Pet rent?? Why does an animal need to pay its own rent? I’m tired of looking for a place to live and finding out that not only do you want $400-plus in non-refundable deposits for my animals (EACH), but now you want to charge monthly rent for them too? It’s not like my dog or cat has a job. Do you want Fido to mow your lawn for a little extra cash? Maybe Fluffy should become a whore and start charging the neighbor’s male cat for a midnight romp. Who started this shit anyway? Is it just so you can advertise your overpriced apartment at a cheaper rate and claim that it’s “pet friendly”? And what’s with the 15-pound weight limit? Do you really think a Chihuahua is going to deter a robber? I’ve lived in the Southeast for 10 years and the only time I haven’t been robbed is when I’ve had a 60-pound dog. Seriously!! My dog protects your property from thieves. My cat protects your property from rodents. You should be paying me to keep them there. For all the assholes that want to charge for pet deposits AND pet rent, GO TO HELL!!!—Anonymous
I, Anonymous
Petty Cash
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I’ll waive the pet rent, but you now have to pay an a-hole surtax
At least you don’t have to pay the troll toll…
There should be a deposit for people with small children, judging by the damage they are capable of.
You all started it when everyone in Portland got a dog. That’s why my apartment’s carpet is trashed, stained, smelly and moldy. Thanks a lot, previous occupants!
How about you earn enought to support your lifestyle? Either that or scale back.
Buy your own fucking place and stop being a fucking whiner. Idiot.
What?! It’s completely unreasonable. If you have a trained animal, than it shouldn’t be a problem. It is not hard to potty train a pet. That’s pretty much all that can go wrong. Even if they destroy a little part of the house, $400 should cover it. They shouldn’t be allowed to up the rent just at a fucking whim. I’m going through the same thing right now, and I only have a house trained cat. If you don’t want pets living in your rentals, DON’T ALLOW PETS! It’s simple logic, just a example of people trying to fuck others over during a recession, just because they can.
@Roadflare – It’s a compromise, you idiot. I don’t want pets in my rental because they tear the place up. But if you’re willing to pay a higher rent to cover those damages, than sure we can deal. How is that hard to understand?
I can see paying a deposit for having pets (one or many, but one fee regardless). The weight limit is BS as some smaller animals can be be horribly destructive while some larger ones are very docile (I have a cat who tore up window sill and scratched holes in the dry wall).
either allow pets, or don’t… but don’t micro manage when you do allow pets.
No, the compromise is the deposit. If I pay $400 deposit, I expect that to be it. You atleast have to advertise the fact that you’re going to fuck someone over. Here’s actual logic, and not greedy pig logic. Even if they add only $10-20 in rent a month and you live there for just two years. That adds up to an extra $240-480 dollars, plus the deposit. That’s outrageous, it’s just extortion. Nobody wants to move again, so after you tell them, they will have to be okay with it regardless. If you train a pet even moderately, it will not cause $600-900 worth of damage. You never get the pet “deposit” back. So fuck off appropriate icon landlord. You just don’t give a fuck for anyone but yourself.
@Roadflare: If you don’t like it, don’t get a pet. Or move. Quit your belly-aching.
You mean to tell us that if you don’t have a 60 lb. dog, you’re doomed to be robbed every/all the time? REALLY? Maybe it’s something about YOU.
Your cat pisses on the carpet and your dog barks too much. Suck it up!
There’s some great landlords on here. Extra pet deposit makes sense. Paying rent for having a pet is stupid. Anyone stupid enough to move into a place that charges rent for a pet gets what they deserve. And yes, landlords are usually greedy and don’t give a shit
Deposit = reasonable. Pet rent = insanity.
I am happy to offer a deposit on the premise that if my kind and gentle HOUSECAT causes damage to the property (BTW, this is HIGHLY unlikely and hasn’t happened in 7 years), I am financially responsible. However, charging rent on a pet is absolutely ridiculous. It is simply poor logic to charge pet owners monthly fees on the off-chance a pet might cause damage. If my cat doesn’t cause damage, then I shouldn’t have to pay a dime extra. If she does, then take it out of my deposit. You don’t charge extra for another HUMAN living in the apartment, why would you charge 25 bucks for a freaking cat???? If I were paying $25 pet rent on my apartment, I would have given my landlord an extra $2,100 over the 7 years of my residency, for a cat that has done NO damage. How could any sane, intelligent person justify this? Seriously.
