Let's be honest: It's harder than ever before to find a rental arrangement that matches our needs, our budgets, and our tastes.
A place that checks all of our boxes might be too far out of our price range, and unfortunately, despite how much we might be spending on rent, we might not even really like the place personally.
But a major dealbreaker for many is the ability to have a pet in the home. Because no-pet arrangement rentals are often more affordable because of all of the added fees of housing a pet, many people have tried to sneak a furry companion in with them.
While this might mean eviction in some cases, sometimes the stories of getting caught are nothing short of hilarious.
Curious, Redditor Badger_x asked:
"Those who hid pets from a landlord and the landlord found out, what happened?"
A Legal Mishap
"We had actually signed a 'pet addendum' that the agent gave us and paid an additional 'pet deposit'. Turns out the landlord had no knowledge of this, didn't give the go ahead for an addendum to be created, and didn't allow pets at all."
"Fortunately we had copies (and copies of the emails the agent sent us with the document attached). They asked us for proof of all vaccinations & parasitics from the vet (per the fake 'addendum') or threatened to take the whole pet deposit."
"We provided the documents and they didn't take any of the 'pet deposit'. Guess the agent screwed up royally but it was a good lesson to learn - keep absolutely everything, even if you don't think it's necessary."
- Jager_Candy
Comedy Skit-Worthy
"I had an apartment in a pet free building. Then one of the units caught fire."
"When the landlord arrived, everyone was outside with their dogs, cats, birds, and the fire department was inside still looking for a pet skunk that had escaped."
"That was a fun morning. The landlord just left. No one got in trouble for their pets."
"And yes, the skunk was saved!"
- silver_feather2
A New Look
"My roommate had a fluffy orange cat already, and about two months into living together I adopted a old man tuxedo kitty from the shelter."
"I don’t know why I never mentioned it to the landlady, she was a wacky hippie type who lived an hour away and almost never came to the apartment."
"But eventually, my roommate broke the lease and moved out of state, and I stayed til the end of the lease."
"When the landlady came by for the final check when I was moving out, she looked at my black and white cat and said, 'Huh, I could’ve sworn your cat was orange! Guess I gotta slow down on the pot.'"
"I did not correct her, lol (laughing out loud)."
- Shikabane_Hime
Priorities!!
"My landlord found my hamster when getting the apartment master keys that I found on the floor from one of them employees."
"I found it at night and took the keys. Then first thing in the morning, I called them."
"They wanted the keys asap to where they wanted to enter my apartment when I was at work."
"They saw the hamster and said nothing as I saved them $1000s from having to change locks."
- Moeman101
Not A Farm Pig
"I was touring an apartment and on the screening call they asked if I had any pets. I was honest and said that I was a teacher and I have a guinea pig class pet. The school turns off the heat at night, so he comes home with me each day. No problem with that."
"I get there for the tour, and everyone in the leasing office is looking at me weirdly, including the person I was meeting with, who was a parent in the classroom next door."
"She asks me about pets and seems apprehensive, and I tell her it’s just Jigsaw the guinea pig that her son is obsessed with."
"She gets this moment of realization, cracks up, and excuses herself."
"I then hear her in the back room of the office saying, 'Guys! It’s not a pot bellied pig, it’s a GUINEA PIG!'"
"Yeah, whoever did the phone screening only wrote 'pig' on the form and they thought I was bringing an animal right off the farm. The leases didn’t specify no farm animals, so they would have accepted me with a farm pig, but alas, I just had my dumb-as-rocks piglet."
"When she returned, she tore up the pet paperwork, waived all fees, thanked me for giving the leasing office some excitement, and made me promise to let her know if I ever decided to upgrade to a larger pig variety."
- IntrovertedGiraffe
Happy Birthday!
"Oooh, I had a good one happen. It was my first apartment, and my girlfriend’s friend dumped a kitten on me as a birthday present because she’d heard me talking about getting a cat and found a box of them on the side of the road. (I loved that cat, but don’t do this kids.)"
"It took six months before the property manager managed to catch sight of the cat in the window while walking the property. I got an email asking about it, I lied and said I just got the cat and hadn’t had a chance to notify them yet, they said cool the pet deposit is $200. So I cut them a check and dropped it off at the office, expecting that to be that."
"Two weeks later, I get a knock at the door. It’s the property manager with a pet gift basket, telling me that my cat was the reason they caught an employee embezzling tens of thousands of dollars. The off-cycle check knocked over the precarious tower of cards one of the receptionists had been maintaining, and it all came tumbling down. Kitty got lots of treats that night, lol (laughing out loud)."
- wayfaringpanda
Neighborly Teamwork
"I lived in a small basement apartment and rescued a sick, elderly cat. He wasn't capable of jumping up into the windowsills so I didn't have to worry about that. I came home one night around 3:00 AM and caught the building supervisor (lived across the hall from me) taking out trash and there was a cat standing in the doorway."
