renting a house with a dog

daingeanrob

has any one else had this problem of trying to find a house to rent when you have a dog? myself and my partner are both profesional people with references from previous rentals behind us and still alot of places we go to see will flatly refuse to rent at the very mention of a dog. recession, what recession? i wouldn't mind giving an extra deposit or whatever but its very limiting at the moment for us.

Whispered

I think its the same the other way around as well. We have a room to rent, but we have a dog and anybody who rents has to be totally comfortable with them as we will not limit his access to the sittingroom to suit a tenant. We would want anybody living in the house to be happy to let him out the back if they are home and we are not, allow him relax in the sitting room with them if we are not there, be happy enough to accept the extra bit of mess that comes with owning a dog. You know, basicially fit in with our whole family including the dog. (not walking him or anything, just letting him continue on in the house as he does now)

I've had ads on a few sites, also stating that pets are welcome. No takers.

Best of luck finding a place, there is one site that allows you search with certain criteria, like pets. I'm sorry I can't remember it now but if you google you may come across it. If you have no luck I'll try find it for you tomorrow.

daingeanrob

cheers helena that sounds excellent, have looked on daft and all the houses which say pet friendly tend to be very run down, we tried a few that interested us that didn't say anything about pets and were shot down in flames, i don't want to move anywhere where they would be a problem and would rather be upfront with potential landlords

Whispered

myhome.ie has a search which allows you to use a keyword if you go into advanced search.

letbynet.ie, it's a very basic site, I don't know how many results it will throw back at you but there is a box to tick in advanced search to select "pets allowed"

it's a renters market at the moment so don't give up!! Maybe you could put a wanted ad onto a few sites. Letting them know you're looking to rent with (a very well behaved :P) dog?

dmy1001

Dogs Trust UK ran a programme called "lets with Pets" from memory. this was earlier in the year and they had advice for people in you situation.

http://www.dogstrust.org.uk/information/atozofdogs/r/rentalaccomodation/text.htm

this may be of some help to you.
Dogs trust are open in Dublin now and perhaps they would have some advice or help for you

Maggie.23

I was in a similar situation but was lucky enough to find a house to rent without too much trouble. I went through myhome.ie and emailed the letting agent or landord/landlady of all suitable houses, even if the description didn't specify that pets were welcome. Without much delay I heard back from a landlady with a pet friendly house. I also heard back a few weeks later from a landlord who was originally against letting to a dog-owner but changed his mind due to the slow market. So there is hope! Best of luck.

Tweenas

Hi,
This is abit sneaky but we were in the same boat and
we couldn't get a landlord to rent us his / her house because of our dog.

So what we did was we would go a view the house but never mentioned the dog. Then just as we were going sign the paper work. We told the landlord that we would be minding my mothers dog for awhile just till she came back from holidays.

A year later we are still minding the dog

Vagante

I agree with Last Minutes post.
Say nothing-chances are that it will be too much bother for the landlord to do anything about it once you are moved in especially if you look after the house well.

doctor evil

OP don't mess people around, its a renters market keep looking.

cosnochta

We are currently in our third pet-friendly rental property. (Though the first two were in the uk)

This time round, we searched for suitable properties on daft.ie. We phoned them all and asked if we could have a pet. Some will refuse, but we found that almost half were willing. We did have to contact a lot of landlords, but in the end it only took a few weeks for us to find a pet-friendly we were happy with.

Other things you could try:
Provide references from your previous landlord that state that your dog is well-trained
If you attend training classes, ask them to provide a reference for your dog
Similarly, you could ask your vet to right a 'character reference' for your dog
Offering an additional 'pet deposit' might ease some landlords minds
Let the landlord meet your dog, that way they can see for themselves that it is well-trained and not a nuisance

Try not to take it personally if people are flatly refusing. Just move on to the next potential property and try again. The right property is out there for you.

Best of luck

daingeanrob

thanks for all the advice guys, i've decided to just ring around all the local estate agents this morning and see what they have, we would rather not "chance" the dog and say nothing as the next place we rent will most likely be for a few years as me and missus are getting married next summer, this is why it has to be the right place this time for the four of us. for once the internet has failed me and i have to deal with REAL people:eek:

boomerang

Tweenas wrote: »

Hi,
This is abit sneaky but we were in the same boat and
we couldn't get a landlord to rent us his / her house because of our dog.

So what we did was we would go a view the house but never mentioned the dog. Then just as we were going sign the paper work. We told the landlord that we would be minding my mothers dog for awhile just till she came back from holidays.

A year later we are still minding the dog

Speaking as a dog-friendly landlord, my last tenants pulled a similar trick on me. Signed the lease, never mentioned the dog, a week later I call to the door to arrange the Sky installation and pug runs out between the girl's legs. I've no problem letting to someone with pets as long as they're responsible and don't mind that if there's any damage it'll have to come out of the deposit - fair is fair and I've rented with dogs myself. But this deception really pi$$ed me off and got the tenancy off to a very bad start.

It's always better to be upfront from the beginning. Offer references from previous landlords and offer to pay an extra deposit to cover any damages caused by the dog.