What is worse, dogs or cats?
Any landlords with some history with pets feel more strongly towards a pet vs the other? Say dogs vs cats? Does one cause more damage or make it more costly to turn over units?
Not really. Dogs and cats need a home just like tenants. If I have a tenant who has a small animal I welcome them and build the extra fee into the rent. Animal lovers I have found show concern for the home more than non-animal people. Just my observation and preference.
Rich Baer, Esq.
Both can do damage. Dogs might chew on things; claws that will mar woodwork; get sick and have accidents. Cats may also have claws that will ruin things (but usually that just tends to be the case with furniture), have hairballs and accidents. But so will adults and children too! We just take into account for it by using a pet deposit and a cleaning fee (we return the cleaning fee if at the end of their lease/move out they choose to clean it themselves and can show proof). The pet deposit gets returned if it is not needed just like your security deposit.
@Cody Barrett IMO cats do more damage due to the urine/litter box issue. I allow most dogs but cats no😕
#2 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
They are equal when it comes to a irresponsible owners. Even pet lovers allow their pets to do damage. You can mitigate somewhat with your flooring choice, tile and water proof laminate but urine from either cat or dog will do damage along base boards and under laminate. Never have hardwood with any dog and never have carpet with cats.
There is no amount of pet deposit that will cover the costs of repair when you are dealing with a irresponsible pet owner. The only way you can trust a pet owner is to do a thorough walk through of their present property before you accept them as a tenant.
Better yet have a no pet policy and just eliminate the risk. There are plenty of renters that realise a pet in a rental is a dumb idea so just avoid the headaches. Let the pet lover landlords rent to pet owners.
Cat urine and spraying odors are nearly impossible to get rid of. So, just on odor issues, I'd say cats are worse. Dogs can do more damage especially outside - wreck backyards and fences and siding, if they're chewing, trying to get out, not cleaned-up after.
That's like asking, what's worse, men or women? Fact is, to generalize about an entire species is not helpful. I always consider the individual animal by looking at: is he neutered? Is she vaccinated? How are his manners? Does she demonstrate signs of aggression? How old is he? etc.
AND THEN, most importantly, what kind of pet parent belongs to that animal? Did they tie out the dog at their previous rental or did they treat her like a family member? Did they invest in training and are they responsible? Will they have renter's insurance (required for my rentals)? What do their references say? What is their credit like and do they pay their bills on time? How long have they lived with animals? Can they afford my premium rent and will they leave an extra security deposit? Essentially: screen screen screen. The human makes a bigger difference than whether they have a dog or cat or what breed their dog is, etc.
Some of us in this thread post extensively about pets, so if you look at our other posts, you'll learn our general opinions about them. Greg, for example, is very anti-pet and comments about it often.
Thank you everyone. I appreciate the feedback.
Property preparation plays a big part in how pets can affect turnover costs.
A good "bulletproofing" approach will reduce the damage they CAN do, even if the residents don't take good care of the animal.
I love tile. And i seal the grout.
The flooring is huge when dealing with animals. I previously had a tenant with dogs that left the rental with an infestation of fleas. It took a month of treatment to rid the house. I was close to ripping all of the carpet out. Lesson learned...I no longer allow pets. But if I were to choose I would pick cats. They seem to be much less destructive to the property.
Both are full of pitfalls. Cats have urines issues that cannot be taken out or rugs. Dogs chew. Both claw and scratch. I am dog lover, we have two but we do not allow pets for a number of reasons. No matter how much you get in additional rent or security for the pet it will never cover the damage. To us it is just not worth it, at least in our apartments. Our insurance company provided us a list of dogs that they will not permit on the property and will not cover if there is a claim and they are not all big dogs (Jack Russell is on the list), so you have to check with your insurance carrier regarding liability.
Have you ever been to a person's house that owns an animal and not noticed a funky smell? Or what about all the pet hair on clothes/furniture. When you have an animal living in the house, it will smell worse 1, 2, 3 years down the road, I assure you. There is no way to prevent it. Even small animals will tear up your grout. You'll still have to steam clean your grout if you seal it every year. You'll probably have to steam clean/shop vac under base boards and touch up. Definitely want to make sure the HVAC filter is changed every month to decrease the perma-stink damage to the system.
If you get enough pet deposit/fee (which I doubt) then you should be fine. Yes, it will take you longer to turn over the home and cleaning will take more time and $$.
@Cody Barrett I had a tenant that was evicted after 6 months. When I finally got into the property the urine smell from her cats was so intense that anyone who entered the house had an issue with it. We found that she was letting the cats use the basement as a litter box! When we went to court she said it wasn't her fault because she didn't tell them to go to the bathroom there!!! She did pay an extra $50 a month for having pets but that didn't come close to offsetting the cost of repair. I first had a cleaning company come in to power wash it with a special solutions for pet odors. This did not help. I ended up having to have the floors scraped in many areas and the whole basement resealed and painted. I know this is rare but there is something about the smell of cat urine that is very hard to eliminate.
Anyone who has ever had to renovate a cat spray house will agree that cats are worse. We do not allow them. We do allow a well-trained dog. We just went through renovating a cigarette smoker cat spray house (an inherited tenant) and after 3 full scrubbings with TSP, soaking slab and subfloors in vinegar several times over several weeks, then painting subfloors with Kilz, duct cleaning, etc., it finally seems to be resolved. Cats and cigarettes are the worst.
