No pet building converting to pet building

[Bradley B.]

Hello. I recently took over an apartment building and It had a vaguely marked no pet building policy. I have some leases that say it is a pet friendly building and some leases that say it is a pet free building. I currently have angry tenants and am trying to problem solve and figure out the best way to fix this situation through either making it all pet friendly or all pet free so its not so disorganized. My initial thought was to start updating all new leases upon renewal, while this may be what I end up doing, all of my renewal dates are scattered far apart so I was hoping to get some advice on if there were any faster options to avoid waiting too long and causing reputation damage or lawyer issues in the long run where while I failed to do enough research I did not personally set these leases the way they are. 

Some helpful information is: On both sides of pet friendly or no pets, neither tenants would agree in signing a lease addendum. 

[JD Martin]

There's no real legal issue one way or the other as I see it. Whatever is in the lease is what goes for that particular tenant. Animal ownership is not a protected class, so other than service animals there's no legal definition of discrimination. On the practical side, some tenants that wanted animals but can't have them per their lease, and tenants who wanted to live in an animal-free building, may be angry but being angry is not actionable.

I agree that having one policy that makes sense for the building is the way to go. Easy answer: decide on what the new policy is. For those whose leases are up, have them sign a new lease that includes the new policy (even if it's just a month-to-month lease). If they refuse, give them notice.

Remember: tenants don't get to define what the rules of the building are, or should be. As soon as you do that, you might as well hang it up as an effective landlord.