What is the deal with this city and all of the apartment listings not allowing pets? Not even cats? I’m a mature adult with a good paying job who happens to enjoy the company of my animals—and they’re fixed. Why can’t I have them in my own apartment? I pay you a damage deposit, so what’s the difference? All of the decent apartment ads I’ve seen, that also cost a fortune mind you, don’t allow animals at all. I understand people have allergies and what not, but they’re not roaming the halls…they’re not in your place. What the fuck…how hard is it to find a good home for me and my animals? For some reason you can’t ban children and they’d probably do more damage and make more noise than pets would… —Pets are Like Family Too
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2012.
I know even a lot of town houses or flats don’t allow pets it’s ridiculous. One ad for an apartment I saw charged you an additional $25 a month per pet! On top of a special pet danage clause! What the fuck is that!?
The apt I have up on Larry Uteck allows cats but no dogs, not sure about the whole fixed and declawed portion though.
I moved here from Upper Canada, and I find that there seems to be a lot more apartments here that allow pets.
I have also found that they will say no pets in their adds but what they really mean is no dogs, doesn’t hurt to give them a call and check it out.
My brother owns a couple of rental units & one of the 3 bedroom homes was recently vacated & there were door moldings & one door that were shredded by cat claws,the basement Stunk, literally SMELLED TO HIGH HEAVENS …it would maker you gag from the urine Stench. You try repainting, fixing woodwork & then buying & using the chemicals to deoderize the basement & fix all the other problems of use by the tenants, for a $550.00 damage deposit .
Not freakin’ possible !
Landlords don’t want pets because the majority of pet owners are assholes, when it comes to respecting the fact they are renters…not OWNERS & cannot do as they please !
Yeah they allow kids, technically. You just can’t tell them you have kids or they won’t give you the apt. “We have selected another candidate” was all I got until I just didn’t mention I have kids for half the week. It is what it is, people want to protect their investment.
As a Landlord, I dont rent to animal owners. Dogs crap all over my yard and scratch up the hardwood, and cats just stink up the whole house.I have tried in the past, but never again. Also, I would never rent to someone with kids for that matter either because they also destroy the house.
If you want to raise kids and a house full of animals then buy your own house and you can do whatever you want to it. I’m sure not all landlords feel the same way, but I’m trying to protect my investments so thats how I feel.
Understandable, renters can be douchebags and the stench of cat piss is immortal. I think there should be special clauses for pet damage everywhere, then again it’s not going to help if they skip out on you. I’d want to protect my investment too. Most places I called in our apartment days said they would accept our fixed male cats and most places that openly accept pets are dumps.
It’s because, let’s face it, a lot of people are pigs who can’t even clean after themselves, let alone an animal. Many apartments do allow cats, but not for dogs, and I don’t blame them at all.
Ha! I fooled you so hard, lowcoaster. My progeny isn’t destructive but I have absolutely no faith in the majority, or humanity beyond the individual so I probly wouldn’t allow kids if I had an income property either.
The Grainery Lofts on South Bland street. Fabulous and allow all animal types.
I think a property owner reserves the right to allow or ban pets, but one thing always puzzled me: why do some allow cats, but not dogs? I can tell you, with all honesty, that I have owned both (and still do) and cats are much more destructive than any dog. That has been my experience, anyway.
Have you ever lived in an apartment with a dog owner as a neighbour? It’s 3am and the dog decides to start barking and barking and barking, did I mention barking for what seem like all night.Cats are quiet for the most part.
there are up/down points to both a cat and dog. dogs are loud, cats are smelly. People who have HIV can’t even have a cat because of the strong chemicals in their shit. A friend of mine who has HIV told me about that…Goes to show how dirty cat shit really is. Not that any shit is really that great but cat shit can kill ya if you are around it too much. gnarly
im on larry uteck as well all the buildings there seem to allow cats as well as a few on the right hand side allow dogs
love you avatar, furious
*your* tho i am fond of you
The kijiji ads should switch from “Pet Friendly” to “pet friendly” or “cat friendly.” If I was a property owner Id be more likely to rent to a dog owner before a cat owner. The apartment I moved into a few months ago STILL has the occasional cat piss smell – its disgusting. I understand dogs can bark so just ask for it to be well trained and meet the dog and owner in advance. And for those dog owners who don’t pick up their dogs shit, maybe you shouldn’t own a dog.
