For Rules, There Are Often Barking, Furry Reasons

My husband and I are renting out the main floor of a house we own. We post a listing on Facebook Marketplace. We include in the description that no dogs are allowed, but cats are okay, as long as they are fixed. I especially am very firm on my no-dogs rule.

We get many, many messages from people sending photos of their dogs, asking if we would allow one with a pet fee, saying their dog is a particular size, age, etc. — i.e., “They’re [breed] and only ten pounds!” — and asking if we would consider it. The answer is always no.

We get one prospective tenant who mentions that she has a couple of cats. She likes the place and seems responsible, and after thinking about it, we decide to offer it to her. 

A week passes, and we meet up at a local coffee shop for her to sign the lease. We get to a part that says “pets allowed” and we have “no” checked off. She gets a panicked look.

Us: “Oh, sorry about that! We missed that. We’ll put in here that it’s okay. You have two cats, right?”

Tenant: “And a dog! Look!” *Shows us a photo* “He’s very old and has a tumor and probably won’t live much longer.”

We went ahead with signing the lease since we were both taken by surprise and were running out of time; we’d just lost an entire week of looking for other prospective tenants since we were planning on signing the lease with her. The way she was talking, I was even wondering if the dog would survive long enough to make the move since it was a few weeks out from the move-in date.

But no, the day came when she moved in. We immediately started getting complaints from the tenant downstairs about the dog barking a lot.

…and that’s EXACTLY why I had a “no dogs” rule.

I know there are responsible dog owners out there. But you can’t always trust people, including dog owners who say their dog is not a problem.

I wonder if the tenant just didn’t see that part in our ad, figured it would be no big deal if she conveniently forgot to mention it, or actually did forget to mention the dog. I will be asking any future tenants straight out what pets they have.