How do you guys handle large breed dogs that visit? I have a pet policy with 25 pound limit. However, one tenant likes to foster large dogs, and brings a large one home every once in a while. And her son brings his large dog over as well when he visits. I know I can give them a non-renewal since they are month-to-month, but I don’t want to go that far if I don’t have to. They’ve been in the park for 6 years and pay rent on 2 homes. I’ve told them to stop doing it and they will for a while, but the dogs eventually show up again. Can I charge them $80-100 or so a month for additional insurance? Or some type of fee? Or liability waiver? Thanks
Here is what I am currently thinking about putting in my rules:
Any tenant bringing in or allowing guests to bring in a dog over 25 pounds (even for the day), will need to pay a $75/month pet fee for each month the dog is at the home. The tenant will also be required to obtain Dog Bite Liability Insurance (minimum $300,000 policy) for a minimum of 6 months. A release of liability waiver will also be required.
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If your intent is to limit the size of dogs in the community you are moving in the wrong direction. Community owners should never make rules they do not have the ability to enforce.
If you want to charge a fee for larger dogs you must first remove the size restrictions from your community rules. You can not have it both ways.
Step one is to enforce your rules. They have been warned and you now need to ramp it up. You may not want to give them a non-renewal notice but that is exactly what THEY are forcing you to do. By continuing to bring in large dogs they are sending you a strong message that they have no respect for you or your rules. That is on you.
If you can not enforce your pet size restrictions why do you think you can enforce a pet fee rule. What will be your next plan.
Send them notice to non renew with a probation period and when they again bring in a large dog (they will) evict.
I understand your point, and that works with a tenant bringing in a foster dog, But how do you handle a guest bringing their dog over? Do you just non-renew the tenant because a guest brought a dog over? I enforce my rules just fine and have been very successful at it, been managing this park for 10 years. I just don’t like to go straight to evictions/non-renewals on every little thing, that’s why I try to look for other options first. If I non-renew/evict everyone, it creates a sour relationship, and in my opinion makes things worse. I’m not here to be their buddies, but I’m also not here to make their life miserable. Nobody has a dog over 25 pounds in my park, so I enforce that. However, I’m trying to figure out the tenant who fosters for a day or tenants’ who have guests bring a dog over once in a while. What if the tenant didn’t know his friend was going to bring a Labrador Retriever over while visiting? Do I just give him a non-renewal? Seems a little excessive. That’s the reason behind my thought for the Fee/Insurance/Liability Waiver. Having the Fee/Insurance/Liability Waiver gives me some more protection. But I might need to re-word it if I put it in the rules.
Dogs are always a bit of an issue. We have a very strict dog policy that keeps them under 20 pounds but still have tenants try to ‘bend’ the rules a bit. I had a great young couple try to sneak in a couple german shepards once. Got ratted out almost immediately by the other residents and within the few days of me working with them to remove the dogs one of them bit a little girl in the park. They were shocked… but to a dog with new surroundings and environment… stresses them out. Anyway they moved out couple days later and nothing came of it thankfully.
My MIL fosters dogs and they can be very dangerous. The dogs are stressed out in a new environment and caretakers. There is often serious behavioral reasons a dog is in foster care. Legit fostering agencies have to carry and provide insurance to for all their employees, agents and volunteers. Certainly you need to put a stop to this by threatening her with eviction but also try to find out where she is getting the dogs from and give them a call. Warn them their foster dogs are not allowed in your park, the foster agent is violating your policies and is going to be evicted and that you will be notifying your insurance carrier that you have demanded they stop putting dogs in your park. They will stop giving her dogs to foster straight away.
You think most people would be reasonable and understanding. Follow the rules. But some just don’t get it and it usually has to do with their dogs. This is one of those things you need to go to the mat on… They need to get rid of the dogs (fosters and the idiot son’s) or move out.
Those are some good points I didn’t think about regarding foster dogs. I think I will go ahead and take a heavier hand with these tenants. Not sure what that is yet. They are by far my best tenants in the park (except this issue), so I don’t want to just evict them right off the bat either. Sounds like I need to add something into my rules about not allowing foster dogs, big or small. Thanks for the info.
What I would do is send them a letter reminding them that you have spoken to them about their dogs being in violation of community rules several times and that this will be their final warning. Simply inform them that in the event thsey violate the rules again or have a guest bring in a dog in violation of the rules (mention their son specificly) that you will issue a non-renewal notice.
This leaves the burden of responsibility for their future in the community entirley on their sholders.
I like that idea. And I think that is what my next step is. Thank you.
Handling large dogs from guests can be tricky if you have a pet policy with a weight limit. Since one tenant likes to foster big dogs and another brings their large dog over, you’ve already talked to them about it, but the dogs keep showing up. You can consider charging them extra for insurance or a liability waiver, maybe around $80-100 a month. But remember, they’ve been in the park for six years and pay rent on two homes, so kicking them out might be too extreme if they’re otherwise good tenants.
I ended up giving them a letter that stated my insurance does not cover the dogs. If the dogs are caught on the property again, they will be billed for the additional insurance I will be required to get to cover the large breed dogs. They haven’t brought the dogs over since. I did the same thing with 2 tenants wanting swimming pools. I told them they could, but they had to pay the additional insurance that I would have to get. Needless to say, they never got a swimming pool.