Pet Policies, Addendums, Clauses, Experiences?

[Jon S.]

Tenants want to have a dog and are requesting a list of dogs that I would approve.  I have not approved a pet yet and have not even created a pet policy, agreement, addendum, or clause that I could use. The lease is vague about pets, it simply states that pets are not allowed unless approved in writing and are approved on a case by case basis. I'm willing to allow this tenant to have a dog or a cat, but I only want a tenant to have one pet, and I'd like to mitigate potential problems, such as noisy dogs, aggressive dogs, dogs that are not house broken, dogs that destroy stuff. Fortunately, all but one of my units has tile flooring, but unfortunately the unit this tenant is in has a recently refinished wood flooring in the living room - the rest of the unit is tile. I think a dog of any size might damage the wood flooring int he LV, which would be a headache and expensive to replace. Can you please provide advice on this, and perhaps share your dog/cat/pet policies and addendums or clauses? Thank you

[Mike McCarthy]

My pet addendum states that only the listed pets are allowed (by name and breed). They also pay a $25-$40/mo pet fee. I don’t collect an additional security deposit, but you may want to. I wouldn’t worry too much about tile floors, but wood and carpet will likely be a problem. Puppies have accidents often, older dogs too. Plus scratches on hardwood are hard to avoid even with careful owners. There will always be some damage - you need to determine whether it’s worth it based on your property. Two of my properties are 4br single family houses, targeted towards families, so it’s hard (and not as competitive) to disallow pets. But for the more apartment living, no pets for those tenants... sorry!