I just received a notice from my apartment Falls on Clearwood in Richardson Texas.
(For reasons I have never understood, companies who manage apartments seem unable to create individual websites for them and properly perform Search Engine Optimisation. See the Management site here http://www.babcockbrownresidential.com/apartments/richardson.htm. Note that the link is to FallsOnClearwood.net but it redirects to FallsOnClearwood.com. Not only that, it doesn’t work!)
As many of you know, our community is pet friendly. We require that all residents who have pets have a Pet Addendum with their lease; there is a $10 pet rent per animal per month and a $255 non-refundable pet fee per animal.
Sorry. That is not my definition of Pet Friendly. I can neither understand the one time fee nor the monthly fee.
Why should someone with two cats pay $240 per year extra? Isn’t that what the deposit is for? And if your pets do no damage, why is the $255 fee a fee?
Consider the resident who stays 6 years (like I did). What are they going to do differently because I had a cat that they wouldn’t do anyway. I mean 6 years means new carpet, new paint and a general work over anyway.
Had this been in effect when I had my cat, Spot, they would have charged me an extra $955 for Spot ($255 as a fee and $10 per month for 72 months). Why? What will they do to my apartment that they wouldn’t normally do for someone vacating after 6 years with no pet? And if I had two cats why should it cost me twice as much? If my cats do damage I should reimburse the apartment for costs of course. But why a fee?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to an additional deposit. I’m not opposed to additional cleaning after short term rentals. I’m not opposed to fees based on the effect of a pet. I’m opposed to fees based on the presence of a pet.
Why should the “good” owners of “good” pets be penalized because of what might happen or what sometimes happens or what others do?
Because Spot died, this won’t affect me. Because I’m moving away this won’t affect me. But it still offends me very, very deeply.
And here is my question for you. Can you charge $500.00 per month per pet and still call yourself pet friendly? If not, why can you charge $10 per month per pet? To me, you should never ever under any circumstances charge per pet per month. Ever. Period.
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