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Lease and Pet Issues

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Archetype

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania

Hello, thanks so much for your time. :) I will try not to make this too long. I own a mobile home, and rent the lot that it is on. Have lived here for 3 years, never bothered anyone or caused any trouble. Anyway, completely by accident, we never actually signed a lease. We were given a blank copy and asked to bring it back once we had the needed information to fill it out with (we were waiting on some paperwork). For some reason, we forgot about it and so did they.

Anyway, we recently got a puppy. We have never had a pet before, this was our first and only one. I realize now I obviously should have gone to the office and asked them about it first, but just didn't think about it at the time because as far as I knew dogs were perfectly acceptable. I am friends with most of my neighbors and acquaintances with almost the rest, they all have dogs and have been getting new puppies and such. Anyway, paid my rent last month and was asked if I had a dog and I said yes. They said they aren't allowing dogs and that we had to get rid of her. I went home upset to my husband to talk about it with him and they called us up and said we could keep her by paying $50/m extra. We simply couldn't afford that, and even tried to ask for a more reasonable price like $25 but they weren't interested. Spoke with all my neighbors (many of them with multiple dogs - like 3 or 4+) and none of them knew of a problem, and had never been picked on about it, and none of them paid any more in rent than we do. We were upset and we argued it out with them. They said it was in the lease that no pets were allowed, which then brought to all of our attention that we had never actually signed one. They told us to sign one now or get out (it actually has rules for owning pets in it - which they just slashed out with a pen and hand wrote "no pets" next to - and the "old" fee in the lease was $25 - with no correction of $50 made to it). I'm not happy about it and I feel its very unfair, considering no one else is being picked on or charged for their dogs, but I have accepted that they have the right to decide if they want to allow an animal on their property or not, and they have a right to tell us to sign a lease or go. So we got rid of the puppy and signed the lease the same day. Now the lady at the office is saying that we still owe $50 for having the dog last month and that we have to pay it along with our usual rent or else we will be considered late (late fee is $55). Can they do this?

I want to mention real quick that our puppy was very quiet, sweet, wouldn't hurt a fly, never barked at a single soul, and kept in our home or our fenced in back yard at all times. My neighbors loved her and are all very mad at what the landlords are putting us through over her. This isn't due to any kind of complaint.
 


Archetype

Junior Member
Which we also pointed out to them, but they still insisted that it didn't matter and that we owed them $50 for the month that we had the dog even though we got rid of her the day we signed the lease, and that if we didn't pay it with our normal rent they would consider us late and charge us a late fee on top of it. :confused: Which is why I'm on here asking about it, because that doesn't seem like legally they have any right to do that at all.
 

TinkerBelleLuvr

Senior Member
Does the lease that you signed cover those dates in question? If not, they do not have a legal position to stand on.

Read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract

There was NOT a valid SIGNED lease for the dates in question that prohibited the animal, therefore, they are not in a position to charge for said animal.
 

Archetype

Junior Member
Sorry this took me so long, but I wanted to come back here and thank everyone for the information and advice given here, I used it to write up a very firm and clever letter, and everything has been at peace since. :) Thanks again!!!
 

FarmerJ

Senior Member
I suggest its time for you to look for land that you can buy and have your home moved to and re sited so this sort of thing cannot come up again.
 

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