have found. And so let's talk about what pets are. And some of this is very
inherent, I get it, but sometimes it's not. And I've had this encounter with tenants and potential tenants
applying. So the most common pets, cats and dogs. But there are some limits with cats and dogs because
of noise, s, let's face it. Poop. Are they indoor cats? Outdoor cats? Are they fixed or not? What's their
age? What's their breed? Does their breed affect aggression? Do they have aggressive tendencies
regardless of their breed? These are all questions that impact how the pet is in the home. Now, let's
talk about caged animals. Caged animals, there's others that can be accepted, but the most common I find
birds, ferrets, rabbits, mice, guinea pigs. There's many others. Snakes, usually I put snakes in an
aquarium. Aquarium animals could be with or without water. With water, obviously. Aquarium animals
are frogs and fish. Could be others eels, other aquarium animals. I've seen octopuses in or octopi, I don't
know how you say a plural of an octave of octopus, but aquariums with water and then aquariums
without water, including snakes, lizards. Iguanas turtles. So between cages and aquariums without
water, there's a little bit of a fine line there. And then let's talk about chickens. Most chickens we've seen
in a domestic remember, we're talking about pets. We're talking in a domestic setting here. Chickens are
quite social. If you've never had a chicken or been around somebody with a chicken, you can grow really
attached to the chickens. It's really interesting. I have never been exposed to chickens before we moved
to Maui and seeing chickens being so social. And I'm not talking the feral chickens. I'm talking chickens
that are actually on your property, live in a coupe. They may provide you some eggs, but there are other
aspects to this. If you've got a rooster, there may be some noise issues. You may be subject bylaw
enforcement depending on if you're in a regional district or within city limits. I mean, if you're living in
an apartment, can you have a pet chicken? Depends on what your lease says. And then, of course, you've
got poop chickens and birds in general, poop wherever they can. And so you've got this. This other
aspect of pet chickens, but pets also, let's be clear. They're not livestock, they're not cows, they're not
sheeps, they're not goats, and they're not pigs. This has come up a couple of times where people have had
pot belly pigs as pets in their homes and as potential tenants, they want to bring the pot bellied pig with
them. Now, at the end of the podcast, I'll tell you what my rules are at the moment. I'm just trying to
define in general what a pet is. And again, I'll read it one more time. Tenant's responsibility for a declared
domesticated, tamed, non aggressive animal that lives in or around the home for companionship or
pleasure. So listing off the typical pets that we know, there are some gray areas in there.
And so that's kind of as a landlord, you've got to know what are you up for as far as where your unit is and what the
unit can handle. So .2. Number one, we define what pets are .2. What are the rules for your area? And I
alluded to this already a little bit. Some city bylaws are very specific that you can have chickens, but
you have a limit of chickens. You can have a limit of where the coupe is or how big the coupe can be,
but the city bylaws may also have a rule right in there about livestock and say, look, you cannot have a
sow, a pig in your front yard in your subdivision. And while that may seem laughable, that is something
that's subject to city bylaws. Now, I would argue as a landlord is a sow pig a pet? I don't know, it's
debatable. Is it there for companionship or pleasure? Probably not. But again, make sure you know the
rules for your area, and that includes for your state or your province the normally the housing code or act
or tenancy code, whatever is applicable to your local area. Your state or your province will likely have
something in the act, in the writing, in the governing document about pets. And that will include a
deposit, usually a pet damage deposit. In British Columbia, there's a pet damage deposit that can be
allowed up to one half month's rent. There are other places that you'll see that you can have a pet, but
there's no additional deposit. It's all in the security deposit. But then when you have normal wear and
tear, now you've got a pet to deal with. There's also other folks, other places that will allow an additional
rent amount per month per pet. And so they'll say, like the state of Hawaii, if you want to add a dog, you
can say, okay, you can have your dog if it meets all these criteria. It's a domesticated, non aggressive pet
that's over one year old. It's fixed all the requirements, but it's also an additional $100 a month for rent.
And so you really need to know your rules when you are offering a unit for rent. There are landlords. 1s
Because if you can get some additional revenue or take a pet damage deposit for any damage that may
occur due to that pet, you need to know exactly the rules of these pets, money wise. But that's the rules
for your area. So, point one, defining pets, .2 what are the rules for your specific area? And .3, what
can your unit accommodate? Eight. Now, I must tell you, I've got a couple of, 1s I guess, rules, rules that
we live by. And one of them is what you do for one, you must do for all, especially if you have tenants in
close proximity of each other. If you have, say, a fourplex or you've got an apartment building, if you
allow a bird in a cage, let's say, in one unit, you better be prepared to have everybody have a bird in a
cage, because what you do for one, you must do for all. Tenants talk, neighbors talk. That's the nature of
what you're doing. You're creating community. And a byproduct of that community is that they're going
to interact. That's not a bad thing. You need to be prepared as a landlord, if you permit a bird in a cage
for one unit, for one tenant, you need to be prepared for all of them. So. What can your unit
accommodate? This is very unit specific, right? Can everybody have a bird? Is there space for chicken
coop? Does your bylaws allow a chicken coop? Is there a yard that you could have chickens or an
outdoor cat or any number of pets that can be accommodated in your specific rent? You need to be aware
of how you can approach this. Other areas may be rabbits or guinea pigs. Are there tenants that are
applying that have a guinea pig in an aquarium without water or cage? I mentioned the pet pig. That has
come up. That has absolutely come up. What about cats and dogs and things like that? I have found with
cats, especially if you've got indoor cats, do they spray do they spray their urine against the wall and then
the entire unit smells like cat urine? And then when the tenant leaves, then you've got to deal with a unit
that has to be recovered and potentially has to either be repainted and or the drywall has to be removed or
