It`s a property manager`s nightmare: A man moves out, taking his slinky, scaly, supposedly caged pets with him. New tenants move into the apartment and are happy until they start hearing slithering and hissing. An animal expert is called in to remove the growing family of snakes in the crawl space beneath the home.
Horrors.
Exactly, says Lowell Martin of Martin and Marbry, the real estate company in Skokie that actually managed that property. ”There were just tons of snakes in there. It was just terrible.”
Then there are those little fleas that breed like crazy, laying their eggs in the warm, fuzzy carpet of an apartment. The pet (along with a large colony of fleas) moves out with its owner and new tenants move in. Two weeks later, the apartment is a nursery for newborn fleas.
Yuck.
Right, says Jane Miller, a consultant at Apartment Locators, an apartment-finding service. ”They (the new tenants) are not usually happy to get a surprise flea attack.”
And there`s always a story about the woman who moves out after years of sharing her apartment with 20 cats and a dog.
Blaaaah.
You got it, says Deanna Nelson, manager of the Willow Dayton apartments at 1818 N. Halsted St. ”It was absolutely amazing. . . . We had to bleach and paint the floors underneath the carpeting” and replace chewed off woodwork and a scratched door.
The other side
Evanston apartment dweller Rebecca Handel says she can sympathize with those landlords. ”I guess it`s just the landlords have had troubles-these horror stories of what (animals) did to their apartments.”
But she doesn`t know why they have to be so rude and set against someone like her, a conscientious pet owner.
She and her fiance went from one building to another to another last fall explaining that they wanted to get a cat and a dog. ”When they heard `dog,`
they said, `Thank you, goodbye,”` she says. One realty company employee even took a list of apartments out of Handel`s hand.
Handel and her fiance finally settled on an apartment that would allow one cat.
Jane Gantner, who lives in Lincoln Park, can relate. ”I`ve had problems everywhere,” she says.
Gantner and her family got a Sheltie puppy seven years ago and have had trouble finding apartments ever since. And she believes it`s actually getting harder to find places that will allow pets, she says.
Doggone it
That certainly is the case for dogs, although management companies seem to be allowing more cats in city apartments, according to a survey completed two years ago by the Anti-Cruelty Society, says Jane Stby no means alone in their experiences, Miller says. In fact, half of all those who come to Apartment Locators looking for apartments in the city and suburbs are pet lovers of one kind or another.
”Landlords are much more tolerant of cats, but they`re still pretty grumpy about dogs,” especially in the city, where there is less space for both people and pets, Miller says. While cats are allowed in about 95 percent of all rental properties in the Chicago area, dogs are welcome in only about 35 percent.
”Cats can pretty much go anywhere,” she says. ”The main problem with a dog is that they don`t go to the bathroom in the house.”
Nelson agrees. ”We absolutely outlawed dogs,” she says. ”The biggest nuisance was dog doo-doo on the sidewalks.”
Make room for Zeus
Aware of the objections and fears, the Gantner family persevered, trained Zeus well in the ways of social and bathroom etiquette and introduced him to prospective landlords or managers, which really helped, Jane Gantner says. They also looked for places that had large courtyards or fenced areas so he could run around. ”I do feel that dogs do need some room to move around,”
she says.
The Gantners were also willing to pay a higher rent each month for the privilege of owning Zeus.
Landlords often will require pet owners to pay a non-refundable pet fee
(usually around $100); a refundable fee (anywhere from $200 to $900) in addition to the security deposit; an additional $15 to $20 a month in rent;
and the costs of damages caused by pets.
To avoid problems later, it`s also a good idea to have the lease state that you can own a pet, says Lex Woodworth, manager of Huron Plaza apartments, 30 E. Huron St.
Some pet policies may also require a photo of the animal, a maintenance fee, comprehensive liability insurance in case the pet hurts someone and proof that the pet is spayed or neutered and has had a rabies vaccination.
Some of the biggest gripes among landlords and property managers are that pets ruin the carpet by urinating on it, scratch doors and walls wanting to get out, chew woodwork and carpeting while teething, go to the bathroom on sidewalks and make noise. If not neutered, male cats will stake out their territory by spraying floors and walls with their odor.
”We could get more money for the apartments and rent them more easily if we allowed pets,” Martin says. ”It`s just not worth it. . . . A lot of people don`t know how to take care of their pets.”
Stern said that`s the real problem. ”It`s the owner`s fault the whole way.” Owners should train their pets properly; clean, feed and pay attention to them; arrange for someone to look in on them while the owners are away; and clean up after them.
Landlords and managers also caution against trying to sneak pets into apartments.
”If you get a dog on a no-pet policy, it`s very selfish,” Nelson says.
”You`re not only hurting yourself but you`re hurting your animal, too.”
If found out, you would probably have to give the pet away, move or keep the animal and risk eviction.
Where to turn
To avoid that hassle, people should ask up front about pet policies or call the Anti-Cruelty Society at 644-8338 for a free list of Chicago apartment buildings that allow pets, Stern says. The list has more than 100 names of buildings-everything from three-flats to complexes-that welcome animals.
Stern also says that if a building doesn`t have an absolute no-pet policy, the prospective tenant can try to use a little persuasion by introducing his or her dog or cat to the landlord and offering to pay an extra security deposit.
”So don`t tell us you can`t find a place. . . . You do have to look,
(but) you will find people who love animals and will allow you to have a dog or cat.”
