[Gpdd] Misc:no pets

joan fagalde momcat1000 at yahoo.com
Sat May 20 13:33:19 EDT 2006


Hi.  Let me give you my credentials for responding to your plea.  I manage the 9 units where I live as well as an assistant manager about 40 miles from me in a different county with 12 units.  She must answer to me.  I live in Sonoma County in California so I don't know Pa. Renters law but can give you some pointers.  Does your lease specify "no pets"?  How long have you had your animals?  If you have had them for 6 months or more and your owner knows this, there is such a thing as "implied consent", especially if this is the first time you've heard any complaints.  By all means fight this since you do not have cats, dogs, pot belly pigs or anything that would reasonably leave the confines of your unit or do any material damage such as chewing, clawing walls, baseboards etc.  Lie, if necessary, and say that your animals have ample room in their cages and are never taken out to run free.
   
  Start with either your owner or the management company if your owner doesn't want contact with tenants and explain what I've just told you.  If they refuse permission and won't give you an amendment stating that your animals are allowed "WITHOUT PENALTY" (very important!), then go to your local Fair Housing Authority and Legal Aid.
   
  To be honest, all we allow are house cats and fish tanks no more than 20 gallons.  That said, I do have my little Lady Bug but then I'm the manager.  We would allow folks to have guinea pigs but not hamsters, mice or ferrets.  When guinea pigs escape they in all probability will die.  They can't breed (no species available) and would starve to death eventually.  That's a cold evaluation but looking at it from an owners point of view, they don't want creatures running around the buildings. ( Mice extermination is a big business.)  You might point out that researchers are finding that guinea pigs are not rodents.  They have way too many genetic markers that are different so would not pose the usual rodent problem and as I said, would probably die if they escaped.
   
  I hope this helps a little.  It sounds as though your owners are looking for more money and this is the best they could come up with.  Your notice sounds a little irrational.  I wonder what prompted it.  Even if you win, I would still look around for another place to live when my lease was up.
   
  Joan, slave to the Lady Bug.

		
---------------------------------
Feel free to call! Free PC-to-PC calls. Low rates on PC-to-Phone.  Get Yahoo! Messenger with Voice


More information about the Gpdd mailing list