Animal House: Are Residents Happy With Pets at the Community?

What are your pet policies, and what do your renters think about them? This month MHN and Kingsley Associates look into what residents think about animals at their apartments. 

“I love when the manager brings his puppy. More dogs! Literally, just have dogs in the lobby at all times.” —College Park, Md.

“The only problem I have is too many of the residents let their dogs run without a leash. The dogs go after my small children. Even if they are nice, this freaks out my kids and they don’t like to walk in the hallways because of it.” —Wilmington, N.C.

“Noise levels of the surrounding area and the dogs in the community are getting to me. Also, the fees I have to pay for having a cat in the apartment are ridiculous.” —Houston

“A neighbor of mine has a cat that is reeking up the hallway entrance. I don’t mind the cat, but based on the smell, it seems the litter box isn’t being taken care of, or something of that nature.” —Naperville, Ill.

“Create a dog park! There are a lot of dogs that live here that could benefit from an off-leash environment to socialize. This would prevent much of the barking and leash aggression that you see and hear on a daily basis.” —Lansdale, Pa.

“We should have a community bulletin board. I do not use Facebook, so maybe it exists there, but it would be great to have a method of asking if anyone in the community would dog sit for others when they are gone.” —Quincy, Mass.

“Be open about pets that lived in the unit before. My wife is very allergic to cats and has had severe allergies since moving into our unit. Come to find out, a cat had lived here before us, but we were not told this before we signed.” —Austin, Texas

“I did not rent here because they do not allow my tow cockatiel birds that are in a cage and do not harm floors, walls or anything else in the apartment. Why are my birds not allowed, but dogs and cats are?” —Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“Either enforce animal waste expectations or increase personnel responsible for removal of animal waste from the green spaces. Something needs to happen to decrease the dog waste around the community.” —Monument, Colo.

“Please only accept one dog or cat per apartment. We have residents with up to four dogs, and now the hallways smell like dog all the time.” —Salt Lake City

“I think more animal waste stations would be helpful. Maybe people would be more inclined to pick up after their dogs.” —San Jose, Calif.

“Between the birds and the dogs, there is waste literally everywhere. There are people who chronically don’t clean up after their dogs. They should be reprimanded.” —St. Louis

“There is too much late-night noise. Dogs within the residence are barking all times of the night, waking up multiple neighbors.” —Miami Beach, Fla.

“A 2.5-foot pet python crawled into my unit and surprised me this week when I put on my pants. It would be nice to know that the owner was identified and committed to improving his/her snake-reptile management policies.” —Atlanta

“Pit bulls are banned per the lease to protect the management company from liability. However, there are many pit bulls here and the management is aware. If one of these dogs harms someone, management may be found at fault.” —Cambridge, Mass.