Tenant with two pitbulls

[Robert Lindsley]

Hi there,

I have a tenant with two pitbulls.  The tenant was in the building when I bought it (I've owned the building for 2 months) and he claims to have an insurance policy covering them.

My insurance company is saying they'll drop my policy on the building if the pitbulls are there even with the tenant's insurance policy.

The dogs are very sweet but the tenant lets them run free and they often go into the neighboring property, resulting in 4 malicious animal violations from animal control in the past year.

Any thoughts on how I should handle?  Should I give the tenant 30 days notice to get rid of the dogs or move?  I really don't want the liability, but is there any other solution?

Thanks!
Robert.

[Account Closed]

I actually also had the same situation. I worked with the tenants to set rules such as if any violation comes up that would be grounds for cause. I then called at least 10 insurance companies until I found one that would openly allow pitbulls. The cost was not much more ($50 a year more). I feel bad for the pitbulls, they need to go somewhere but the owners also need to be responsible with them and as long as you make that clear then you shouldn't have a problem.