Renting To Tenant with Pets Can Be Tricky!

Landlords often ask what our pet policy for our property management firm is, and we explain that we have developed our policy to be flexible to allow pet owners to live at properties that we manage. However, we also acknowledge that risks exist when renting to tennat with pets. Many communities are considering breed ban laws, and in fact some states have passed some very strict policies in regards to pet laws (See Maine). In fact on our Facebook page (http://on.fb.me/ibGgSo), our property management team found a article discussing the new law in Maine that now makes landlords at fault in animal attacks regardless of knowledge (this is referred to as strict liability).  While Texas laws regarding landlord negligence for pets at a rental property is not that severe, there is negligence based liability for landlords who rent to pets. What this means is that if the landlord knowingly put a dangerous animal at the property, then they can be found liable if the pet attacks.

What this means is that landlords must weigh the benefits of increasing their potential pool of tenants versus the increased liability. I know some  property management companies do not rent to owners of certain pets, but as our CEO and several members of our property management teams own  pets including a Doberman; we did not want to take that stance with our property management firm. Therefore, we do rent to tenants who have pets, but Ashoka Lion has our own default procedure for pets including:

1. Enrollment in Pet Damages Program
2. Renters Insurance is Mandatory with $300,000 of coverage. The policy or insurance agent must acknowledge that the pet liability is included per the policy.
3. Renters Insurance Policy must name the owner and management company as insured parties
4. Signed Pet Agreement
5. Landlord must have $1,000,000 of liability coverage either through their primary home insurance policy or umbrella coverage with our management company named as a insured party.

We believe that this policy addresses the heightened legal risk for renting to tenants with pets in the Houston and Dallas markets, but  it also allows our landlords flexibilty to not turn away good tenants who happen to love animals. Our philosophy is that you can love your animal, but you must realize that it comes with additional responsibility.