Thanks paingirl. My wings. are much bigger in real life though
Most pet owners are used to the stink their animals give off and always seem puzzled by the “cat piss” issue. I rented to a couple once who had two dogs, they tore the hell out of my yard and then they went and got a big ass iguana, to which mr. carpenter wannabe used a corner of the dining room to build a cage for the iguana. Two walls of the cage were my actual walls of the room. What a disaster. NEVER AGAIN!
Op self describes as ‘mature with good paying job’. ok, buy a place then. here ya go, i just saw a cute little 2 bed bungalow just outside Halifax for 49.9 yup, it doesn’t have granite/stainless steel appliances with high end fixtures. but it has your own property, lots of trees and easy commute to the city. if you don’t wreck it, make a few repairs and improvements, you can re-sell UP in a couple years. and your retirement fund is started. rent out the other bedroom if you’re a single, and you can pay your mortgage faster.
i have been a renter, a homeowner and a landlord. my tenant had a cat who ate the wall to wall, but i was ok with that, as she stayed for years and gave me no headaches. as a renter, i viewed places that had been pet destroyed, people destroyed, kids destroyed. many people are pigs. when you drive down a street, you can ‘usually’ tell the rentals from the owner occupied by ly a glance. my own dogs have done a number on the shiny hardwood floors that came with the house. i am considering concrete bunker for next house. so damage happens. i will have to eat the cost of new floors, but as a renter…you think your half months rent damage deposit would cover that? or replacing kitchen cupboard doors that got gnawed when you went out and your dogs got bored and lonely, or the newel posts on the oak staircase that your cats used as scratching post? if your cat hangs his butt over the edge of the litterbox when you don’t change it fast enough, not only the carpet has to be replaced, but the underpadding and sub floor. plus labour. if you love pets and want them in your life, buy a place, rent a not-so-nice place or get rich and rent whatever you want. but don’t expect to waltz into someone else’s property like queen sheba because you pay a ‘damage deposit’ . get your own darn place.
as a three-cat person, i totally understand..
however, i am not oblivious to the amount of damage my fuzzy little Armageddons are capable of inflicting to the walls, doorframes, yard outside, unsuspecting children etc…
my old cat Fang-fang swung from the curtains and would hang upside down from them. this was in a temp rental apt. i had to replace every set of curtains. when my daughter moved from her apt, i had to polyfil the bathroom door because her cat got locked in accidentally and tried to claw his way out. ditto the wall beside the door. i used a lot of polyfilla there. love them to pieces though.
I must have the best behaved cats in the world. My worst damage in all my homes (owned by me) are a few scratches in the hardwood from rounding the corners when on a tear. If you have a cat you know what that looks like. When time comes to sell I’d have to give the flooring a once over regardless so a few scratches is nothing. They make no attempt to kill baseboards or anything else for that matter….and only one of them is declawed.
But they leave an odour. There is no such thing as kitty litter that eliminates smell no matter how much they advertise it does. I have been to a lot of stenchy places. Another reason why I would never become a landlord.
some cats stink, some dogs chew, and some kids damage shit. the owner has every right to say no pets or kids. if you owned a building, and some asshole with a rottie moved in, and tore the carpets and other things to pieces, wouldn’t you change your mind in a hurry? if you answered no, then you are a fucking liar.
i have been thru this shit, and when thousands of bucks in damage occur, who the fuck do you think has to pay for it? not you, you just move out and leave your piddling little deposit here. and that isn’t even enough to get rid of the stink, let alone fix damages.
The high-rise on Ridgeway in Cowie Hill allows pets – they’ve actually cleaned the place up some. Only two crackheads per floor, I hear.
I agree with the good dog, particularly if you have or want a dog, get your own place. Dogs need a yard and a buffer zone with the neighbours because they (the dogs) do like to bark. Cats, if fixed, tend to be fine as far as smell goes but can be hard on the furniture which is usually the tenant’s property. That’s why cats tend to be more apartment friendly.