Buy a house? Gee I’d love to!!!! why do you think we downsized to an apartment in the first place, but to save $$. You’re just taking advantage of the housing market crash. Don’t get a pet? I got a dog so that I stopped getting robbed. I got a cat so that I don’t have to deal with rodents. They’re well trained. They have never caused ANY damage. Earn enough to support my lifestyle? My wages stay the same while rent gets increased. Again, we downsized to an apartment in the first place to save $$. There is no compromise. I pay a deposit to cover any “damage” that my animal never caused. Paying monthly rent for something my animals never did is something I will never pay. I think it’s obvious that all comments supporting pet rent are made by some heartless landlord that is just looking to screw somebody over. Yes, I know that landlords are blood sucking assholes, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Do other renters ask for a “child deposit?” Or does a married couple or single mother/father pay “child rent?”
I’ve had far worse damage done to homes and apartments from children than from pets.
Hey Douchebag – why is it up to someone else to have a place for you to live? Why don’t you fucking grow up and buy your own house – then you can see what it’s like to clean up dogshit from your yard, replace the carpet that the cat has pissed all over as well as other RESPONSIBLE things like new roof, new windows, occasional paint and fixing up. Oh yeah, that’s what you pay rent for. Don’t make enough to buy a house – then get off your fat lazy ass, get some education – and I’m not talking about a degree in Sudanese cultural dance – and start EARNING money to buy your own place. Than you can do whatever the FUCK you want…
I feel the authors pain. For years I dealth with this shit- scumbag landlords who charge a pet fee, jack the rent for whatever while refusing to fix windows, broken fridges, or deal with a rat infestation in the basement that they keep as their “shop”. A good landlord will usually make a little money with month to month, but really make their money when they cash out. Landlords who live off their units do so by getting as much from you as they can while fixing as little as possible.
While owning a home may not be all the rage right now- if you are a dog person that is what I did and I have never looked back. My advice- get a five year plan for home ownership together, and get on it. Whenever I go by my last slum house in portland (which I moved out of ten years ago and it still hasnt been repainted) I just smile on my way home.
My other favorite slumlord trick was the “non refundable deposit” WTF… that isnt a deposit if I dont get it back. Just call it a fee and get on with it.
Pet rent is a way of charging two rent rates: surely you wouldn’t expect a ‘dogs ok’ apartment, identical to another that wasn’t dogs ok, to cost the same amount. While your complaint about inaccurate advertising is reasonable, your real complaint is about seeing what was once a hidden charge.
Seems like Econ 101 will take care of this. People with pets that don’t like the policy-surprise-can walk away from the rental.
Man people love to bitch on the Internet.
Here’s a pointless legal aside: It’s illegal under the Fair Housing Act to charge extra rent/security deposit for children, because that’s family status discrimination. There is no protection for pets.
That should dispose of the “it’s irrational to charge extra for pets when toddlers may be worse” argument. And of course as long as the landlord is within the law, they have no obligation to be rational otherwise.
Also, you “go buy a fucking house” people are heartless pricks.
They are also quite silly. This is a horrible housing market. House prices in Portland are easily needing a ~30% downward adjustment.
It’s now illegal in Oregon to charge a non-refundable deposit for anything – pet, carpet cleaning, key, etc. They can only charge an application fee. It’s also now illegal to add anything to the monthly rent, such as $25 extra a month for a pet.
If a landlord is trying to make you pay any of these, turn them in to the local housing authority.
Rentwhore: If there is ever break in the force field that keeps clues from penetrating, you might realize that a homeowner may have to spend thousands of dollars renewing carpet and steam cleaning the stench from pets when a lame tenant moves out. Did you know that even the smallest fucking canines shit, piss and vomit? If you can read, check out a Home Depot ad…your security deposit is a joke. And most landlords don’t give a shit if your dog can deter robbers….any tenant who bitches about a little pet charge probably doesn’t make enough money to have anything worth stealing. WTF was your point regarding robbery anyway? Rentwhore.
You know what DomasA? You are a certified A-Hole who just likes to write shit on all these post here for the sake of boredom.
Dude, just find another apartment! Times are hard, people are trying to get over on whoever they can, that’s life.