Lie to get what I came for; Lie to get what I need now
October 12, 2015 7:44 AM   Subscribe

My partner and I are in transition and are seeking short-term (3-6 months) housing. We have four cats. All of the nearby rental options limit pets to two or three pets per apartment. How big of a deal is not being truthful about the number of cats we have?

We have looked at most of the housing stock in our area (craigslist, apartments.com, etc) and all of the potential places have a 2-3 cat limit. They require an up-front pet deposit, plus an additional charge per month per cat. We have no local family or friends who could keep our cats for that length of time. What is the likelihood our cat overage would be discovered? What are the consequences if the property management finds out? I feel terrible about not being truthful, but we are coming down to the wire and need to secure a place.
posted by anonymous to Pets & Animals (27 answers total)
 
the places i've lived charge exorbitant fees for every day you're over the limit and some also start eviction proceedings (which they'll halt if you get into compliance with their pet policy). have you tried asking the ones that have a limit of 3 if there is an extra deposit you can pay for 4?
posted by nadawi at 7:52 AM on October 12, 2015


Do the four cats all look very different? Or are some the same/colour size? I can't really tell cats apart. I assume they are all indoor cats, hopefully ones that hide if someone they do not know (landlord/maintenance) comes in the house.

I think this also depends on your jurisdiction in terms of penalties. Have you contacted the local tenants association?
posted by saucysault at 7:53 AM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


In New York City, it is totally common practice to lie about size and number of cats. (I once had a potential landlord ask to see PICTURES of my cats, and then she was like "those cats don't look like they're under ten pounds," which was her limit. Okay, sure, the cat was almost 20 pounds. I just smiled, while sweating.) In the end, I don't really have the gall to lie to a landlord like that myself, but everyone I've spoken to about this finds it totally acceptable. Could there be consequences? Yes. Does it make you a bad person? POSSIBLY ALSO YES. Tenant betrayal is a particularly icky kind of betrayal.

But on the other hand: how are they going to find out? In many jurisdictions, landlords aren't allowed to enter without consent. It's pretty easy to hide a cat or two, since... I mean can you even find all your cats right now?
posted by RJ Reynolds at 8:03 AM on October 12, 2015 [8 favorites]


Provided that you keep things clean and don't get any complaints, I think that (unlike having a cat when there's no pets allowed at all) having four cats when you're technically allowed only three is a lot more likely to fly under the radar.

I wouldn't advertise it, and maybe I'd be a little subtle when you're moving in, and maybe not invite any neighbors over where they might see the cats ... but even if (say) someone has to enter your apartment to fix something, if your cats are like most of my cats that I've ever had, it's unlikely that they'll see all four of them at once, in one place. (If the cats look similar or if one or more of them is really shy, even better. I once had a pair of tuxedos that were virtually indistinguishable; led to a lot of "glitch in the Matrix" situations. That would be perfect.) If the cats are all different and they like sitting in a row on the windowsill or something, that could be problematic, obviously.

It's obviously not ideal, but for 3-6 months, if you have no other options? ... I'd do it.

And unless you build some sort of rapport with someone in the leasing office and feel like you can trust them, I would probably not ask in advance or do anything that might draw attention to your noncompliance. But that's just me, YMMV.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:04 AM on October 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


Yeah, the only time this is going to be an issue is when someone needs to come inside to deal with a maintenance issue or something, and then I'd try to make sure I was going to be home and/or shut the cats up in a room with a DO NOT OPEN, CATS sign on the door.
posted by Huck500 at 8:09 AM on October 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


I have friends who have more than the allowable number of pets for their unit. Whenever there is maintenance or the annual fire inspection, they pack up two cats and have friends watch them for the day. They never ask for maintenance, either, which keeps down the visits. So it can be done if you're willing to live with the risk of being found out, and pretty much never ask for anything to be fixed so they never come around.
posted by cabingirl at 8:27 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


MeMail me if you're near Durham, NC.
posted by amtho at 8:29 AM on October 12, 2015


My husband at one point owned four cats, and was in a similar bind. They all looked pretty much the same to most strangers, so he just said that he had two. They were indoor/outdoor cats and had a cat door, and all anyone ever said at the complex was how often they saw the cats (a lot), because, well, four cats. (Being a responsible cat owner also goes a long way to staying under the radar.)
posted by nanook at 8:34 AM on October 12, 2015 [2 favorites]


It's incredibly common to fudge the number of cats. Since you're only planning to be there a short time? Probably not very risky. I wish I could be more specific about what the penalty might be if caught, but I've never known anyone who was caught. Landlords are supposed to give 24 hours notice if they're coming into your apartment, and that's usually time to take the extra cats to visit Grandma for the day, or even just for a drive. I know, I know, keepng two cats in a carrier in the car for hours during an apartment inspection can be a horrible experience, but people do it. As far as neighbors noticing - saucysalt brings up a good point. Once a neighbor asked me if the black and white cat that sat in the downstairs window was mine. instead of saying that all three of the black and white cats tat sat in the downstairs window were mine, I just said, "Yes!" and left it at that.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:36 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


4 cats when you're only allowed 3, and you're only staying for a few months? No one will ever know unless you're walking all 4 on a single leash outside your front door or something equally as obvious. Or maybe if they're all sitting on a window sill at the same time and a neighbour is taking pictures. If someone's coming in to inspect make sure the number of food bowls out is less than the number of cats, and close a bedroom door with a cat or two locked in. Just be smart and you'll be fine.