Unfortunately, some pet owners are not responsible which makes it tough for the rest.
funnygirl, i have heard about cats like yours, always thought it was an urban legend. my whole family is cat crazy, even though we are all slightly allergic. and we all have crazy cats. my little brother and i used to make the cat crazy by creeping up to him while he was sleeping on the couch, staring at him til he woke, got nervous and tore around the living room on the backs of all the furniture. mom would start hollering ‘don’t make the cat crazy!’. i am surprised we both have our eyeballs intact. (i bet my mom is ‘rolling over’ right now, she never once raised her voice )
in the 80’s i did a lot of macrame and one of my cats, Morley, would climb the floor to ceiling baby blue plant hanger and then swing gently to and fro. then rock himself to sleep int he spider plant. puss-puss had a thing for metal hangers, and would steal them and leave them lying on the lawn so you could trip. and Booger-man travelled the neighbourhood over rooftops, sneaking into other peoples homes through second floor windows. he stole stuff too. some kind soul once posted a note in the corner store that she had ‘found’ a pregnant cat. it was my Booger. male, neutered and amply padded. ‘but, but’ she protested, ‘i can feel the kittens!’. no m’dear, that’s his fat.
hahaha, “no m’dear that’s his fat” and named booger and a klepto. love em
…and if you’re going to shubie today, good dog, pat some four leggers for me. i have to work
ahhh, i have to opt out of those events. the good dog Molly, while the love of my life, and instantly beloved by all adults for her winning ways and liquid eyes, is terrified of children, and growls in fear. understandably, parents are not comfy. i have no access to training-kiddies, so we just avoid ’em. diane (my better half) takes the Noofer-Goofer to them, and they are on their way now, him dressed in his highland outfit and with a flashy hallowe’en necklace. he LOVES crowded, noisy events, and goes to the tall ships, concerts, highland games, powwows etc. he adores kids, other dogs, musicians, caterers, sailors, candlestick makers. the whole gamut. we got him as a running loose puppy of only weeks age. so he was a blank slate for our love. but molly came from dubious ‘home’ and had been living in the forest for at least a month on her own, fighting with raccoons for scraps, and with great fear of garbage cans and people with sticks. and kids. i tied her to my waist for the first month, 24/7, and had to kiss and hug a lot of garbage cans in the area to get her over that.
my booger-man is buried in the yard here. he was just over 18, i got him as a little triangle tail from the spca in north van. we drove across with the entire back seat of the car for him in 2007. a little tent and all his comfies. stopped every 2 hours so he could walk around on his leash, which we introduced to him just for the trip. he dipped his paws in lake superior, snuffled wheatfields in saskatchewan, walked thru sandy pines in manitoba, took the ferry at st eustache and ate lobster in malignant cove with us. we had a good couple years with him here, he did a walkabout every day, despite being blind. at the end, he only weighed a couple of pounds, light as a feather, but scrappy and happy, and even accepted Molly in the house. nailed her on the nose at first rude sniff and taught her the rules. what a cat he was. in vancouver lived next to film people, and the parties he went to! the most social cat i ever knew. anyone who says a cat is a cat is a cat has never loved one.
love it…i’m sure there will be lots of folks out and about with their fur babies
…and we have 4 cats buried in our yard, the beloved hound was too big to bury, so he got a lilac bush
3 in ours, each with a little shrubbery. a lilac bush is a wonderful place. molly is afraid of the dark, and being outside alone, so she will have to stay inside with me.
just finished sewing artificial leaves onto daughters costume, she’s going out as elvish warrior.
the cats have roses and zee hound’s ashes stay inside with me along with his collar. i still have his dishes too *sob*
i bet you can still feel his wonderful fur and smell his sweetly stinky paws too. dogs are the most wonderful, indescribable.
sometimes i think i see him out of the corner of my eye
Painy GDM Lilacs are my absolute favorite flower,I can see me planting a lilac bush over top my beloved pet too.It would bring me good memories about my beloved pet that passed, along with a beautiful scent in the air…..A wonderful idea for someone who loves lilacs and her pet.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PUFFai6mLas/TfS2…
diane believes that pets can come and go at will, or at least a couple of times, after they go. just to let you know they are ok. my daughter’s very old cat, Mudd, whirrs his little whirligig in the morning, wind or no wind.
warm doggie dreams ya’ll.
