All Forum Posts by: Tim Bartel

Interesting point about large dogs maturing more slowly. I'll look into the certification idea, but I'm thinking certifications won't be common in smaller towns. This is a town of 4,000 people in North Dakota.

The solid "1 year" criteria is helpful.

This tenant let me know a few days ago that he was thinking of getting a puppy. I committed to finalize my rules and send them, and that there would be a minimum age for dogs. After I sent him the rules (2 days after his original inquiry), he informed me that he hadn't been honest about his plans. He already paid $1000 for a 4-month old Dalmation on the basis that I had told him a few months back that I was planning to begin accepting pets.

Anyway, this tenant has been VERY URGENTLY pressing me to let him have it in the apartment, promising to get rid of it if there is any problem. They plan to move out in 3 months to buy a house. I thought about letting them have it at first and just put down a big deposit (North Dakota allows up to $2500 deposit), because they're good tenants, but then decided that there was no way I should bend on it, so I told him "no". However, my main point of weakness has been not knowing a good minimum age for the chewing and potty training issues, since I have no prior experience with dogs. Obviously, 4 months is far short of 1 year, so I can now be more confident in my position.  

I have told him definitely no about 3 times now.

I am just starting to accept applications from people with pets in my two 4-plexes. I am changing from my no-pet policy because of long vacancies, and I get many requests from would-be tenants with pets. I see lots of people saying in the forums that they will not allow puppies. I have Leigh Robinson's Landlording book which has a sample pet policy. The sample policy has minimum ages of 3 months for a cat, and 9 months for a dog. I assume the principle issues are potty-training and chewing for puppies, and potty-training for kittens.

My question: For a cat or dog, what minimum ages will you accept?