#2 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
One of the things I have never understood is why landlords would even consider allowing animals to live in their property. Unless it a barn what are you thinking. Dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, cows horses, none of these animals take responsibility for their actions yet for some reason dogs and cats are OK. This makes no scenes to me and I have dogs.
Animals stink, they are messy and 100% irresponsible. I would not rent to a dog or cat and do not want to rent to anyone that would want to bringing one into my property.
Originally posted by @Carrie Giordano:
@Cody Barrett I had a tenant that was evicted after 6 months. When I finally got into the property the urine smell from her cats was so intense that anyone who entered the house had an issue with it.
Unfixed male cats.
Females and fixed males have a totally different smell. Unfixed males are just disgusting.
Originally posted by @Thomas S.:
One of the things I have never understood is why landlords would even consider allowing animals to live in their property.
Nearly everyone of our tenants has a dog or cat, and we never have any problems.
Our problem tenants in the past had problem pets, and I'm sure there is a correlation.
It's simply back to screening.
Rabbits are banned though.
We allow small dogs that don't violate city breed ordinances. We will be selective with new tenants and their dogs, somebody with a brand new puppy doesn't appeal to us as somebody with a 3 year old dog. There will be additional pet security deposits, a pet addendum and additional pet rent.
But cats? NO, never, no exceptions.
All I need to do to be reminded never to allow cats is think back : Cats have made me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years from destroying houses that they had to sell at severe discounts that we've bought and turned into rentals. I've been through the long, nasty expensive processes of reconing a cat urined property many times, I love cats for making us so much money destroying the value of these properties we picked up at a bargain, but we won't let one in a rental for any amount of money. We want those cats out there working for us peeing and spraying their urine, destroying other people's homes.
Cats, in my book. Aside from being somewhat allergic, cat urine is some really evil stuff. I've never had a unit that I couldn't remove the smell of dog urine, but I have known properties that have required new drywall and subflooring to remove cat urine.
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
Some of us in this thread post extensively about pets, so if you look at our other posts, you'll learn our general opinions about them. Greg, for example, is very anti-pet and comments about it often.
LOL. Greg is very anti-everything.
Originally posted by @Thomas S.:
One of the things I have never understood is why landlords would even consider allowing animals to live in their property. Unless it a barn what are you thinking. Dogs, cats, pigs, chickens, cows horses, none of these animals take responsibility for their actions yet for some reason dogs and cats are OK. This makes no scenes to me and I have dogs.
Animals stink, they are messy and 100% irresponsible. I would not rent to a dog or cat and do not want to rent to anyone that would want to bringing one into my property.
Why? That's easy - market share and market dynamics. You may get away with banning everything up in Toronto, but in my market I would hazard a guess that 50-60% of everyone has some kind of pet. I would not rent to people with kids before I would not rent to people with animals, because most of the damage in my units, either before I bought them or since I've had them, was caused by humans. I would also guess that 7 out of every 10 people that inquire about one of my rentals, when one is vacant, asks if we accept pets. I have two different tenants right now with dogs, that have been there a while, and the dogs haven't done any damage to either place.
If you are screening tenants properly, and charging appropriately, odds are that you are going to make out well in the long run. There's no guarantee, of course, and you may get an irresponsible person, but my experience is that good people have good animals, and vice versa.
On the other side, I have refused to allow tenants that moved in without animals to get one. This mostly falls along my consideration/assumptions for how well those tenants will be able to maintain an animal, usually college kids or similar who haven't thought it through very well.
Wow the feedback is awesome. Really opens up my expectations to what I'd be getting myself into. Glad I asked! Thanks everyone, you guys rock!
While I'm not against pets at all, most of the more time consuming/costly issues I have had from pets are cats. As people have said, spraying and urine is brutal to try and get out.
But I think the key is the owners, if the owner is responsible it doesn't really matter the animal. And the same can be said if the owner is irresponsible.
#2 General Landlording & Rental Properties Contributor
LOL. Greg is very anti-everything.
I am not anti everything I simply have no interest in posting "I agree" on every thread I read. People understand the value of experience is in the negative lessons learned. Patting everyone on the back and giving positive reinforcement teaches nothing in business. You can get that at home.
I thought of this thread today. I've been up around the clock for 3 days with a very sick dog. She's completely house-trained, doesn't bark - and she's thrown up on almost every inch of this little studio apartment over the last 3 days LOL. Even the very best pets and the very best pet owners - will result in pet problems.
I'll have the carpet cleaned and have been on top of spot cleaning, but it just goes to show. Thank God she's better today. I'm exhausted!
But, yep, it happens.
I've seen tremendous damage by both dogs and cats. Dogs are bigger and play a little rougher so expect carpets and molding to be damaged and floors to be scratched. Cats can do a lot of damage, mostly by going potty if they don't have easy access to the outdoors are are untrained.
Bottom line, it's not really about the pets but about the owners. Knowing a tenant before they moves in by checking their background and references is your best defense. We also tend to charge a monthly pet fee for the added wear and tear, about $25/month per pet.