When I moved back to NS from Alberta this past August it was hell trying to find a place to rent that allowed pets. What makes my dilemma even worse is I have not 1 but 2 small dogs. I eventually found a place which is actually a really nice clean apartment that does allow pets. Downfalls…..I had to pay an extra pet deposit of $300 on top of my damage deposit of $312 and its not really in a great end of town, North end Dartmouth Albro lake road. I may live in the ghetto of Dartmouth but the apartment is brand new and allows me to have my two girls.
Absolutely brutal trying to find a place to rent but I was lucky which so has it that I am moving in with the man Dec 1st so THIS apartment is going to available hint hint……background check pending lol
Fuck that, “Do you think your half months damage deposit will pay for all your damage?”, bullshit. Do you landlords actually believe that you will never have to re-invest in your investment? Do you really believe that your 1.99 a square foot lamenant flooring should last the lifetime of your property? Do you really think that you should be able to paint you rental once every 10 years without making some drywall repairs? Do you think that the cheapest carpet known to man should last the lifetime of your investment? Are you really stupid enough to think that an appartment is a no maintenance ticket to fortune? All I ever hear is landlords whining about how shitty it is to charge some sucker a shitload of rent for a poorly maintained, patchwork repaired, run down shit-hole. Go fuck yourselves!!!
ShitD THat may be the case in some places, but in my brothers case just recently … when you don’t know what you are talking about maybe you should get a few more facts before you spew yer bullshit.
The Self Important Idiots is the reason I do not own a building or a couple of duplex’s … just too many of them out there, & all of them believe the world owes them something. My brothers place has hardwood throughout, except the bathroom , kitchen & the front & rear entrances (the rear on both have mud rooms) which are ceramic tile. One place last summer he drove by & they had built a treehouse , a treehouse built by what looked like a drunk. Which would explain why it looked like it did, Whoever did it didn’t have the ability to cut a straight line & who had no idea what level looked like & made out of what looked like old pallets… it looked like hell ! When they gave notice they were moving , he told them they were responsible to remove the eye sore (it wasn’t done well enough to really call it a treehouse, tree shack is closer to the truth ) & they told him , “that’s not part of the house !” “Why are we responsible?” … we initially thought this guy was kidding … he was serious. Yer comment reminds me of the guy who left there, an asshole comment from someone who doesn’t own a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of ! but thinks, because I am renting it … I CAN DO WHAT I LIKE .
No renter, you cannot. On top of that here are some more gems THe garage had been used as a place to fire their pellet guns & paint ball guns, dozens of holes in the garage door, drywall with literally hundreds of pellet holes.
Having to paint a place & fill several nail holes from pictures in each room is a normal part of renting. Having to replace baseboards, interior doors, ceramic tile, & the nosing was broken on several basement steps which my brother showed me on Saturday, from this last tenant putting his motor cycle in the basement ! He’s still repairing & fixing it all up & its been over a month. that’s a bit bloody more than slappin’ on a coat of paint & cleaning the threadbare carpers IMO & a half months damamge deposit doesn’t even come close.
Steve HERE! HERE! Some landlords belong in the same whinny ass,(“We want everything, but we don’t want to do anything to actually earn it”) category as bus drivers and scummy cab drivers. I said “SOME” I do realize that there is one or two landlords,bus drivers and cab drivers that don’t ram it up Joe/Joann T Puplic’s ass in order to make a buck.
