I have been apartment searching for about 2 weeks now. I have called a million places and went to look at quite a few. I am feeling so rejected because so many of the ones I call say, “No dogs!” Or, “We accept dogs under 25 pounds.” What is it that you think my 45 pound dog will do that a 25 pound dog won’t do? In fact, in my experience I have seen that the smaller the dog, the more often they will bite and the more they will bark.
Now imagine what would happen if I bought some property and told people that they couldn’t bring their children, or they could only bring them if they were a certain age? Of course, that would never happen. Society is not allowed to discriminate people based on their children, no matter how many they have or how misbehaved they are. However, I think babies probably make more noise and more of a mess than the average dog. As a renter, I would rather live in a building with dogs than children, and not because I like dogs more but because they truly are less smelly and less loud. Also, a dog is a great way to make sure that your apartment will not get broken in to. If I was driving down the street looking to break in to a place and rob someone, I would certainly drive right past one with a dog in the window. A dog is a built-in security system, especially one over 25 pounds!
You would think that being 32 years old, past all my crazy partying days, no children to support, good rent history and a good job, that would be enough to make landlords hunt me down and beg me to move into their rental! If I just told the landlords that I had a 3 1/2 year old daughter instead of 3 1/2 year old dog, I would have been able to find a great place already! I could be finally living separately from my soon-to-be-ex and actually able to settle in and have friends over. But because I have a dog instead of a child, I’m stuck still living in the house with him.
And the really crazy thing is that I am looking for rentals in a really dog friendly neighborhood! You can bring your dogs to bars in some areas that I’m looking, and yet I cannot find a landlord who will rent to me only because I have a dog. And you know that not one person has ever asked me if I have any children. Apparently it doesn’t matter to landlords if I have children. It’s just really strange to me (and maybe that’s because I myself am strange) that landlords would rather have children move into their rentals than dogs. I can understand not wanting a puppy, who probably isn’t house broken. I can understand not wanting a pit bull because they have a bad (though mostly false) reputation and might offend the other tenants. But my Roxie? She’s perfect and would be a better tenant than most people!
I’m frustrated and it’s nice to have a place to vent, even if no one reads it! LOL
I’m not sure about this, but legally I don’t think they can ask if you
have children. I don’t think you can discriminate based on that, but
again, I don’t know if it’s that strict. Good luck, you’ll find the
right place!