Pet Rent

[Monae Petty-Owens]

Hello, I have a house in DC that I am renting. I have tenants that are interested and have a 50 lb dog, but DC only allows the security deposit to not exceed more than one months rent. When you look up laws pertaining to pet rent, there is no statute. How should I handle this?

[Account Closed]

A lot of times we can call something a "non refundable fee" or a "Refundable Fee"

For instance in the lease agreement a $100 refundable carpet cleaning fee, or a $100 non-refundable carpet cleaning fee.

Or

$250 Refundable Pet cleaning fee

$250 non-refundable Pet cleaning fee.

Depends on your state law. 

In Michigan our laws were one and half months rent as a Security Deposit plus first months rent.  You couldn't call anything a deposit that didn't fall within the amount of the month and a half months security deposit law.  

So to get around that we created a non-refundable fee or a refundable fee, and never had a problem. 

Nancy Neville