I have so many property owners ask me “Should i allow my tenants to have a dog or cat in my rental property?”. In this episode i explain the pros and cons of have pets and tell you what i think

1. Tenant Management
Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties
Pets in your Rental Properties
Hello there and welcome, my name’s Michael Gilbert, and I’m a
licensed real estate agent and I’m here brought to you by
tenantmanagement.com.au. Today I’m going to talk to you about
allowing pets in your rental properties. It’s a big question
and a question that is typically asked, I’ve been asked that a
thousand times. I’m going start off by saying that not all pets are
bad. Just because tenants have got some pets it doesn’t mean
they’re going to destroy the house. They’ll actually, a lot of them
are going to pay extra dollars and they actually understand and
they care about their responsibilities because they want to make
sure they actually get a good reference from you as a property
manager or as property owner.
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2. Tenant Management
Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties
Selecting Pets for your Rental Property
I’m going drive into actually selecting some tenants now.
So the things that you need to consider. First of all pets,
we’re not talking about this on saying dogs and cats.
Cats, it doesn’t, you don’t have to worry about their age
so much, in my experience of course. They do tend to
roam around, it’s hard to control cats, I believe you have
more control over dogs. But dogs can create more of a
mess or more damage if they are that kind of dog.
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3. Tenant Management
Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties
Things to Consider in Accepting Tenants
So the things that you need to consider when you get the
application in front of you and these tenants have some
pets, you need to consider the number of pets first of all.
So let’s say dogs, number of dogs. If there’s more than
two, probably be a little bit concerned. If there’s one or
two, generally ok. Age, if they’re really young then they’re
probably going to be not as trained as well. And probably
got a lot more energy and may do a little bit of damage,
possibly. If they’re older then they’re more likely just to sit
around and do nothing.
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4. Tenant Management
Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties
Things to Consider in Accepting Tenants
The type of dog. So you need to consider, if they’re really
large dogs then they could cause more damage, if they’re
small they’re not going to cause as much damage. Inside
and outside. Most tenants would say that their pets or
their dogs are outside and they always stay outside, but I
can tell you right now from my experience, they’re not
always outside. From time to time, they will come inside
so you need to consider that.
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5. Tenant Management
Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties
Approving Tenants with Some Pets
When you’re approving a tenant who has some pets, first
of all you might want to get a pet bond if you can… In all
states of Australia, you can’t always get a pet bond or get
extra bond, or I should say, in all states of Australia, you
can’t always charge extra bond for a pet for a tenant,
because you may already be receiving the maximum
amount of bond that you’re allowed in that state. I know in
some states you can actually pay a “pet bond”.
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6. Tenant Management
Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties
Special Conditions in your Lease
Secondly, you would write some special conditions in your
lease, but be careful with special conditions, you cannot
contradict the act. If you do, that special condition is going to
be null and void anywhere. But you should write in there that
the tenant should get the property fled inside and outside,
professionally. And also get the carpets professionally steam-
cleaned. If you’ve already got some tenants in your property
and they have pets and you just found out they’ve got pets,
first of all, I’ll probably be a little bit concerned that they’ve
got pets in the property and they didn’t let you know on the
application, it means they’re hiding something which I’m
going to be concerned about.
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