More on I feel bad for your brother,yes assholes like that do walk among us.I read that Steve meant the good “God fearing”,honest folks that actually have respect for their surroundings and people.People that rent and don’t tear up the place,or people that have an unfortunate bouts of bad luck,that do own up to whateever damage was done.Landlords don’t(law has been changed) have to give reason to boot someone out.They also can and do lie(yes a lot of these fuckers lie) about the tentant..
good grief harper, take your rabies shot! when i asked ‘do you think your half month’s rent damage deposit would cover that’ did you read what i was referring to? eh? i was talking about my own hardwood floors, in my own house. as an example. so if someone has HARDWOOD (read my age-d lips) floors in a rental and the tenant has large boisterous dogs, and the floors got scratched up like mine are, the damage deposit would not cover it. i also mentioned my own tenant in my old condo. and how her cat ate the carpet, but….i was ok with that because she was a reliable, long term tenant. and i like cats. scratched up carpeting, to me, is a lot better than the kind of damage that some people can do. holes kicked in drywall, sinks stood in and collapsed. little ‘maintenance’ stuff like that. i am an excellent tenant, my kids have been excellent tenants, my mother was. and as a tenant, i have viewed apts that were absolute pig holes of damage done by tenants. andi have run into some total moron landlords. (the witch i rented from in bermuda is a classic – turning off my water and demanding cash with no receipt). so unkink your gitch. no one said that tenants were all orangutangs and no one said that landlords have friggin halos. you don’t usually fly off like that.
Yes, good dog, it’s all about you. My point is that when you go looking at apartments in this city, especially in the downtown core (aka, collegetown) the apartments are expensive, run down, unmaintained, and wouldn’t make a shit bit of difference wether you had a pack of wolves living with you. Wrecked carpets, ancient bathroom fixtures, old shitty hardwood floors, shitty old wood windows (cause you have to pay for heat, so why should the landlord care), no parking, etc… All for the low price of 1200-1800 a month for a 2 bedroom flat!!!! But hey, no pets. We don’t want evil dogs fucking up the plaster walls or the hardwood floors (not so much as re-varnished, let alone sanded since new) from 1905. Lame!!!
ok, so now we’re getting somewhere…it’s not about landlords per se anymore, you’re in a tither about landlords who are renting out 2 bedroom character apts downtown, the apts being in 1905 condition (and not the apts with cheap laminate/drywall/wall to wall that you mentioned in previous comment) so…don’t rent there. go to a different area. hey! i know of a nifty 2 bedroom with IT’S OWN PRIVATE BEACH in Terence bay that takes dogs. it’s only 650. but darn it, may not meet your lofty standards of decor. it has sort of indoor outdoor carpeting in the living room, bedrooms. and the kitchen counter top is painted a dark green. the windows are older casement style, and not energy efficient. they may have raised the rent another 50 bucks since i rented it for my first year here.
so whaddya want? a fully renovated heritage building for 500 a month? not going to happen. if you want one of the trendoid character apts down there you are going to pay thru the nose because it’s what the market will bear. you’ll always pay more for a trendy area. and they can impose any restriction they want, because it’s what the market will bear. crumb, you remind me of a young lady i know, she always wanted me to find a cute little seaside village, with nice shops and good sidewalks, cheap little cafes and no spitting, inbred fisherfolk, to stroll through.
p.s. where would they get a parking spot for you down in heritage hipsterville? i’ve driven thru there….on the friggin roof?
In this city it doesn’t matter where you live rents are expensive.If you want a decent apartment in a good neighbourhood good luck finding one, that doesn’t have 1001 things wrong with it. I looked at one apartment(human shit box)near Victoria and Queen in Dartmouth, that didn’t allow a dog or cat but, allowed cockroaches,bedbugs and mice. That landlord didn’t consider crackheads an animal….I went directly home showered and washed the clothes I had on.
HRM needs rent control.
Well I have been in many rental properties and there are good landlords and crappy landlords and good tenants and crappy ones. I have seen the best and worst of both but I still would never be a landlord. You can have the landlord paint once every 5 years and flooring every 10. If you don’t agree with damages you can take the landlord to the Tenancy Board (just be sure you have your evidence with you). They will adjust damages according to normal wear and tear. Tenants, remember the property does not belong to you.
yeh, that’s the thing. good and bad on both sides. haha one landlord i had, lived above me in a house and let her dogs pee thru the deck onto my patio furniture. also emptied her plant pots onto the deck and scraped it thru the cracks onto mine. sometimes it’s a hate-hate relationship.
i would never be a landlord again unless forced by circumstance, it’s too nervewracking. i only did it because i was living out of the country for a couple years. and fyi shitd….the rent did NOT cover the mortgage payment, i kept it way below market to keep the tenant i had.
