Did You Know That Half of All Landlords Refuse Cats?

Renting is a convenient option for a lot of people’s housing needs. For proof, look no further than the percentage of people who rent rather than own their homes, which has seen increases in recent times. However, renting has some serious downsides as well such as how renters need to follow their landlords’ rules. Something that can have unfortunate consequences when they run afoul of something that they might not have expected, with an excellent example being how a lot of landlords won’t let their tenants own cats. In fact, a charity called Cats Protection in the United Kingdom has stated that a full half of landlords won’t let their tenants own cats, which is a considerable number to say the least.

Why Don’t Landlords Like Cats?

With that said, it isn’t exactly hard to see why landlords might not like their tenants owning cats. For example, cats can bring both fleas and mites into their premises, which is a huge problem because those are serious pests that can spread with surprising ease. Since the presence of pests has a very noticeable impact on tenant satisfaction, landlords tend to be very concerned about even the possibility of such a thing happening. Certainly, careful and considerable cat owners can do a lot to prevent that kind of thing from happening, but in the end, it takes just one person to make a mess, meaning that some landlords just aren’t too keen on taking that chance.

Likewise, there are some cat behaviors that can have a detrimental impact on a property’s value. For example, cats are known for both climbing and scratching, both of which can leave visible marks on a property unless they have received various pieces of equipment to accommodate those instincts while leaving the property mark-free. Similarly, when cat owners aren’t careful, cat urine can get into a wide range of places, which is a serious problem because it is a very strong odor that happens to be both long-lasting in nature and very difficult to remove. Once again, this shouldn’t be a problem with a careful and considerate cat owner, but some landlords aren’t willing to take that chance.

It should be mentioned that cats are also capable of triggering allergic reactions in some people, thus removing them from the landlords’ list of potential tenants. Unfortunately, this isn’t just a problem for the tenants that are sharing a property with cat owners but also potentially a problem for future tenants as well. This is because cat hairs can trigger allergic reactions even after the cat is no longer on the premises, meaning that a new tenant living somewhere once occupied by a cat and their cat owner might run into serious problems. A thorough cleaning can eliminate the chances of this happening, but the problem with thorough cleaning is that it tends to be expensive, thus making for one more cost on top of the other costs sustained whenever a tenant moves out. Unsurprisingly, landlords don’t want to add to the size of that particular bill.

What Can Be Done?

Ultimately, there are various things that cat owners can do to reduce the impact of this particular problem for them. For example, they should never assume that a particular landlord will let them own a cat. Instead, they should make sure to ask whenever they are searching for a place to rent. Moreover, they should do their best to keep up-to-date about what they can and can’t do while they are renting, which can help them avoid similar problems in the process.

However, it should be mentioned that there are plenty of cat owners who are facing similar problems, which in turn, means that there are plenty of cat owners willing to provide advice for those who want it. Due to this, interested individuals might want to check in with their local cat charities and other cat-related organizations, which might be able to point them in the direction of a landlord that is willing to accommodate them with their particular pet needs. For that matter, interested individuals shouldn’t neglect the Internet because in this day and age, there really is a great deal of very useful information that can be collected by just entering the right search phrases into the right search engines.

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