We have always allowed pets and they haven't caused any major problems. One lot of tenants had a dog that dug up the back yard. They filled in the holes before they left but the grass was left pretty patchy. The PM asked if we wanted to claim against the bond for that but we didn't bother. The first time it rained the grass came back. It's not like it was a bowling green before they came in, might have felt differently if it had been, but then we probably wouldn't have allowed a dog in the first place if we had been that picky about the lawn.
Facts on tenants with pets
- Thread starter Xenia
- Start date
We did the right thing and asked our landlord if we could bring in two cats midway through our lease. We fully explained that they were living with my gf's parents, and when her parents divorced they were both unable/unwilling to look after the cats.
We even offered a little extra rent.
The landlord said no.
So we kept the cats anyway, and we mostly keep them in a cat run (ie: large cage made for cats). We take extra care to make sure the cats dont damage the property... and they dont. One of those cats since passed away and we got ourselves another 2 kittens
Bugger the landlord - he hasnt done anything for us despite all the extra effort i've put in over the last two years to improve the property.
As landlords ourselves, we are happy to accept pets with a pet clause in the lease. One of my tennants have a big dog that is a big slobbery thing... but they keep the house so well presented that i dont care about the dog at all. Im more worried about the oven which just died last week.
We even offered a little extra rent.
The landlord said no.
So we kept the cats anyway, and we mostly keep them in a cat run (ie: large cage made for cats). We take extra care to make sure the cats dont damage the property... and they dont. One of those cats since passed away and we got ourselves another 2 kittens
Bugger the landlord - he hasnt done anything for us despite all the extra effort i've put in over the last two years to improve the property.
As landlords ourselves, we are happy to accept pets with a pet clause in the lease. One of my tennants have a big dog that is a big slobbery thing... but they keep the house so well presented that i dont care about the dog at all. Im more worried about the oven which just died last week.
Excellent work - I love Australian residential tenants.
Except that teensy matter of unfailingly providing a roof over your head every night.
Monty Python had it down pat - "what have the Romans ever done for us".
Hahahahahahahahaha....thanks for that post but it's rhodesian ridgeback!
Well that's just irresponsible of them to not fix up the yard and leave it as they found it!
Dazz,
We've done everything right by this landlord.... well above what is ever expected or asked of any tennant. I have totally cleaned up and improved the backyard, i have cut down most of the jungle of weeds at the front, we steam cleaned the carpets TWICE, i have fixed things around the house myself without wasting his time or money, and i have paid my rent on time for nearly two years....
.... i have only ever made two requests:
1/ Can i please keep 2 cats that cannot be kept elsewhere? They will live in a cat run outside. I will give you more rent/pay a pet bond.
ANSWER - NO YOU CANT.
(.... lets ignore the fact that the previous tennants had two dogs???)
2/ Can you please install aircon? The property is unbearable to live in during both winter and summer due to the design of the house (sub zero in winter, above 40 in summer). I will pay more rent, or possibly even contribute towards costs of fitting aircon. Look here, I have a quote to install a single split system for just $1800.
ANSWER - NO, I want to look at installing ducted aircon. Oh wait, thats too expensive. NO, YOU CANT HAVE AIRCON.
There are other things as well.
Bascially i've put in some hard yards to be as good a tennant as possible, and he has done nothing. I am therefore voting with my feet and leaving at the end of this lease. Good luck to him finding good tennants again.
Dont put me in the same category as the "whinging tennants" that you paint all residential tennants to be...
... we have a couple of investment properties ourselves, which we look after our tennants in those. They pay me money to live in my house, so i make sure they have a good house to live in, and that they are comfortable, so that they might stay for the long term.
Our landlord makes us feel like more of a burden than an asset. So i say good luck to him for the future, he's going to need it... he has obivously been burnt in the past, and will be burnt again.