RSVP
: Boru 1014 (10/28, 5:31PM)
“Steve HERE! HERE!”
Boru I believe that, um, it should be “HEAR! HEAR!”
It’s an archaic expression denoting strong approval but one not commonly found in everyday speech. It’s only current usage, as far as I am aware, is restricted to parliamentary debates in which the party members cheer on their respective speakers.
But as I strongly approve your post Boru, all I can say is:
HEAR! HEAR!
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
MM …Lol..Thanks again. *embarrassed again* I did know it’s not commonly used these days.
Steve HEAR! HEAR!
I realize I look stupid because of my terrible spelling and lack of writing skills.Once you get to know me you’ll see I’m not the student forced to sit in the corner with a dense cap on…..I maybe sitting beside the one wearing the dence cap..Lol
You think pets are bad.
Go into an apartment that was rented by a chain smoker.
You want to see destruction, animals have nothing on that.
You can paint all you want, it’ll stink. If you have carpets in the apartment, you can clean them all you want. Only solution is to replace them.
Yet it’s illegal to say no to smokers!
Weed is illegal, but a landlord isn’t allowed to evict them based on that, but they can evict someone for having a pet.
My experience, humans are more destructive than animals.
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: Boru 1014 (10/29, 10:28AM)
Yes Boru, once I get to know you I’m sure things will be different.
Um, I believe that should be “dunce cap” Boru and not “dense cap”. While dunces are always dense one must not conflate the two terms.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
MM I correctly spelled the incorrect term.
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: Boru 1014 (10/29, 7:53PM)
“I correctly spelled the incorrect term.”
Yes Boru, you correctly spelled “cap” but was that “the incorrect term”? It seems unlikely since the term “cap” is correct in the phrase, a “dunce cap.” This leaves “dunce” as the incorrect term but you spelled it incorrectly as “dense.” If so, that would mean that you incorrectly spelled the incorrect term which is not what you said. Either formulation falls short of being coherent.
I think the question turns on what you consider to be “the incorrect term.” Could you write back with a clarification?
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
MM Yes the correct term is “dunce cap” I used the wrong word “dense”.
http://images.dailydawdle.com/cat-reaching…
MM, you make me laugh. You also inspire me to learn more book words.
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: Sonictooth5 (10/30, 1:37PM)
“You also inspire me to learn more book words.”
An interesting distinction, that between “book words” and, I suppose, “non-book words” or more straightforwardly, “ordinary usage” But what is ordinary usage? One supposes that ordinary usage is ordinary to the one who, without pretension, uses it. While I have, on occasion, raised the “linguistic ante” so to speak to enrage the rednecks on this site, my usage – at least as far as I am concerned – is ordinary. So the question then arises as to why others might find my ordinary usage consists of “book words.” But what are “book words?”
“Book words” – it is obvious – are words found in books but the next question – equally obviously – relates to the different kinds of books that one happens to read, assuming that one reads books at all. I think, as one ascends the literacy scale that the distinction between “book words” and ordinary usage becomes increasingly narrow until, at a certain point, the distinction ceases to exist at all. In other words, one’s ordinary usage and “book words” are one. Excluding technical manuals and abstruse works in science, I think I have reached that point, but of course I may be wrong.
A more important point, I think, is the reification (a “book word”) of language in general and words in particular. In other words(!) language and words are not free-standing objects. Their usage reflects the ideas of the speaker (or writer) and the ideas of the speaker (or writer) reflect the quality of his (or her) mind. Words, in effect, are the mirror of the mind.
Do you find that I have used too many “book words”? Write back soon with your thoughts.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
I guess I meant words that are not commonly used throughout the day. I realize that opens up the comment I may not have intellectual friends, which may be the case. Those are book words, and yes you used alot of them. You even threw in some college words just to make me use a dictionary. Very clever, I love it.