“Exposed Secrets: The Shocking Consequences of Hiding Pets from Landlords!”
My mum adopted 3 cats when I was graduating high school. We lived in a basement unit of a duplex at the time. And the landlord’s parents who lived on the other side of us would just randomly walk in whenever they felt like it. Luckily we complained enough they started to knock first. And it was the knocking that we trained the cats to listen for and to run for my parents room to hide. We’d shut them in and wouldn’t let anyone inside the bedroom.
We managed to keep them hidden up until a month they renovicted us. They didn’t do anything about the cats.
My first apartment alone was a lonely period and I wanted a cat. I turned in the monthly rent check and asked the manager about the policy. She told me technically there was a “no pets” policy, but also then told me where several local shelters were and that she wouldn’t tell if I didn’t. That cat was my best friend and the only reason I made it through that period of my life.
I declared 2 cats when I moved in and paid an extra coupla hundred deposit that was noted as non refundable to get the carpets cleaned when we left. A year or so later, I got a third cat and successfully hid it through two years of inspections/maintenance call outs.
When the time came to move out, I didn’t bother hiding the third during the viewings (not that I think they noticed). I got my full deposit back, including the extra pet fee in the end too!
It was still pretty stressful and I wouldn’t recommend it, even though they knew about two thirds of the clowder 🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈.
15ish years ago – I had a dog and 2 cats. I couldn’t hide the dog so I paid the pet fee for him but omitted my cats since it was a per pet fee. My landlord was good about telling us when he was coming over so I would hide my cats and their litter box in my closet on the rare occasion he did stop over.
One day I was at work and got a call from my landlord that a cat “fell from the ceiling into the downstairs apartment shower” while the tenant was in it!
I went home to retrieve the cat and found that she went into my roommates closet that was on the back side of our shower and also had the access panel to the plumbing. It was moved slightly so my cat went on an adventure under our tub and fell through the drop ceiling causing quite the panic to my downstairs neighbor!
Needless to say he was not happy but I made up a story that a friend of mine had to move and couldn’t take the cat so I offered to take it 😬.
Was just told “tell your housemate with the dog that they should at least hide the beds and bowls next time there’s an inspection so I can pretend I didn’t see any pet evidence”.
We signed the lease and it said “including pets deposit” (plural) we told them we had a dog at signing and paid a deposit. Later on, we acquired a pet cat and since the lease said “pets” we figured we would be good. Months later, we get a notice saying they saw the cat and we need to talk to the office and sign a new deposit. Took a copy of our lease to the apartment office and pointed out it said “pets”. They said, no we mean just your dog. No, lease says “pets”, we paid a deposit for “pets”. Lady called over her manager, there was some back and forth, and the manager said they obviously messed up on the initial lease and legally there was nothing they could do without us agreeing to re-sign so we kept the cat. And the turtle they didn’t see (now deceased). And the two guinea pigs (also now deceased). I didn’t want to push it any further than that but in theory we could have become a zoo. We very carefully checked the lease every year we renewed and they never tried to sneak in an amendment to the pets part.
We had some neighbors we got friendly with who had multiple animals and asked if we could check their lease as they signed about a year after we did. Their lease very clearly stated how many animals and a deposit was paid for each one. Guess they got a bit better at writing them!
I was briefly a landlord and my tenant had a dog even though it was against the rules. I knew it was there and let it slide and the doggo ended up completely ruining the new carpeting I had installed.
I didn’t go after the tenant or withhold her deposit or anything, but that experience (among many others) definitely helped convince me to sell the house and get rid of it.
Being a landlord just wasn’t for me.
I had two cats that we didn’t want to pay a deposit or the additional monthly pet fee since money was tight so we didn’t. After living there for 7 years the apartment complex started giving everyone annual inspections. The first one went by fine. The next year I got a letter telling me I had illegal cats and had to get rid of them.
So I went to the leasing office and told them I had paid the deposit when I moved in. I knew that nobody working there was working when I moved in. They couldn’t find any of my original paperwork, only my most recent lease renewals so they just started charging the monthly fee from that point on.
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