Pets or No Pets

Whether to allow pets or not tends to be a tough decision for many landlords. Make no mistake about it, every pet will cause some wear and tear on a rental. If people cause damage, pets certainly will.

The question is, how much wear and tear is acceptable.

The number one cause of pet damage is urine. The odds of a pet urinating at one time or another on a carpet or a hardwood floor are surprisingly staggering. The pets may be housebroken, but excitement, illness or a host of other reasons will ultimately prompt such an accident.

If caught early, and if the accident spot isn't a place of recurrence then any one of the commercially available enzyme treatments should suffice. On areas that are frequented, replacement of the carpet may be necessary with the accompanying treatment of the flooring below with an encapsulating chemical such as Kilz(TM). Hardwood floors may need to be sanded and resurfaced. On those occasions where urine has soaked into an untreated wooden floor, the afflicted section may need to be replaced.

Checking for urine accidents is relatively easy. Foremost, the nose is a good indicator, but for those who need a more refined tool, a portable black light will quickly indicate accident spots since urine flouresces under a black light.

In the yard, dogs will also create problems. During urination, a female will squat and create brown spots throughout the yard where the grass is killed by her urine; a male will find a bush and ultimately kill it with his urine.

And yet, the landlord has to recognize that limiting access to tenants without pets grossly reduces the number of applicants who will apply. The pet industry is an $8 billion business that caters to many people, many of whom are renters.

One way to minimize the landlord's potential damage is to increase the security deposit by an adequate amount. This, too, is an art, since raising it too high will make the rental less desirable to renters with pets.

If pets are a possibility, depending on what types they are, how big they are and whether they're fixed or not, a landlord should consider advertising the rental with pets on a case-by-case basis.

Ray