the flooring has to be removed because the urine smell has either wrecked the smell is wrecked it, or the
spray itself. Water part has wrecked your rental. So you've got to actually do some recovery here. 1s So
you've got to be really mindful of what your unit can accommodate. Okay, so how does Jen landlord Jen,
do pets in my rentals? I do have rentals. I have rentals in Hawaii. I have rentals in British Columbia that I
self manage. I do not have a property manager. I do have help on the ground, but I help direct and
oversee, and I also do all the money part for all my rentals. So what my rules are for pets if a potential
tenant has a cat or a dog. Dogs typically are approved if they're greater than one year old. So we do not
accept puppies. Puppies do chew and they pee, so we don't accept puppies. They must be thick fixed,
which kind of is a deal breaker for some people. However, if you've ever had been around a dog that is
on their monthly, it can cause a lot of problems. And also there can be aggressive tendencies if you've got
a female in heat. So you want to limit safety issues with your pets. So we require pets to be fixed. They
have to be on flea medication. 1s They they're not they can't be barking all day long, all night long. They
cannot be barkers. If, if they're gonna alert bark like somebody knocks on the door and they're alerting
and they bark once or twice or however saying, hey, somebody's at the door, that's different. An alert
bark is okay. That's actually a good thing. But if they're going to bark incessantly and they're going to
impact the quiet enjoyment of their neighboring units, that is not okay. So non barkers and they cannot be
aggressive. They cannot have aggressive tendencies. In fact, as I'm reading this, I'm thinking I have
actually added an entire page in my lease addendum about aggressive animals. We have had so many
issues with pets in general, but I don't want to say so many. We've had maybe three or four over the 15
years of our land, lording, where we've had animals bite other tenants kids. We've had animals bite other
tenants in general, just bite them. Or we've had people adjust their. Um, their normal habits. Like, for
example, they, they're not going to walk by this one unit because they know that the dog is Tied up and
the dog Will lunge at them. And so they will alter their Normal behavior because of an aggressive
animal. Sounds like I should do another show about aggressive animals. I think that's probably a Good
idea. Okay, back to what my rules are. So the dogs if we're going to accept a dog, dog's got to be at least
one year old, no puppies fix, flea medication, non barkers, non aggressive. But they also must meet the
being limit of the unit. If I've got a One Bedroom unit, my being limit is the bedrooms plus one. So A
One Bedroom unit would be at three, depending on the unit. Let's say you've got A couple With A
dog, okay, that meets it. But if you've got a couple With A dog and A cat, okay, now tell me about the
dog. Tell me about the cat. Let's talk about cats. They must be indoor cats. Typically, we don't like
outdoor cats because of the pegged doors that become open. 1s That means there's a security risk for the
common area tenants. There's usually two doors. One door to get in the common area and then one door
to get in their unit. And if everything's Pegged open, that defeats why we have doors and locks. So we
don't typically like Outdoor cats. Plus, there's Nobody that's responsible to pick up the poo from the
outdoor cats. So we found, by and large not always, but by and large, dog owners are more responsible.
They do pick up poo. We have a Lot less poo problems on properties without outdoor cats. So we do
allow cats. They're usually indoor, but it's also very property specific. They must meet the being you
limit of the unit as a whole, meaning adults, children's and pets as well. We do not allow aquariums or
cages, chickens. Or pigs. We just do, depending on what property it is. We are very simple with our
pet permissions, and I find that we are actually not the norm. Most landlords just straight up say no pets. I
have a doggie. Many people who know me from Canada know that. My dog, I have a golden retriever,
German shepherd named Mac. He's an older guy. He's just turned twelve. But I know how much I love
my dog and my pet. He's my buddy, he's my companion. He comes with me everywhere. If I've got a
potential tenant who is fantastic, who also has a companion, who also has a pet dog, I understand that
love. I understand that bond, and I want to promote it. Remember, our goal as landlords is to create
community and to support people in their housing journey. They may or may not be with us their entire
housing life, and that's fine. But along the way, we want them to feel comfortable, safe, comfortable in
their home so that they are really going to really contribute to the community. So those are what my rules
are. Okay, call to Action as a landlord, what are your rules for your pets? Do you have a set of rules? If
you do, are they published? Do the potential tenants looking at your units that you have vacant know
what the rules are? If not, I highly encourage you to make sure you've got them published, whether on
your website or you've got a flyer, maybe you've got them posted outside the unit itself. You've got to
make sure that your potential tenants know your rules, because if there's some deal breakers in there, like
if they have an aquarium with a ferret or a cage with a ferret, or there's something that is a deal breaker in
there, they may very likely apply just to see if you'll let them in. But you've got to make sure you've got
your rules published. 1s If you don't have any rules for your pets, you might consider making some and
just follow the rules that I have. The the guidelines that I've just laid out in this podcast, it's quite
reasonable to accommodate the city bylaws or your county requirements for pets and also what your unit
can accommodate. You want to make sure that your rules are reasonable and they're consistent.
Remember, if you bend a rule, you just made a new rule, so you want to be consistent. We are consistent.
One year old or older, no puppies. If somebody says, my puppy is nine months old, is that okay? The
answer is no, I'm very sorry. And that's how we have to say it. This is our business. My Call to action for
you as a fellow landlord, what are your rules for pets? Next week's episode tenant terminology. We're
going to talk about all kinds of terms that I see common in leases that many people don't even really
understand what they are. And we will talk a bit about pets and damage and deposits and all kinds of
things like that. So stay tuned for next week's episode. Thanks for joining me. We'll see you next time.
Thank you for joining us this week. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in
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