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Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental PropertiesPets in your Rental PropertiesHello there and welcome, my name’s Michael Gilbert, and I’m alicensed real estate agent and I’m here brought to you bytenantmanagement.com.au. Today I’m going to talk to you aboutallowing pets in your rental properties. It’s a big questionand a question that is typically asked, I’ve been asked that athousand times. I’m going start off by saying that not all pets arebad. Just because tenants have got some pets it doesn’t meanthey’re going to destroy the house. They’ll actually, a lot of themare going to pay extra dollars and they actually understand andthey care about their responsibilities because they want to makesure they actually get a good reference from you as a propertymanager or as property owner. 1 of 6

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Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental PropertiesSelecting Pets for your Rental PropertyI’m going drive into actually selecting some tenants now.So the things that you need to consider. First of all pets,we’re not talking about this on saying dogs and cats.Cats, it doesn’t, you don’t have to worry about their ageso much, in my experience of course. They do tend toroam around, it’s hard to control cats, I believe you havemore control over dogs. But dogs can create more of amess or more damage if they are that kind of dog. 2 of 6

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Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental PropertiesThings to Consider in Accepting TenantsSo the things that you need to consider when you get theapplication in front of you and these tenants have somepets, you need to consider the number of pets first of all.So let’s say dogs, number of dogs. If there’s more thantwo, probably be a little bit concerned. If there’s one ortwo, generally ok. Age, if they’re really young then they’reprobably going to be not as trained as well. And probablygot a lot more energy and may do a little bit of damage,possibly. If they’re older then they’re more likely just to sitaround and do nothing. 3 of 6

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Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental PropertiesThings to Consider in Accepting TenantsThe type of dog. So you need to consider, if they’re reallylarge dogs then they could cause more damage, if they’resmall they’re not going to cause as much damage. Insideand outside. Most tenants would say that their pets ortheir dogs are outside and they always stay outside, but Ican tell you right now from my experience, they’re notalways outside. From time to time, they will come insideso you need to consider that. 4 of 6

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Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental PropertiesApproving Tenants with Some PetsWhen you’re approving a tenant who has some pets, firstof all you might want to get a pet bond if you can… In allstates of Australia, you can’t always get a pet bond or getextra bond, or I should say, in all states of Australia, youcan’t always charge extra bond for a pet for a tenant,because you may already be receiving the maximumamount of bond that you’re allowed in that state. I know insome states you can actually pay a “pet bond”. 5 of 6

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Tenant Management Should I Allow Pets in my Rental PropertiesSpecial Conditions in your LeaseSecondly, you would write some special conditions in yourlease, but be careful with special conditions, you cannotcontradict the act. If you do, that special condition is going tobe null and void anywhere. But you should write in there thatthe tenant should get the property fled inside and outside,professionally. And also get the carpets professionally steam-cleaned. If you’ve already got some tenants in your propertyand they have pets and you just found out they’ve got pets,first of all, I’ll probably be a little bit concerned that they’vegot pets in the property and they didn’t let you know on theapplication, it means they’re hiding something which I’mgoing to be concerned about. 6 of 6