Down on emotional support animals

In today’s edition of Property Management Chronicles:

  • Had two tenants in a unit
  • They applied with no pets
  • Decent-to-good credit, real jobs, etc.
  • After approving them, they showed us paperwork for their three emotional support pitbulls
  • No wanting to get in a huge fight, we let them in
  • For the entire length of their tenancy, they were a nightmare – late rent, other tenants complaining, keeping maintenance personnel from entering their unit, etc.
  • They finally moved out, and their apartment is a disaster – not surprisingly, their pitbulls chewed up the place

Will we ever get made whole? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I’m going to sue them, but the likelihood of collecting is pretty low.

Can I prevent this kind of thing from happening again? Not really. California law allows anyone with a doctor’s note to have an “emotional support animal”, and there’s nothing we, or any other landlord, can do to prevent a documented animal from living in our apartments.

SAD.