Landlords often set policies for tenants. These policies are often in place to help reduce issues between tenants, which can be a tricky balancing act. A tenant may also be required to follow any policies to reduce difficulties as a resident.
One common policy that many landlords put in place is a pet policy. Landlords may limit tenants from having pets. Why would they do that? Here’s what you should know:
Reduce noise complaints
Many pets can be noisy, dogs especially. Dogs will often bark at every unknown noise they hear. That could mean that a dog barks at another tenant walking down a hallway. Constant barking can create issues with other tenants. This can be especially troublesome if a tenant’s dog frequently barks at night.
Reduce pet smell
Many animals leave behind unfavorable smells after a tenant moves out. Cat urine is a very difficult smell to get out of carpets. Landlords don’t always know how clean tenants can be and tenants can’t always control where animals do their business. Reducing pets can reduce these unwanted smells.
Reduce liability for animal attacks
Landlords can’t always expect tenant’s animals to be well-behaved or trained. If a tenant loses control of their animal, then another tenant’s health could be at risk — and there’s always a possibility that the landlord might be held partially responsible for allowing the animal on the premises.
Enforcing pet policies
Landlords may allow tenants to have pets. Tenants may only be allowed one to two pets and may be expected to pay one-time or regular pet fees. These fees can be useful for tenants if there happen to be issues or accidents to their properties caused by pets.
Some tenants will disregard their renters’ agreements and bring a new pet into a property against their landlord’s knowledge. When this happens, landlords may take legal action against their tenants.