Taking over a tenant occupied property.

[Michael Daniel]

When taking over a long term tenant occupied property and the tenant has a pet would it be in my best interest to immediately request a pet deposit and increase rent due to pet, or don’t say anything about it and allow myself to make a few months rent in the bank than increase the rent in January?

[Andrew Kiel]

You need to adhere to the terms of the current lease if there is one.  When you renew, you can add a pet deposit with the new lease.  As the new buyer, I would assume you walked the property and are familiar with how the "long term" tenant keeps things up.  The better question is do you really need to get a pet deposit based on this?  While a deposit is almost always preferable, you should make a common sense business decision based on the circumstances and condition of the property, in my opinion.