Landlord Question and Answer Forum

Hi again, so I have a new tenant that just moved in a couple of weeks ago. I went by for a quick repair and see that they have a large snake in a tank in the basement. They have 2 dogs and are paying pet rent for those to cover wear and tear, etc but there was no mention of a snake. It is in a tank and I don't hunk there is much concern for damage by a snake. I'm just a little annoyed that it was not mentioned to me . She did ask about a pet lizard which is kept in a tank and I OKed that but the snake is a different story. To make matters worse, I found that they are breeding mice, I assume to feed to the snake. This concerns me as if the mice were to get loose, the house could become infested. I do have 1 month;s security deposit but I'm concerned that a worst case scenario would be damage from pets, general damage from them not keeping the place up in general and then needing to deal with rodent infestation. Has anyone ever dealt with this kind if thing? I'm curious of what other landlord thoughts are and if anyone has any suggestions to best handle this. Thank You In Advance.

This is tough because it wasn't approved. I would have a talk with them and add more to pet rent, just in case.

Posted by Bea S, SD on Friday, February 17, 2017