Visitors with pets? Do you allow or not?

[Ann Baker]

What's your take on how to handle a situation where a tenant has a guest visitor who will be staying for a week and the visitor has a dog she wants to bring along during her stay. Do you charge anything for the visitor? Do you allow the pet or require a pet deposit? What's the best way to handle?

[Nathan Gesner]

Why are pets discriminated against? Because they can cause problems by chewing, digging, scratching, defecating, urinating, barking, biting, vomiting, etc.

What animal is most likely to participate in this bad behavior? New animals.

How do you screen animals? You check their past Landlord references to see if they maintained the home and avoided lease violations while owning the animal. If they were good at their last rental, they will likely be good at yours.

You can't screen visitors or their animals. Visitors usually don't have a habit of peeing on carpet, barking, scratching the doors every time they want to go out, or crapping on the front lawn. If you can't screen them or control them, you shouldn't allow them.

Even in pet-friendly properties, my lease specifically states they are only allowed to have animals that have been screened and approved by us. No visiting animals, no pet sitting. A violation is a violation and results in a $200 fine per animal.

If a tenant requests it, I sometimes make exceptions. However, I only allow visiting animals in rentals that already have animals approved so I know the Tenant is paying extra to have animals and I can easily hold them liable for animal damage.