Tenants with paint and pet questions

[Michael Slot]

Greeting BP! I have tenants whose lease is about to expire. They’ve been pretty great and I️ offered them a year long extension. We will be signing a new lease within the next week. Suddenly, after we’ve agreed to new terms they asked me two questions that I️ thought I’d get some feedback on. 1.) they want to get a small dog or cat. I currently have a no pets policy however this is a duplex I’m hacking and i have a dog myself. Any thoughts? 2.) they requested new paint in the master. The whole apartment had been renovated and painted prior to them moving in. Again, it is in the lease that they do not paint anything. But I️ just wanted to see what others have done in similar situations. Do i just hold tight to the lease and risk losing good tenants or is there a compromise somewhere? Please let me know.

[Andrew Kerr]

@Michael Slot - Is it cheaper to keep the tenant or to loose them and turn the unit. To me, having a master bedroom painted is an easy request and one I would probably agree to for another year lease.

For the pets, it is really up to you. It would be easy to say no and justify it with the fact that the unit was just renovated. If you do want to say yes, say yes but say there is a pet deposit and fee. Maybe at $25-$50 a month to the rent and increase the deposit by $250.