Rant of the day
Why -- WHY?!? -- do so many apartment complexes impose an arbitrary, no-exceptions, across-the-board "two pet limit"? We always run into this issue when we're moving, because we have three cats. I understand not wanting to have a "crazy lady with lots of cats" in residence, but a family with two adults, a child and three cats -- who we've had since 2002 (Toby) and 2003 (Sasha and Butter) -- hardly qualifies. If they're afraid we're hoarders, we'd be happy to sign paperwork promising not to buy any additional cats. But nooo, we're already out of luck because we have -- gasp -- three cats. OH THE HUMANITY!!!
The rigidity of this rule makes absolutely no sense to me. Whether we have two cats or three cats makes no practical difference to our landlord, our neighbors, or anyone else. What are they afraid our cats are going to do?? And what could three of them do, that two couldn't?? Meow more loudly? WTF?
One small yippy dog -- like the Jack Russell Terrier who lives upstairs at our current place -- can do about 1,000 times more damage to an apartment, and cause 1,000 times more annoyance to the neighbors, than three quiet, spayed, indoor cats ever could. Yet Jack Russells, and similar dogs, are almost always allowed by "pet-friendly" complexes, while lots of places have the asinine, no-exceptions "two cat limit." (Many also have a ban on "big dogs," which makes even less sense, given that many large breeds like greyhounds and great danes are actually the best apartment dogs. I understand banning specific aggressive breeds, but size is an incredibly poor, almost nonsensical factor for determining problem-dog status.)
Anyway... ARGH!! I guess we could lie and say we have 2 cats, and there's a 99% chance nobody would ever know. But I wouldn't feel right doing that, and the potential consequences if they do find out -- we would have misrepresented material facts in our lease, so theoretically they could evict us, right? -- are too harsh to risk. Plus there's the whole issue of ethics, particularly now that I'm an attorney. So we always get stuck with this absurd problem. It seems so random and arbitrary. Does anyone know the reason for this? Is it an insurance thing? Is there some dumb federal legislation that somehow causes this? Or are apartment complex owners just generally stupid?
The rigidity of this rule makes absolutely no sense to me. Whether we have two cats or three cats makes no practical difference to our landlord, our neighbors, or anyone else. What are they afraid our cats are going to do?? And what could three of them do, that two couldn't?? Meow more loudly? WTF?
One small yippy dog -- like the Jack Russell Terrier who lives upstairs at our current place -- can do about 1,000 times more damage to an apartment, and cause 1,000 times more annoyance to the neighbors, than three quiet, spayed, indoor cats ever could. Yet Jack Russells, and similar dogs, are almost always allowed by "pet-friendly" complexes, while lots of places have the asinine, no-exceptions "two cat limit." (Many also have a ban on "big dogs," which makes even less sense, given that many large breeds like greyhounds and great danes are actually the best apartment dogs. I understand banning specific aggressive breeds, but size is an incredibly poor, almost nonsensical factor for determining problem-dog status.)
Anyway... ARGH!! I guess we could lie and say we have 2 cats, and there's a 99% chance nobody would ever know. But I wouldn't feel right doing that, and the potential consequences if they do find out -- we would have misrepresented material facts in our lease, so theoretically they could evict us, right? -- are too harsh to risk. Plus there's the whole issue of ethics, particularly now that I'm an attorney. So we always get stuck with this absurd problem. It seems so random and arbitrary. Does anyone know the reason for this? Is it an insurance thing? Is there some dumb federal legislation that somehow causes this? Or are apartment complex owners just generally stupid?
posted by Brendan Loy at
10/06/2008 12:25:00 PM
