My boyfriend has caused far more damage to the apartment than my cat!
Firstly, if you lie about having cats and get caught the law says that is falsifying an application and you could be subject to being evicted and/or sued.
Has anyone ever "forgot to mention" or lied about having a cat when applying for an apartment or other housing?
I have two cats and I'm in the process of applying for apartments. After going apartment to apartment, I've realized just how expensive a pet deposit can be! A lot of places are $300-$400 pet deposit, and along with a $250-$400 deposit, that's around $700 alone without the first and last months rent! I understand why deposits are needed, and usually it's not an issue, but this time around we are very very strapped for cash. If we could avoid the $400 deposit, that would be awesome.
My boyfriend asked me the other day "why don't we just say we don't have cats, and pay the deposit later when we get our budget figured out?" and I thought that was a pretty good idea. When I got the first cat we lived in an apartment that allowed cats, but we never told our manager that we got him. I was paranoid about getting in trouble while we lived there, especially since he liked to sit at the window, but we were never found out.
I feel pretty lousy lieing to someone about anything, especially to a landlord or apartment manager, but I'm wondering if it's a common thing among cat owners. My cats aren't super destructive or messy, so I'm not worried about them trashing the apartment, and my boyfriend and I both agreed we would let management know the second we can afford to pay the deposit. Anyone think this is a good idea? Bad idea?
Side discussion: What's the deal with pet rent? How crazy is it to charge someone an extra $15-$20 a month just for having a pet?
Actually, this site is officially anti-declaw and pro-spay/neuter. Anyone suggesting declawing is going to get severely lectured.
Just a side note: Most people on this site are against declawing. I would not use that as a selling point to a landlord for allowing a pet, nor consider declawing my cat to have it allowed by the landlord..
I know about this site's declaw policy. I adhere to it myself. An earlier poster, not myself, commented earlier in the thread the following:
Actually, this site is officially anti-declaw and pro-spay/neuter. Anyone suggesting declawing is going to get severely lectured.
www.thecatsite.com/a/why-cats-should-not-be-declawed
"I've found that the "no pet" clause tends to be relaxed when a potential landlord is told its a cat, especially if it's just one, neutered and declawed
Thank you for posting your experiences as a landlord. This is definitely why many property managers are reluctant to allow pets on site - irresponsible pet owners. Property owners aren't generally "evil"; if anything, it is the bad owners that make life harder for the rest of us.I'm also a landlord and have had to evict two tenants, despite the fact I have a NO PETS clause in the leases. The first one got a dog that destroyed the bamboo flooring in the hall in front of the bedroom, the trim around the lower part of the bedroom door and the door of the bedroom, because she locked the dog out of the room when she was sleeping. The second tenant I evicted brought in a cat that peed and pooped all over bedroom carpet. I would only find out about these pets when I went in to check on the properties every 4 months to change furnace filters, and do other routine maintenance checks and services. Both of those people left me with huge repair bills and no way to recover the costs as they would move out of town and leave no forwarding address or contact info.
No offense taken ;-)OOPS. I didn't mean to imply that you supported declawing. I must have not read the referenced post clearly. Apologies to you, tjcarst. There was no offense intended.