No Pets Policy

In my almost 10 years of landlording, I've only had to reject a potential tenant only once - because of pets. The applicant was actually a very amiable guy. He was a German mestizo working as a nurse. He came to the apartment riding a big bike - the Harley Davidson kind of a bike. No problem there, I thought. He could use one of the parking slots for the motorcycle which was too big to park in the walkway.

He wasn't renting with anybody else, but he had a big dog, a Labrador I think. The way he described it was it was very gentle. He could be right, but I'm sure there are some days when a dog's temper may not be pleasant. The scenario raised several of concerns in my mind:

1. The dog will be left alone when the tenant is out working. It will need to pee and poo. Who'll take care of the mess and the stink, meanwhile?
   
2. Damage to property. Some dogs scratch on doors and bite on other objects.
   
3. Danger of bites to other tenants. You can never be sure. There are small kids in the apartment who run and play within the compound.

It wasn't too hard to advise him though to look somewhere else since we do have a "no pets" condition in our lease which I'm reproducing below:

"That the LESSEE shall not keep any pet (like cats, dogs, snakes and the like) without the written consent of the LESSOR;"