{"id":189495,"date":"2026-09-28T12:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=189495"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:55:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:55:27","slug":"unauthorized-pets-in-rentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/unauthorized-pets-in-rentals","title":{"rendered":"Unauthorized Pets in Rentals: What They Cost Landlords"},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to tell you about a puppy.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a mixed-breed puppy, which is the dog version of a mystery box (you don’t know exactly what’s inside, and I’m not convinced the dog does either). It was not house-trained. It was also staying at one of my properties, and nobody told me.<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone snuck it in, so I found out about the puppy around the same time I found out about everything it had done. Those are two things I typically prefer in reverse order. This one chewed through baseboards, ruined floors, and kept going until the bill hit about $7,000. On a rental <\/span>cash-flowing<\/span><\/a> $300 a month, that’s almost two years of cash flow eaten by a puppy (in the baseboards’ case, literally).<\/span><\/p>\n

(Before anybody from the rescue world emails me: I’m building a dog-first hotel, and this is a pro-dog article. It’s also an anti-surprise article).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

What bugs me is how avoidable <\/span>most of it<\/span> was. If that puppy had been disclosed and screened, we’d have known what was coming and planned for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every landlord eventually meets their own version of this puppy, and $7,000 turned out to be the cheap version. The expensive versions come down to what your paperwork can prove, which, for an animal nobody told you about, isn’t much.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re Not the Only One Who Got Surprised<\/span><\/h2>\n

PetScreening surveyed 673 property managers and leasing pros for its <\/span>2026 State of Pets in Rental Housing<\/span><\/a> report. Unauthorized pets <\/span>came out as<\/span> their top pet problem.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The same report found that only 43% of renters say they have a pet, compared with 71% of U.S. households, according to the American Pet Products Association. That’s a 28-point gap. Either renters are less into pets than everybody else, or plenty of dogs are living off the books, which is the report’s theory too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Usually, nobody’s running a con. Someone adopts a puppy in month seven and never thinks to call you. <\/span>A girlfriend’s dog comes over for a weekend in February and <\/span>is<\/span> somehow still <\/span>there<\/span> at Easter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bills Come Later<\/span><\/h2>\n

Insurance usually won’t touch pet damage to the unit. Standard renter\u2019s policies exclude it, and no adjuster in America considers a puppy an act of God (except maybe Air Bud). Chewed baseboards and a carpet that smells like a kennel get filed under preventable wear. That leaves your security deposit doing a job plenty of landlords assume insurance is doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bites are the bigger number. Insurers paid <\/span>$1.86 billion on 28,450<\/span><\/a> dog-related injury claims in 2025, averaging $65,450 per claim, according to the Insurance Information Institute and State Farm. On that same $300-a-month cash-flowing rental, a single average claim eats up about 18 years of cash flow.<\/span><\/p>\n

The tenant’s renter\u2019s policy is supposed to pay for a bite first. <\/span>Plenty<\/span> exclude certain breeds or any dog with a history of bites, and it gets messier if the tenant never told their insurer <\/span>either<\/span>.<\/span> If you didn’t know the dog existed, you never asked for proof of coverage. Your own landlord policy <\/span>may have animal exclusions<\/span><\/a>, too, and it’s better to find that now than in a denial letter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disputes come down to <\/span>paperwork<\/span><\/h3>\n

I’ll use Texas as an example because that’s where my properties are. Once a tenant moves out and provides a forwarding address, <\/span>Property Code 92.103<\/span><\/a> starts a 30-day clock for the deposit refund. Anything you keep needs a written, itemized list under <\/span>92.104<\/span><\/a>, and normal wear and tear doesn’t count.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If they sue, <\/span>92.109<\/span><\/a> puts the burden on you to prove the deductions were reasonable. Miss the 30 days and the law presumes bad faith. That clock does not care how busy your month was. A bad-faith finding costs $100 plus three times what you wrongly kept, plus the tenant’s attorney’s fees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Say you keep $600 for floor damage, your list goes out on day 34, and a judge rules against you. Now you owe $1,900, plus a lawyer you never hired.<\/span><\/p>\n

If <\/span>the animal were<\/span> never disclosed, you would have even less to work with.<\/span> There’s no pet addendum or description of the animal, and nothing signed showing the tenant knew your rules on pet sitting or adopting mid-lease. “I’m pretty sure those scratches weren’t there” won’t carry much weight when the burden of proof is on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Outside Texas? Your state has its own deadlines and penalties. Look them up before a move-out forces the issue.)<\/span><\/p>\n

That neighbor email is Exhibit A<\/span><\/h3>\n

In Texas, owning the house doesn’t automatically <\/span>make you responsible for a tenant’s dog<\/span><\/a>. Liability usually turns on what you knew about the dog being dangerous and whether you did anything once you knew.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now picture the neighbor’s email saying the tenant’s dog charged her kid at the mailbox again. That email is evidence you knew. You can’t unread it. Attorneys in bite cases love a written complaint like that, especially next to a lease rule nobody enforced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three Houses, Three Rulebooks<\/span><\/h2>\n

Nobody sets out to run three different pet policies. It happens one house at a time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n