Ok, CF, need some advice. I'm especially interested in thoughts from those who have worked in property management and those who have owned dogs in apartments. Sorry for the lengthy post ahead of time. My wife and I recently adopted an 18-month old dog from an animal shelter. We met the dog, we (mostly my wife) immediately fell in love, and we couldn't imagine leaving without him or bringing him back to the shelter. Now, what we should have done was step back, take a deep breath, and find out if this was really going to work for us and our situation, but we were wrapped up in the moment. I completely realize now that this was our mistake. Our apartment charges a $700 pet deposit, with $450 of that refundable at the end of the lease. Here's the real kicker, though. Given that it's a rescue dog, he's likely a Heinz 57, but he's heavily terrier-based, and more specifically, he looks like a Pit Bull. I'm convinced there is a lot of other breeds of terrier mixed in there, but anyone seeing him would guess Pit Bull. Our apartment does not allow "aggressive breeds." On the paperwork from the shelter, the breed listed is simply Terrier- American (which basically means Pit Bull). On the paperwork from when the shelter had him neutered, it flat-out says Pit Bull. So, I need advice on how to proceed. Here are relevant facts. This is a large (>500 units) apartment complex. The lease itself mentions the pet deposit, but says nothing about a breed ban. The lease mentions that any tenant found to have an unauthorized animal will be subject to charges, fees, and eviction. We only have until the end of April until our lease is up, and we've already decided to move out, meaning we'll basically be all but out at some point during the month of April. In a bind, we have a couple of friends or family members who could watch him, but not for months on end or until the lease is up. My wife is head over heels for this dog and is vehemently against doing anything that would jeopardize us losing him. In short, she is willing to risk eviction to keep him, and has her heels dug in on this issue, while I wouldn't go that far. How should we proceed? 1. Don't tell the apartment about the dog, and do our best to just make it until the lease is up. He's super low-key and doesn't make noise or a mess, so this seems at least doable, but I'm afraid of the consequences if we get caught. All it would take is one busybody to notice that he looks like a Pit Bull and turn us in out of fear for us to get caught. 2. Pay the pet deposit and fudge his breed. The apartment says they don't require any formal paperwork on the dog. All they require is information on the dog's vet. If that's the extent of it, it should be easy enough to just tell them, if they ask, that he's a terrier mutt and leave it at that. But again, I worry about someone seeing him and turning it in and then getting into a he said/she said on breed type with management (which management always wins). In that case, we would likely be out of the $700 deposit 3. Tell management that we're going to be dog-sitting off and on and ask if that require us to pay the dog deposit. This might keep us from having to pay the deposit, and if we get challenged on the breed being aggressive, we might be able to hide behind saying it's not our dog and then find a place for him to stay until we can break free. In short, I'm willing to pay to protect ourselves, but I'm worried about the breed issue more than anything. If he was a dachshund, I'd just pay the $700 and move on. My wife is firmly behind option #1. She got away with a similar thing at a previous apartment where she lived, and is convinced that no one will ever know or care that we have a dog or that it's a Pit Bull as long as he's not bothering anybody. My biggest fear, of course, are the ramifications of getting found out. If they found out and we either had to A. pay the deposit or B. find a temporary home for him, I wouldn't be as worried, but I fear that they will simply begin the eviction process and we'll have to scramble to talk them down or throw our hands up and deal with having an eviction on our record. And frankly, that's not something I'm really willing to risk, but I'm not sure how serious these management companies are about eviction when it comes to stuff like this rather than, say, non-payment of rent.
I realize that I didn't finish my thought on option #2. On that option, not only would we likely be out of the $700 if caught, but they may not be as lenient or understanding, given that we weren't up-front with the fact that he is, at least in part, a Pit Bull.
Since it's a large apt complex there is a good chance the management won't even notice your dog. I've never heard of anyone getting evicted over not paying a pet deposit. Evictions are costly and time consuming processes for the mgmt so I don't think they will go that route. You just have about 3 full months left on your lease, so you shouldn't have much to worry about. If you want peace of mind, go with option 2 and just pay the fee. You can also ask about a prorated deposit amount since you are only there for a few more months.
You say y'all are willing to risk eviction, however, if y'all do get evicted and are required to provide your previous residence when trying to find a new place, how is it going to look when your current apartment says: "They were evicted because they did not properly notify us that they had what appears to be a pit bull in their apartment".
Option 2. Pay the fee. If they want to know what the breed is, say a terrier mut. You have paperwork to back that up. Also btw - when we adopted a dog from the shelter she was also super chill and super quiet. I questioned whether she was deaf or not because she just didn't react to anything. But that was just the effect of being in a shelter. In time, she became the craziest dog I've ever known. She barks at everything and at nothing. So just saying... it might not be so easy to hide this dog once he gets comfortable.
Just dont tell the apartment if its only for 3-4 months. If they see you with the dog they will just tell you to pay the deposit which you can do then. You're not going to get into any real trouble if they see you with the dog, they will just ask you to pay the deposit. I once was dog sitting and the guy who helped my signed my lease saw me when showing the complex to some prospective tenants, and the next thing i know i see a notice on my door saying i need to pay the pet deposit. I just told them i was dog sitting and that was that. Just avoid the front office staff and you should be fine, especially in such a big complex.
