What are my rights as a tentant to keep my dogif Ihave lived at the same property for 8 years and now they want me to get rid of my dog?
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What are my rights as a tentant to keep my dogif Ihave lived at the same property for 8 years and now they want me to get rid of my dog?
I have been living on a property where I own my own home and rent property. I have lived there for 8 years with same animal as the property went through 5 different park managers. They had knowledge of my dog all those years and now there is a new park manager and he now wants use to remove our dog. He has given us only 21 days to do so. I am now only working with 13 days left and I have done everything to keep my dog. I even went around door-to-door getting many tenants to sign a petition agreeing to let us keep our dogs.
Asked on February 16, 2012 under Real Estate Law, Virginia
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Having a dog for many years does not, unfortunately, give you any continuing rights to keep the dog.
If you have a written lease for a definite term (for example, a one-year lease), then during the lease's term, the property manager cannot make you get rid of the dog unless there is something in the lease itself giving the manager the right to do this--for example, some paragraph saying that the manager may put out rules for residents, the definition of which would include "no dogs."
When the lease is up, however, they could refuse to renew it unless you agreed to give up your dog.
If you are on either an oral lease or a written month-to-month lease, then the manager or landlord could give you 30 days notice that they are changing the lease terms to bar your dog; if you did not comply at that time, they could most likely evict you.
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