How to get out of paying most of pet deposit

MrHealthy26

My pet deposit is $400 per pet. yet no deposit on fish, but yet a deposit for birds....i want a puppy so bad, but the deposit is more then my months rent!

MyChocolateDiet

Am I the only one that finds this extremely tacky? You're living in a place by choice. It's a part of your lease. Pets are expensive. Deal with it. If you don't like it, move when your lease is done and get a place in a more pet friendly environment.

I find it tacky too. And kind of irresponsible. Consider it a part of having a pet. I think it's good that it cost a lot because I would never want to move into an apartment that had pets unless the carpet was changed, all the walls were painted and it was fumigated for fleas. I have kids and would not want to just have a shampooed carpet and then a baby crawling on that...gross!

Just don't get a pet really. If you're already looking for ways to cut corners you may turn into that annoying person who leaves poop on the grass for my kid to step in, or who takes his "cute" dog that "loves kids" for walks without a leash until the day I have to have you thrown out because he seems to like kids "for lunch" and tried to attack my kid. Just wait until you are more responsible and less trying to get away with something in your mentality.

sissiluv

You want a dog? Pay up. The only thing expensive about a pet deposit is the up-front number. You're going to be shelling out a whole lot more, net, over the course of said dog's life.
And honestly? Three hundred isn't even that bad. Last apartment we moved to wanted $400 for our cat alone upfront and we still lost two hundred on our deposit because the carpets needed a severe shampooing due to said cat.

LindseyAlyssa

Hey!

Random question, but thought I'd get the community's opinion! I am looking to adopt a dog, but my apartment requires I pay $300 non-refundable plus $300 refundable pet deposit for a dog. This is quite steep...

Any advice on how to either lower the amount I pay or get out of paying it all together??

Thank you!!

Pretend to have gone blind and adopt a service dog?

The $12,000+ it would cost for a service dog would make the pet deposit look like chump change
(not to mention the ethical concerns)

OP, there is no legal way out unless you need an animal for a legitimate medical reason.
As someone suggested, you could ask your landlord if you could pay it in installments.
I think that is a reasonable request and they'd probably work with you on it.

Hbazzell

My doctor gave me a note saying a needed a companion animal for seasonal depression (which i had been diagnosed with like 10 years before) needless to say I didn't have to pay a deposit for a companion animal.

Hbazzell

My doctor gave me a note saying a needed a companion animal for seasonal depression (which i had been diagnosed with like 10 years before) needless to say I didn't have to pay a deposit for a companion animal.

My apartment fee was like 900 dollars though, and it was a cat.

GesturePoke

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I want to post my own experience. My father got me a cat when I was 7 years old, and I didn't find out until years later that we never paid a pet deposit. Any time we had to call maintenance or the exterminators came by to spray apartments, we would put her, the litter box, the food, and all her toys in one of our bedrooms when they arrived. And she lived to be 17 years old. I wouldn't recommend trying this if you live in a place where the apartments owners regularly inspect apartments. We were very lucky.

We had to put her down recently because of an inoperable tumor, and since I can't stand not having a pet in the home, I looked into the pet policy for my apartment. Here, it's $300 for one pet, $400 for two, and an extra $20/mo per pet. Since I want two cats this time around, that means it's going to be $400 for the deposit, and extra $40/mo, and $125 for the adoption fee.

I can almost understand pet deposits for dogs since puppies and untrained dogs can cause a lot of damage to homes, but cats rarely do any massive damage. And I don't base this on my 1 cat. I've worked around literally dozens of animals, and the most damage cats usually do is scratch the couch or jump on a counter and randomly knock things down. Unless the apartment has curtains, any of the damage cats do is to the renter's property- nothing the apartment owners have to repair when they move out.