Pets in your Rental Properties

Hello there and welcome, my name’s Michael Gilbert, and I’m a

licensed real estate agent and I’m here brought to you by

tenantmanagement.com.au. Today I’m going to talk to you about

allowing pets in your rental properties. It’s a big question

and a question that is typically asked, I’ve been asked that a

thousand times. I’m going start off by saying that not all pets are

bad. Just because tenants have got some pets it doesn’t mean

they’re going to destroy the house. They’ll actually, a lot of them

are going to pay extra dollars and they actually understand and

they care about their responsibilities because they want to make

sure they actually get a good reference from you as a property

manager or as property owner.

Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties

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I’m going drive into actually selecting some tenants now. So the things that you need to consider. First of all pets, we’re not talking about this on saying dogs and cats. Cats, it doesn’t, you don’t have to worry about their age so much, in my experience of course. They do tend to roam around, it’s hard to control cats, I believe you have more control over dogs. But dogs can create more of a mess or more damage if they are that kind of dog.

Selecting Pets for your Rental Property

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So the things that you need to consider when you get the application in front of you and these tenants have some pets, you need to consider the number of pets first of all. So let’s say dogs, number of dogs. If there’s more than two, probably be a little bit concerned. If there’s one or two, generally ok. Age, if they’re really young then they’re probably going to be not as trained as well. And probably got a lot more energy and may do a little bit of damage, possibly. If they’re older then they’re more likely just to sit around and do nothing.

Things to Consider in Accepting Tenants

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The type of dog. So you need to consider, if they’re really large dogs then they could cause more damage, if they’re small they’re not going to cause as much damage. Inside and outside. Most tenants would say that their pets or their dogs are outside and they always stay outside, but I can tell you right now from my experience, they’re not always outside. From time to time, they will come inside so you need to consider that.

Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental Properties

Things to Consider in Accepting Tenants

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When you’re approving a tenant who has some pets, first

of all you might want to get a pet bond if you can… In all

states of Australia, you can’t always get a pet bond or get

extra bond, or I should say, in all states of Australia, you

can’t always charge extra bond for a pet for a tenant,

because you may already be receiving the maximum

amount of bond that you’re allowed in that state. I know in

some states you can actually pay a “pet bond”.

Approving Tenants with Some Pets

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Secondly, you would write some special conditions in your lease, but be careful with special conditions, you cannot contradict the act. If you do, that special condition is going to be null and void anywhere. But you should write in there that the tenant should get the property fled inside and outside, professionally. And also get the carpets professionally steam-cleaned. If you’ve already got some tenants in your property and they have pets and you just found out they’ve got pets, first of all, I’ll probably be a little bit concerned that they’ve got pets in the property and they didn’t let you know on the application, it means they’re hiding something which I’m going to be concerned about.

Special Conditions in your Lease

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