I’ve just let a house out, using a letting agent on a find-only basis (I’ve used them for about 5 years and always had a good relationship with them). When they said they’d found a tenant, they said she had one small Chihuahua dog, would that be a problem. I normally let properties on a no pets basis, but as everything else stacked up with this one, I said I’d allow the Chihuahua (this wasn’t put in writing).
So this weekend, I was at the property supervising the felling of a tree, and she comes scuttling out with 3 dogs! One Chihuahua, one Shih tzu, and one Yorkie!
Rung the letting agent this morning to ascertain who’s been telling me porkies, the agent insist it was the tenant. Then the tenant rings to apologise for lying and gives me some sob story about trying to rehome the dogs but having no luck (I think she’s lying more).
So, what’s reasonable under the circumstances? There’s not a lot of good will on my part as she’s lied to me. Eviction would be a pain but she paid 6 months up front, so I’d return the remainder and look at keeping as much of the deposit as possible.
Or, the agents mentioned imposing a supplementary charge for the dogs.
Any wisdom? I’d like to stay on the right side of the STW Karma tight rope, but at the end of the day, I’m a landlord and we have fairly low expectations to live up to… 😉