This is extremely common. I can't even count how many people i know with 3 or 4 animals when they're technically only supposed to have 2. In terms of all the horrible things renters can do, IMHO this barely registers as long as things are kept clean and sanitary with respect to litter boxes, etc.
posted by cgg at 8:41 AM on October 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


I think a lot of the time, this is to provide a cut-off point, in case someone has a dozen cats in a stinky apartment, or unruly dogs. If yours are well looked after, who's going to know?
Animals are prohibited by our building, but lots of people have them. At an AGM years ago, we agreed to keep it on the rules, just in case we needed it (eg as above) but not enforce it, because no-one minds and the cats help keep the mice down.
posted by tardigrade at 8:50 AM on October 12, 2015


Besides, how will they know, what can they do? Evicting someone takes more than 3-4 months. Even if they find out, and even if they care, it won't be worth their trouble to do anything other than wait it out for you to leave.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:52 AM on October 12, 2015 [4 favorites]


Many people have more cats than allowed; as long as they aren't destructive and you are taking good care of them, I personally think it's a rule you can feel OK about breaking. I would worry about getting caught if they're all sitting in the window at once or if they're loud. If it's an upstairs apartment, the noise of cats running can also give you away. You can fudge the number of cats by claiming that one is visiting from a family member temporarily-- "Oh, my sister in law is travelling for work and needed a catsitter, so we have Fluffy until $date." It's lying, and lying is wrong, but it's not really hurting anyone if you're well and truly not staying long and planning to leave the apartment better/as nice as you found it....well, it's not the worst lie in the world.

The main issue is that you're breaking your lease agreement by having more cats than allowed; you can get evicted for that. In many places, if a landlord is documented as seeing your additional cat and still accepting rent, then it's proof that they are willing to accept the additional cat. You should check with your local tenants' rights group about this. It's also something that can get taken to court, and it would be wise to not have to go that far. How lucky do you feel?


(I once had a landlord who saw one of our foster kittens he had never seen before, which was a different color and age than the previous one he'd seen. He remarked "Wow, it didn't get any bigger" without any irony whatsoever. Some people really can't tell cats apart.)
posted by blnkfrnk at 8:56 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Not a big deal. As long as you're a good tenant otherwise, it's fine.
posted by Ostara at 8:57 AM on October 12, 2015


Check whether limits on the number of cats is legal in your jurisdiction.

I live in Toronto, where it is not legal to have a "no pets" clause in a lease (I don't know about limits on numbers). This doesn't stop landlords from trying, of course, but it means I feel no qualms about lying about having a pet.
posted by jb at 9:07 AM on October 12, 2015


We had a slightly different situation in that our lease explicitly allowed us to have a dog, but didn't say anything about cats one way or the other. We moved in without cats but wound up taking in a couple of strays later on. The on-site building manager knew but turned a blind eye because there were other cats in the building, and they knew we were responsible tenants. It was a non-issue for several years, but then one day we got a nastygram directly from the landlord's office, basically saying "We understand you have cats in violation of your lease. Get rid of the cats or we'll start eviction proceedings." We stalled for a while, exchanging more correspondence nitpicking the language in the lease .

We wound up moving out of that apartment before the issue came to a head, but I don't think it would have gone in our favor if the issue had really been pressed. In our situation, we had moved into the building when rents were incredibly depressed (right after a large earthquake) but by the time we got that letter from the landlord, units in our building were renting for twice what we were paying; they were looking for excuses to kick cheap lessees out of there. As everyone else has said, you'll probably be fine for 3-6 months unless all four of your cats are inclined to hang out in the window at once... *but* if a landlord is actively looking for excuses to kick people out, I expect pet violations are at the top of the list.
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 9:33 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


Welcome to my life. So far, I have yet to be busted. At the corporate complexes I have lived in, maintenance gives zero shits about anything other than the job they were sent there to do. We never bothered hiding the extra cats. At that place, they forgot to charge the pet deposit when we moved in. The error was not caught until 3 years later when they complex was sold and they had some accountants go through the books.

At the place we moved into last week, we told them we had two dogs and a cat. Somehow the lease ended up only noting the two dogs, with the pet deposit charged accordingly. We'll see if it ends up being a problem, but given the owner's attitude, I get the sense that as long as we aren't destroying the place and she is getting her rent check on time she'll be happy.