"We both froze for a moment and then I told him I'd keep quiet about his secret cat if he would let me hide mine during inspections and he agreed."
"Now we have a couple of nearly identical cats so they get merged into a single pet on applications. My spouse and I have started collecting letters about our cleanliness as pet owners whenever we move to give to the next landlord and so far it's worked out well."
- kestrel63
Made Himself At Home
"I had a friendly stray cat, probably a pet someone dumped, who decided to move into my place when I was renting while in grad school. The landlord was very hands off and very rarely came around, but after I'd had this cat for months, he did stop in because my AC was broken."
"I'd planned on making sure the cat was outside when the landlord was going to come by, but then he just popped up unannounced. Because it was hot as hell inside my house, I'd opened my doors for air circulation."
"Landlord walks in and sees the cat lounging on my living room floor, and he was like, 'Oh, I didn't know you had a cat.' I looked that man dead in the eye and said, 'I don't know that cat.' I don't know if he believed me or not, but he shrugged and nothing more was said about it. The cat and I continued living there for like three more years."
- SisterShiningRailGun
A Large Black Cat
"At one apartment we lived at you could have cats but not dogs. I had a very large black cat. One day, I was bringing him home from the vet and carried him in my arms."
"The property manager saw me and when I went back out to my car to get his carrier and my purse the property manager told me I wasn't allowed to have dogs."
"When I told him I didn't have any dogs, he asked about the black dog he just saw me carrying. I laughed and told him that was my cat and he could come see if he wanted."
"He told me it was alright and that he believed me. Weeks later, the property manager saw me and told him he saw my cat on the balcony one day, and it was one of the biggest cats he had ever seen."
- BiscottiLeading
An Improper Lease
"I had a landlord try that stunt on me! I told him about my cat and even had the cat’s name included on the lease. The landlord met the cat many times and the property manager had a picture of my cat on her office wall."
"I moved out after four years and my landlord said to me during our final walkthrough, 'Well, we still have to settle the issue with the cat. You never told me you had one so you owe me four years of pet rent.'"
"I was stunned!! He pulled out a fake lease that said I had no pets and if I wanted one, it was $50 a month. Luckily, I still had all my paper files with me and pulled out my copy, signed by both of us, with the cat’s name on it."
- batai2368
A Welcome View
"My parents hid a cat from their landlord in their first apartment, which had a no-pets policy."
"The cat insisted on sleeping in a window where everyone could see her."
"Obviously, the landlord found out but he never said anything about it other than, 'That’s a pretty cat you’ve got there!'"
- areyoukiddingmern
Surprise!
"I never hid pets myself, but I worked in a nebulous leasing / maintenance role during college and had a couple run ins with unfriendly dogs that were not supposed to be in an apartment. Nothing like having a large dog appear out of nowhere to bark at you when you're just there to update the fire extinguisher."
"We also had people abandon pets we didn't know were there a number of times and that was always horrible to varying degrees. There were a couple times we found really starved animals and didn't know if they were neglected before or if the people bailed and didn't tell us."
- wolfhollow_
Under The Radar
"I had a hamster in military barracks. I stole his wheel because it squeaked when we had room inspections and hid the cage under my sink (only during inspections, outside of that he has a wheel and sun!)."
"I was overseas so he was already old when I adopted him (families can basically drop off unwanted pets at the vet there for other families coming in to adopt as they come in), but he died before I was caught."
"We had a funeral for him and I painted a tea box black and we snuck out behind the laundry room and buried him under the cover of night and a friend sang a little song. RIP Sybil!!"
"I got a ferret next, but I left and gave him away before I was caught. Word got around I was getting away with it and this dumba** got a cat and did get caught. Standard military paperwork for being in trouble and had to get rid of the cat."
- MyCoolUsername12345
Quite The Illusion
"My cats all look alike, so my landlord only knows about two; there are four. They sit in the windows, never all at once, so I can't deny I have them. I also have some life-size cat statues on my windowsills, so it looks like I have more."
"Management has checked but never saw my real cats, only the fakes, and they commented on how real they look."
- Blissful_Doll
A Very Sweet Loophole
"We were looking at an apartment and realized they didn’t take pets. At all. The owner really liked us; newly married, very polite. She asked if we had a picture of her. It was 1991, but I had a few wedding pictures and a couple of photos of Sammy in my purse."
"She said, 'She looks very small. Must be a miniature Siamese.'"
"I was like, 'No, just cat sized.'"
"She said, 'I’m CERTAIN she’s a miniature. I COULD ALLOW a miniature.'"
"So our lease says, Miniature Siamese, and she didn’t ask us to pay any extra."
"And that was what it was like in the olden days, kids!"
- BlackLakeBlueFish
From paying retroactive fees to be evicted, there are terrible possibilities for those who rent with a pet in a no-pet apartment.
Fortunately for many of these Redditors, many of their landlords were understanding. Sometimes all you need is to see a cute cat or dog to look the other way.
