If you are like most renters, you look forward to the day when you will get your security deposit back. Having a pet while renting a home may decrease your chances of getting a full refund. Although your Winter Haven property manager might allow pets, it’s up to you to ensure your pet doesn’t damage the property. If you don’t take steps in advance to ensure that they are properly cared for and well-behaved, you could end up losing your deposit or even paying more for any damage caused by your pet. What’s good is that as a pet owner and a renter, there are many things you can do to minimize the impact your pet will have on your rental property.
Keep Your Pet Clean and Healthy
When looking for a great approach to protect your pet and your Winter Haven rental home is to ensure that your pet is clean and healthy. Regularly bathing and grooming your pet can help keep them comfortable and diminish the buildup of noxious scents on furniture, walls, and carpeting. You need to do what has to be done to keep your pet free of fleas or other parasites, which can infest a home and harm your pet’s health. Preventing fleas is simpler than getting rid of them later, so it is worth the effort to be proactive about it.
Train and Supervise Your Pet
Another effective way to protect your rental home from undesirable damage is to train and supervise your pet properly. Pets like cats and dogs need to be trained to use a litter box or a yard to eliminate waste. If such training somehow doesn’t happen, pets can urinate or worse inside the rental home, contributing to severe damage to walls, floors, and even fixtures. Once carpeting has been urinated on, it’s a lot of work to completely clean again. As an alternative, make sure you give your pet an appropriate place to do their business.
If accidents happen, enzyme products are what’s needed to get rid of the odor of pet urine and discourage your pet from returning to that same spot. Unwanted urination, chewing, and other behaviors result from leaving a pet home alone for hours or even days at a time. Even pets left in the yard all day will dig holes, chew up sprinkler lines and plants, and cause other types of damage. There are many ways to keep your pet and your property safe while you are gone, from having someone check on them during the day to crate training them (for dogs). As a tenant, it is important to correctly supervise your pet or risk losing your security deposit when you move away.
Clean Up After Your Pet (the Right Way)
Lastly, to minimize your pet’s presence in your rental home, cleaning up after them frequently (and immediately) is important. Pet waste should be promptly and correctly disposed of, and pet beds, kennels, cages, or other areas should be cleaned frequently. Pets living in filthy environments can develop a wide range of diseases, many of which can pass to humans. Messy pets, yards, and homes also tend to be a magnet for insects and unwanted pests, which pose further health risks and can cause more damage to the property.
When you move out, it’s even more important to completely deep-clean the property and evaluate any damage your pet may have caused. If you can make small repairs yourself, that can help a lot. For example, fill in any holes dug in the yard, clean up pet waste outside and inside, and properly wipe down all walls, baseboards, floors, and other areas the pet had access to. If your pet caused damage you can’t fix, don’t try to hide it! It’s best to document the property’s condition and report it to your landlord if a dispute arises.
Owning a pet is a big responsibility, but it doesn’t need to interfere with getting your security deposit back. Taking a few proactive steps ensures that you, your pet, and your home are clean and properly cared for.
Are you looking for your next Winter Haven rental home? Check out our available rentals and give us a call at 863-302-8752 for more information.
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