Investor · Burlingame, CA · Member since 2016 · 63 posts · 3 votes
Hello,
Tenants who recently moved into my Class A property have asked if a friend who is visiting for the weekend can bring his dog in the house. Our tenants have one dog who seems well behaved and with an up to date vaccination record. Our lease doe not allow visiting animals on the property. We made an exception and said we will allow the visiting dog for the weekend if they can provide his vaccination report. I just received the report and the visiting dog's vaccines are past due. How would you handle this? I'm thinking to let it go since these tenants seem good and respectful. Any additional thoughts?
Rental Property Investor · Member since 2018 · 32 posts · 19 votes
7y
@Constantia Petrou it is very important to follow the lease. In the long run, you will be better off by NOT allowing this in the future, or by changing the lease to whatever you will allow. Now, that said, what to do in the immediate moment, let them know they will need to get the shots up-to-date and provide the proof.
Investor · Manteca, CA · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 2k+ votes
7y
I'm a vet.....I wouldn't even worry about the vaccination status...... it has ZERO bearings on you. Checking vaccine status prior to accepting a pet in a rental is window dressing...... its basically a small gauge to tell if they are responsible pet owners. If they aren't following pretty basic pet care guidelines, they are often not paying much attention to their pets in general and therefore your risk for the pet damaging your unit goes up some.. Your liability of the pet being unvaccinated is pretty much zero....
Your only concern that needs to be addresses is the possibility that this dog does damage while its "visiting" and that the current tenants take FULL responsibility for ANY damage that this "visiting" dog causes. The risk you need to mitigate is that the dog causes damages and then the tenant tries to get out of responsibility since its not his dog......
You have already compromised your lease language by allowing the dog which makes undated vaccinations irrelevant. You should remove the "no visiting animals" clause from your lease since it is now void.
In the future do not make decisions to ignore your lease based on the quality of a tenant. You either enforce your lease or don't bother having one. A lease is a binding legal contract not a warm and fuzzy friend agreement.
Fort Collins, CO · Member since 2019 · 185 posts · 61 votes
7y
@Constantia Petrou I don't think you should worry too much like others have said because it is only for a weekend etc. However, if you want to avoid situations like these in the future to protect yourself even more, you could consider adding it into your lease that no "visiting" dogs are allowed.
Investor · Burlingame, CA · Member since 2016 · 63 posts · 3 votes
7y
Thank you all for your feedback! I have weighed all points of view and I agree that the lease is most important but I also feel that reason in implementing the lease is also critical. If the visiting dog was a huge animal or if it were to visit for several days then I would not have allowed it according to the lease. However, a 10 lb dog visit for a day (and not staying over night) combined with reasonable, responsible tenants who respect my rules is a situation where I feel I could make a reasonable exception to the lease and keep happy tenants who will likely stay longer and continue to disclose any actions that would need my permission rather than doing as they please behind my back. (The tenants could have simply had the dog visit without my permission and there would be no way for me to know that- they chose to disclose and ask for permission which indicates they are respectful of our rules). I did insist on the updated vet report to allow the small dog visit and they did provide it.