I have 2 cats and a dog I share with my wife. Since we moved in together in in 2015 up until we purchased our first home in 2019, we reported 1 dog and 1 cat every time. 1 extra cat in addition to a cat and a dog does literally 0 extra damage to an apartment unit, at least for us. I don't think them doing this means they're going to necessarily do other things that violate the lease.
If I had tenants that did this I would not do anything until the next lease renewal, then adjust fees accordingly. Do you really want to *evict* a tenant, and go through that entire process, all because of 1 cat? That seems quite excessive to me both morally and from a strictly financial standpoint.
Put it this way, the cost of eviction and missed rent along with vacancy has to be significantly greater than what 1 additional cat would ever do.
Just my $0.02.