We've done everything right by this landlord.... well above what is ever expected or asked of any tennant. I have totally cleaned up and improved the backyard, i have cut down most of the jungle of weeds at the front, we steam cleaned the carpets TWICE, i have fixed things around the house myself without wasting his time or money, and i have paid my rent on time for nearly two years....
.... i have only ever made two requests:
1/ Can i please keep 2 cats that cannot be kept elsewhere? They will live in a cat run outside. I will give you more rent/pay a pet bond.
ANSWER - NO YOU CANT.
(.... lets ignore the fact that the previous tennants had two dogs???)
2/ Can you please install aircon? The property is unbearable to live in during both winter and summer due to the design of the house (sub zero in winter, above 40 in summer). I will pay more rent, or possibly even contribute towards costs of fitting aircon. Look here, I have a quote to install a single split system for just $1800.
ANSWER - NO, I want to look at installing ducted aircon. Oh wait, thats too expensive. NO, YOU CANT HAVE AIRCON.
There are other things as well.
Bascially i've put in some hard yards to be as good a tennant as possible, and he has done nothing. I am therefore voting with my feet and leaving at the end of this lease. Good luck to him finding good tennants again.
Dont put me in the same category as the "whinging tennants" that you paint all residential tennants to be...
... we have a couple of investment properties ourselves, which we look after our tennants in those. They pay me money to live in my house, so i make sure they have a good house to live in, and that they are comfortable, so that they might stay for the long term.
Our landlord makes us feel like more of a burden than an asset. So i say good luck to him for the future, he's going to need it... he has obivously been burnt in the past, and will be burnt again.
We had no pets or children policies with ours (with the pm, not in writing) and one of the successful aps asked if she could have a horse on one of our large blocks and we said no, or more correctly, the council said no.
When I did a drive by shortly afterwards, you guessed it, 2 horses, a great dane and an aviary, talk about having a lend, denied the horses were pets and claimed it was livestock, (which put the water bill through the roof) then when she moved she stole half of the plants and the PM at the time gave all the bond back and didn't hit her up for excess water either.
We still have the no pets no kids policy, but we have been swayed if they are small pets, have good past tenancy references and aren't horses.
When I did a drive by shortly afterwards, you guessed it, 2 horses, a great dane and an aviary, talk about having a lend, denied the horses were pets and claimed it was livestock, (which put the water bill through the roof) then when she moved she stole half of the plants and the PM at the time gave all the bond back and didn't hit her up for excess water either.
We still have the no pets no kids policy, but we have been swayed if they are small pets, have good past tenancy references and aren't horses.
Witzl, I agree that your landlord's a fool not to put in air-con (in particular), and perhaps should have given greater consideration to your request to have the cats. But you signed up to a "no pets" lease. I have to side with Dazz (sorry, TPFKAD) - why do you think that you're allowed to unilaterally vary a contract?
Can you just decide to pay $50 a week less, too?I understand that you felt that you had to take the cats, but that's your decision, not the landlord's problem. The couple that owned them should have moved somewhere where they could have pets. But you not only looked after those two cats, but got another two kittens!
If I were your landlord, I would be taking every action against you available to me - which unfortunately would probably be bugger all.
It can make it tough for the other tenants as well, puts that element of distrust there from the start and makes us more sceptical than we normally would have been.
Dave
Not sure any Tenant is quite correct to say. Some Landlord's have quite high expectations and ask quite alot from their Tenants, myself included.
I trust you only agreed to pay a lowly rent for such a hovel presented in such a dreadful condition....and thereafter presumably remained on and enjoyed that same lowly rent, whilst at the same time you and yours enjoyed the improved amenities, and hence received some benefit from your toil ??
Indeed, I also wish your Landlord well.
Perhaps you are ?? Have you ever thought to enquire as to how s/he "feels", not that contractually it makes two hoots either way.
If I were your landlord, I would be taking every action against you available to me - which unfortunately would probably be bugger all.
Amen to that sister. Witzl is 100% in the driving seat as the Tenant with 100% of the law behind him....but as a Landlord himself, he already knows that.
