Standards for case by case dog policy in co-op?
Anyone have insight as to how this is generally applied? Does it basically mean “no big dogs,” or do co-op boards just decide sometimes there are too many dogs and don’t want another one in the building? I recently put an offer on a place that was advertised as “pets ok” but then saw in…
Anyone have insight as to how this is generally applied? Does it basically mean “no big dogs,” or do co-op boards just decide sometimes there are too many dogs and don’t want another one in the building? I recently put an offer on a place that was advertised as “pets ok” but then saw in a disclosure sheet that dogs are on a case by case basis.
Any insight appreciated!
Thanks
This could actually be a good thing for you if your board is actually trying to admit good dogs/owners and keep out bad dogs/owners. You’re likely to be as affected as anyone else in the building by a badly behaved dog or a difficult/irresponsible dog owner. The size of the dog has nothing to do with whether or not it’s going to be a nuisance. I lived in a coop for a long time that accepted dogs. We had a nightmare with a dog whose owner left it alone 18 hours a day. It was a little tiny dog, but it made a LOT of noise.
We developed a way to “interview” the dog, in consultation with a dog trainer. Turns out watching how an owner deals with their dog can tell you a lot about how they’ll behave as a neighbor.
If this coop board does a less than thorough job of interviewing you and considering your dog, that might be a sign you don’t want to live there. Your dog might be a dream, but the next one might be a nightmare.
If you want more info, contact me jenabrams [at] mindspring.com
what smc said, but what the rule means in this case is that you will have to tell the board what kind of dog, and possibly bring it to the board interview. Once you buy the place, you would be free to get a pet in accordance with the rules, which cannot be arbitrary (they must apply equally to everyone).
Have you signed a contract yet? If not, I would suggest you discuss with your lawyer and ask him to put a pet contingency in the contract. Even though our condo allowed pets and we had confirmation on this from the broker, our lawyer strongly recommended we put our dog into the contract to protect us in case rules changed before closing, etc. Good luck!