Many landlords don’t want pets, so about 1 in 5 Fla. renters (19%) say they lie to their landlord about living with a pet – roughly 504,684 undocumented animals.
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Having a pet and renting a property poses challenges. Landlords are often reluctant to allow them – barking, shredded cushions and scratched furniture are some of the reasons. But figures show that 86 million households own a pet – and also that 1 in 3 of them rent. Ergo, this must mean that there are a lot of renters out there who live with their pets in someone else’s property – but how many of them have actually declared them to their landlord?
AgentAdvice.com wanted to find out and surveyed 3,000 pet-owning tenants. They first discovered that 18% of them had kept the existence of Buddy quiet – equating to about 7.7 million pets across the country. That’s a lot of barking to try and cough over, or scratched table legs to try and cover-up.
In Florida, 19% of pet-owning renters admit to not disclosing this to their landlords (equating to 504,684 illegal pets).
The guiltiest pet owners are in Vermont, with the percentage of households hiding illegal pets reaching 50%, or 36,791 furry friends. The most law-abiding pet-owning renters live in Indiana, where the figure is just 4% or 32,400 pets.
Renters have it tough enough as it is, with landlords always having the upper hand in the situation. However, given the choice, the survey found that 82% of pet owners would be willing to pay an additional fee to keep their furry friend in the rental property with them – the extra cost could quite easily be used to make any repairs to anything that was damaged.
And when it comes to how much people would be willing to pay on top of their rent, the average amount was $375.69.
Not all neighbors would be put off by the fact someone next door had a pet, either. AgentAdvice.com also asked, hypothetically, “If your property renewal was coming up and someone new was moving in with a dog, would you consider finding somewhere else to live?” Only 26% said yes, suggesting that the vast majority of Floridians are actually pet-friendly.
The research also revealed that two-thirds thought it was fair for landlords to ask tenants to leave the property if it turned out they had pets that were not permitted. The challenge of finding a rental property that allows pets discourages 58% of people from getting a pet if they are renters.
“Caring for a pet is a responsibility that requires commitment and dedication, yet the current rental market often makes it challenging for pet owners to find suitable and affordable accommodations. Discriminatory pet policies and limited pet-friendly options not only place an undue burden on renters but also deny them the joy and companionship that pets bring to their lives,” says Chris Heller of AgentAdvice.com.
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