Ozperp,
I'm annoyed with the situation with our landlord mainly because i've tried to approach each request with the most win-win option for the owner, and in both cases he was totally disinterested in either discussing or negotiating.
In the case of the aircon, he even went to the hassle of trudging three different aircon companies through the property to quote on doing ducted, and then decided some 3 weeks later that it was all too expensive.
With the cats - the previous tennants had two dogs. I spent a good two weeks vacuuming up all the bloody dog hair and airing out the dirty dog smell, so its not like the property is a "no pets" house. The cats live outside most of the time in a professionally built cat run.
Even the property manager agrees that he is a loony and took my side on both these requests.
Anyway - doesnt matter, i am severing ties in May.
I would never be as unreasonable as him if i were to receive such requests, especially if the tennant was offering more rent and/or a pet bond.
He has set the example of what NOT to be as a landlord for me. It's LLs like him that give the rest of us the bad name and "greedy ogre" image in the media.
EDIT: I know im doing the wrong thing here, and im not trying to say that what ive done is right. Im just venting frustration at a completely unreasonable landlord.
I'm annoyed with the situation with our landlord mainly because i've tried to approach each request with the most win-win option for the owner, and in both cases he was totally disinterested in either discussing or negotiating.
In the case of the aircon, he even went to the hassle of trudging three different aircon companies through the property to quote on doing ducted, and then decided some 3 weeks later that it was all too expensive.
With the cats - the previous tennants had two dogs. I spent a good two weeks vacuuming up all the bloody dog hair and airing out the dirty dog smell, so its not like the property is a "no pets" house. The cats live outside most of the time in a professionally built cat run.
Even the property manager agrees that he is a loony and took my side on both these requests.
Anyway - doesnt matter, i am severing ties in May.
I would never be as unreasonable as him if i were to receive such requests, especially if the tennant was offering more rent and/or a pet bond.
He has set the example of what NOT to be as a landlord for me. It's LLs like him that give the rest of us the bad name and "greedy ogre" image in the media.
EDIT: I know im doing the wrong thing here, and im not trying to say that what ive done is right. Im just venting frustration at a completely unreasonable landlord.
I knew that, really
My point was that maybe tenants who appear totally unreasonable to landlords (as you probably do), are in fact frustrated at landlords who appear to be impossible. As with any dispute, there are two sides to the story.Hopefully some of the landlords who take the line "you rented the place without air-con, what a hide you have for asking for it!"
will realise that their investment property is their tenant's HOME. A tenant living in constant discomfort will not be inclined to take good care of your investment. When one rents a property, it's impossible to know everything about it - what works and what doesn't, how it copes with the various seasons, etc - prior to moving in, so the whole "you rent a property as-is" line, whilst it may be legally upheld, is a philosophy that often leads to sub-optimal outcomes for all parties. I don't think it's a winner's attitude.totally agree with you there Tracey, on both points. I think my landlord and I have polar opposite philosophies to the landlord/tennant relationship, and thats been getting to me too much.
Anyway, probably time for me to get back to more important things
Thanks for putting my perspective back into place.
Anyway, probably time for me to get back to more important things
Thanks for putting my perspective back into place.
Hi Witzl, you don't live in Newcastle do you? Sounds like our old landlord that's all. Supposedly no pets EVER, but the dog hair we vacuumed up was crazy, AND we found old dog toys and bones in the backyard.
Made us a bit annoyed when we had to jump through hoops to get my old cat to be allowed (who by the way left NO TRACE of her ever being there).
Made us a bit annoyed when we had to jump through hoops to get my old cat to be allowed (who by the way left NO TRACE of her ever being there).
hi im trying to find information on body corp there is a tenant in my block of unit that has just moved in and they own there unit they have been there 2 days police have been both days they are abusive threating and i was just wondering what can i do or do i just have to put up with it because they own there unit thanks
notify the cops that could be problems. it will be logged and when you call they will have it on record.
that or a big iron bar and a couple of cyclists.