Stab yourself in the eyes and make it a service dog. Or just pay the pet fee so you don't walk around nervous all the time like you're hiding something shady. You're not going to get evicted for a breed violation unless you have multiple complaints from neighbors.
You need to do everything by the book or it will come back to haunt you. If I had small children and lived next door or upstairs, and I saw an animal that looked like a banned pit bull coming out of your place, it would take milliseconds for me to call the office. There's no way that I would trust my kids' safety to your gut feeling that he's a terrier when everything else points to a pit.
Option 2, pay the fee. It's not worth the hassle later on if management somehow finds out, they could careless about the breed(unless aggressive or it scares the neighbors) but care about the deposit. I have always paid the deposit an received partial back during departure.
You sound like you have your mind made up so I'd be willing to bet you're going to go with option #1 anyway....that being said... You're playing with fire. I had a dog that we loved that we had to get rid of because of similar circumstances and in hindsight it was a better decision for all involved including the dog. He was a Rottweiler and lives squarely in "aggressive breed" category. Nicest dog in the world but all it takes is one time where it doesn't like someone and boom. Sold him to a family on an acre and he's happy and we're happy. Have two small dogs now and even though I love Rotts we just can't afford to work parts of our life around a breed like that. Too many risks.
I worked in property management for years and have never heard of anyone being evicted for a pet violation. As a previous poster noted, eviction is an expensive and arduous process and they don't want a situation like that anymore than you do. However, you're less likely to get away with not telling the office given the fact that he looks like a pit; given such, I think your best bet is to find a vet that will list his breed as a terrier mix (which shouldn't be too hard) and use that info and pay the deposit to be safe.
Even if he somehow did get evicted for a pet violation, this is irrelevant. 99% of apartments won't lease to individuals with an eviction on their record, regardless of the reasoning behind the eviction.
What does the paperwork from the shelter say about the dog's breed? We rescue and foster loads of dogs from the shelter and I know they try their best to avoid labeling dogs as pit or pit mixes. I imagine if you have paperwork that says he is a boxer mix or whatever the apartment complex will accept that. I'd pay fee and not look over my shoulder for the rest of my time there.
I didn't know "terrier-american" meant pit bull, so I looked it up. https://www.google.com/search?q=terrier+american&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=american+terrier+vs+pitbull They're not the same things.
The shelter paperwork lists him as "Terrier- American." That's pretty vague as it is, and as Kim notes above, it doesn't explicitly say he's a Pit Bull. The paperwork from the vet that the shelter took him to, however, just says "Pit Bull." I think that's a bit of a reach to just label him full Pit Bull, I think it was done out of convenience, and obviously I would never use that paperwork with the apartment. It's really more about perception, though, and that's my fear. He is a big dog, and there's always a chance someone living in the complex finds him menacing and calls the office to say they feel threatened. At that point, it would be a he said/she said and the office is not likely to side with us. He has an appointment with the vet next week. I'll probably, at the very least, ask the vet for his thoughts on his actual makeup, and try to make sure, as long as there is ambiguity, that he is listed as generically as possible. I tend to be a "worst-case scenario" thinker, so my biggest fear has been the apartment taking a no-nonsense approach and immediately working to kick us out. It's nice to hear from some of you that that's just not likely to happen. Given that the office is going to be closed for Christmas, I'll have to wait to do anything at this point, but option 2 seems like the way to go. That does away with the risk of the apartment taking issue with the fact that we simply have a dog, at least.
It certainly helps a little that he's not an American Pit Bull Terrier, but it seems like it's a little more nuanced than that. Often the American Pit Bull Terrier and the American Staffordshire Terrier, among others are lumped into a group just referred to as "pit bulls."
Just say its a Stafford (Staffordshire) Terrier. Technically you are not lying to them and it takes away the "pitbull" tag. Thats what I did and had no problems. I think most people don't know that a Staffordshire Terrier is a pitbull breed. At least my landlord doesn't. And its lot like she ever asked to see it to verify. They have a pitbull ban also. As long as it behaves and doesn't cause trouble, I think you'll be fine. Especially if its not aggressive. I haven't had any issues with neighbors. Most people will keep to themselves if not bothered. I also do things like, only walk her outside of the complex. Mainly early mornings and after 6 when the office is closed. As much as I love pitbulls, I know how most people feel about them so I try to be respectful and not walk her where its populated so people don't feel uneasy.
Yeah, I do try to go out of my way to have him not be seen, and that has as much to do with being respectful and not wanting to rile up other people's dogs or scare people as it does my fear of the office saying something about him. Usually, his morning walk comes before 6AM, then he gets taken out again about mid morning (10-ish) when no one else is really out walking a dog, and then finally at least once more and sometimes twice later in the evening when things are quieter. Taking him off the premises isn't a bad idea, either, so perhaps I'll give that a shot as well.
A lot of vets understand that dog owners are in the position you are in and are willing to put whatever breed you tell them. I asked my vet to put catahoula mix on his rabies paperwork due to his unique merle markings. Based on his head shape and body structure he very clearly looks like a pit.