That was one definite advantage to owning over renting. Only having to deal with city ordinance limits was one of the few things I cared for about the whole house ownership thing.
posted by wierdo at 9:41 AM on October 12, 2015


I'm voting "no one cares and unless you have four amazingly distinct looking cats, no one will notice". And then if they do notice, they won't likely have time to do anything.

I wouldn't feel guilty about this either, though I'd probably try to find a 3-cat apartment, not a 2-cat one.
posted by jeather at 10:22 AM on October 12, 2015


If you go into a bigger apartment building, one with more than 20 apartments, they probably will never know. We went into our last apartments (70+ apartments) with a 2 pet limit with two dogs and a cat and only listed our two dogs. Our cat weighs 20 pounds and sat in the window all of the time. No one noticed. No one cared. we were there nearly a year. When we had maintenance come in and fix stuff, we put the cat and the cat box in the bedroom and closed the door.

Seriously, no one noticed. No one cared. I think you'll be fine. Just move them in quietly and don't make a fuss about it.
posted by patheral at 11:01 AM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]


I'm a landlord in Texas. I'm an outlier in that I don't charge pet deposits or anything like that, but I do make people declare their pets, and people leave out a cat or two all the time. Yes, I know there's an extra cat, but as long as it's not causing an issue (I'm also the minor maintenance guy and will visit if it's been way too long since a call), I don't say anything.

However, it is something I have in my back pocket. They've broken the terms of the lease, and should I need to pull out big guns for any reason, well, that's one.
posted by cmoj at 11:25 AM on October 12, 2015


It might not be up to your landlord. In Seattle, for instance, city ordinances prohibit housing more than three small pets unless your property is over 20,000 sq.ft.
posted by halogen at 11:34 AM on October 12, 2015


I lived in an apartment for several years where the lease explicitly stated No Pets (which I signed). I had a bunch of cats in there. Everyone I encountered in the building knew I had pets and a bunch of the other tenants had pets as well. I didn't hide it but it was very stressful when the management company would need to do anything (which was rarely). I also never asked for anything! I was also not always a very good tenant.

It helped that four of my cats are all black and most people couldn't distinguish or understand how I could tell them apart. Would I do it again? Probably. Do I recommend it? It depends on how nosy the neighbors are and how often management needs to do something in the apartment. And maybe how friendly your cats are. Mine hide and when people come over they always say wow I wouldn't even know you have cats despite the litter boxes and random toys all over.

We live in a house now and it's a huge relief not to have to worry about bugging the neighbors or being found out.
posted by mokeydraws at 12:45 PM on October 12, 2015


If quetioned, just give a vague explanation: you do own three cats and #4 is a temporary catsit for a friend who is having surgery; you'll only be housing her for a week or so.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:49 PM on October 12, 2015


I have had cats all my life and, until recently, was a renter all my adult life. I've seldom been truthful about the number of cats I've had and never got caught. I'd say I had two when I had three or four. (I live in California.)

Here's what helped me get away with it: I'm a responsible cat owner - I change the litterboxes, use flea control drops, my cats are indoor-only and don't annoy the neighbors, I don't hoard or neglect my cats. I've always had one cat who was timid and would hide whenever someone came to visit, so even when I had three very distinct looking cats, I only appeared to have two because no-one ever saw Cat #3. Finally, I was in the habit of locking the more outgoing cats in a bedroom whenever I had maintenance come to make repairs or whatever, just because I didn't want the cats underfoot or escaping. No maintenance person (or landlord or manager for that matter) opened the door with the "Cats Inside, Please Keep Door Closed" sign.

If you're a responsible cat owner (no smells, noise or nuisance) and a good tenant in general you're not likely to get caught. And if you're only staying a short time, I doubt anyone's going to bother trying to evict you, as evictions are a time-consuming PITA and hardly worth it for a tenant who is going to be leaving shortly anyway.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 1:24 PM on October 12, 2015


Find a place that takes 3 cats. You can fudge 3 into 4 reasonably, but not 2 into 4.
posted by corb at 2:23 PM on October 12, 2015


I'm a property manager at an apartment complex that doesn't allow pets. Of course, every once in awhile people sneak them in. How do we know if our residents have cats? Mainly from our maintenance crew. Sometimes people forget to hide the litter box when they come over to fix something. They also see them sitting on window sills. I doubt they'd actually count the number of cats in a place that allowed up to three. Sometimes neighbors alert the office about seeing others with dogs because they are more visible, but I don't think you'd have that issue with cats at a place that allows them anyway. I'd go with the place that allows three. I don't know how'd they'd know if you had four or honestly how much they'd care...three seems like a pretty generous allowance (in my experience, 2 if any if the norm max but it of course depends where).
posted by Shadow Boxer at 4:49 PM on October 12, 2015


Yeah, the one thing that comes to mind for me is unexpected maintenance reasons meaning that someone has to go into your apartment and you haven't had the time/notice to pull out a cat yet.

But hell, if you're desperate and need it only for a few months, it's probably worth the risk.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:44 PM on October 12, 2015


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