When we moved into our first apartment right after we got married, we only had one cat – Delilah. We had to pay a one-time $250 pet deposit (which could be paid upfront or broken up over 4 months). Shortly after moving in, we adopted Sampson and had to pay an additional $100 pet deposit. At this point, I inquired as to the limit on the number of pets we could have and the fees associated with each additional one. Thankfully, once the $350 total amount was reached, there were no more additional fees and also no limits on the number of pets. So, one-by-one, we added Sophie… then Sassy… then Caster…. For the almost two years we happily lived in that apartment, we had absolutely no trouble with the apartment management and the cats. However, the 7 of us finally outgrew that itty bitty apartment and upgraded to a house…
Searching for a cat-friendly house to rent was a little more difficult than it was with apartments. Apartments (in our area, at least) seem to be a lot more lenient about their pet policies than the rental houses are. Many houses I found would allow dogs, but no cats. Or some wouldn’t allow pets of any kind. Finally we found the perfect place – one that would allow us to have all five of our cats for only a $200 pet deposit. We truly hit the jackpot on that one.
As you can see, our experience with having cats and renting has been a positive one. Unfortunately though, that’s not the case for everyone. I’m always surprised when I hear about how strict some places are with their pet policies. With more than 62% of Americans owning at least one pet, it seems like it would be in the best interest of rental companies/landlords to allow pets. They’re turning away a lot of potential business otherwise.
I rarely share infographics that are randomly emailed to me, but I thought that this one was quite timely considering our recent move, and also interesting.
(I was not paid to share the infographic or article – I just thought it was interesting and worth sharing.)
*If you have pets and have to move, please be sure that your new home is pet-friendly before you move! You don’t want any surprises. And please don’t leave your pets behind!
I’m curious — what has your rental experience been like? How cat-friendly is your state and/or city?
Summer says
My human would never live somewhere that wasn’t pet friendly. Fortunately, she has been a homeowner for 19 years now.
Brian Frum says
South Carolina didn’t do that good, but we’re really not overly surprised!
Marg says
We didn’t realize that that many apartments and houses allowed pets. Glad you found something. We are very lucky and own our own place so the cats are very happy.
Dezi and Lexi says
Yep there’s lots of no pets or no cats here in OK. But mommy never duz nuffin’ wiffout askin’ furs or leavin’ ifin they change their minds. Which weez actually had happen. And most pawrtments here have limits, as well as towns and cities puttin’ limits on da nummew of pets dat can be owned. Fanks fur sharin’.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Lexi
da tabbies o trout towne says
guys….de state oh trout towne did prette good act shoo a lee ~
heerz two a walkin catfish kinda week oh end ♥♥♥
Annie says
We’ve moved many times and have been renters until just a little over a year ago (and we’re not young). Just about everywhere we’ve rented (always apartments), there has been a two-cat limit and a cat deposit required for each. In full disclosure, we had a third kitty for a lot of those years.
Great article and accompanying pic. So cute!
The Island Cats says
We’ve always lived in a house, but when the mom did rent, she was lucky and the apartment peeps never asked for extra money for pets. Though we see our state isn’t great for pet-friendly rentals.
Tamago says
That’s an interesting infigrapgic. Glad to know our state Georgia is fairly cat-friendly 🙂 I’ve heard in Japan, so many apartments don’t allow cats in big cities, so people go to cat cafe to enjoy cat-time. I don’t have experience like yours as I didn’t have any cats or dogs when I lived in apartment. My work was way too busy and I would not be able to take care of them properly if I had any. Glad I changed job and now live in a house where I can have happy life with my kitties 🙂