5 reasons pets should be welcome in rental accommodation

Do you rent your home? If you do and you are allowed pets you are lucky! Not every landlord welcomes our furry or feathered friends. Here are 5 reasons that pets should be welcome in rental accommodation, thanks to Anneke van der Broek of Rufus & Coco…

5 reasons pets should be welcome in rental accommodation

Australians love their fur-babies. So much so that more than two-thirds of Australian homes have pets, the highest incidence of pet-ownership per household of any country in the world!

Despite this, each year in Australia 20,000 cats and dogs are euthanised simply because their owners’ rental or strata agreement say they aren’t welcome!

There are existing provisions in renting laws that ensure that tenants are liable for any damage that pets, children, or guests cause to the property, so adding in a ‘no pets’ clause is completely unnecessary.

With more Australians renting than ever before – around 30.9% of the population, it is time our rental laws changed to support the large number of fur-families in rental accommodation.

Here are 5 reasons pets should be welcome in rental accommodation:

Kids do more damage than pets

Research has found that kids do more damage than pets. If families with young children are welcomed, why not welcome our fur-family members also.

Pets are great for our health

Research has shown that owning a pet can have a number of health benefits. One study found that Australian ownership of cats and dogs saved approximately $3.86 billion in health expenditure over one year.

Physical benefits include increased cardiovascular health; increased physical activity and fewer visits to the doctor.

Pet owners also report less depression and appear to cope with grief, stress and loss better than non-pet owners. Pets enhance social connectedness and social skills and are great conversation starters!

Happy tenants = happy landlord

Knowing how challenging it is to find pet-friendly rental accommodation, tenants will likely have more gratitude for the landlord or property manager and will often stay significantly longer in the accommodation.

Pet owners’ studies have found that pet-friendly houses have longer tenancy length, 4% lower vacancy rate, had more applicants and needed only 50% of the advertising spending and marketing of non-friendly houses!

Less likely to be broken into

Having a dog to guard your home while you’re out can be a strong deterrent for burglars.

Pet Clean-Up Clauses

If property managers are worried about damage, they can request carpet cleaning, flea/pest treatment or other reasonable cleaning tasks at the tenant’s expense on vacation of the property. Most pet owners are quite respectful and will take great care in any case, but where damage is caused, tenants are responsible for covering the cost.

To download a pet resume template and fact sheets to bring to your property manager visit: www.rufusandcoco.com.au/pets-are-welcome

About the author:

Anneke van den Broek founded Rufus & Coco in 2008 to create a different kind of pet brand – one that offered inspired, trusted and original products. Having owned more than 40 pets in her life, Anneke is on a mission to make a lasting impact on the welfare of pets in Australia, partnering with the APWF to help bring unnecessary pet euthanasia to zero.