Overall,I've been relatively pleased with the amount of pet friendly sales there are both on the UWS and elsewhere. However, there are numerous examples of "Sorry, Fido, no dogs," or "Pets approved on a case-by-case basis." To date, I've tended to skip these case-by-case ads as I don't want to fall in love with an apartment, only to be rejected by the size or breed of my dog.
That being said, I currently live in a rental building which is actually zoned to allow pets of all kinds, including dogs, cats, birds, pigs, etc. When my mom initially moved into the building, there was no pet policy whatsoever - they didn't even ask and if you showed up with 4 dogs, they didn't really care. Recently, as I've stumbled across listings for rentals in my building, I laugh because I've seen things like "Dogs under 40 lbs." or "No pets." I know for certain none of this is true (we have a Bernese Mountain Dog in the building) and is, in fact, the error of the broker listing the property.
These minor errors give me hope that, should I continue looking at apartments for sale, I should expand my search to include those properties deemed case-by-case. Who knows what lies beyond an innocent error in the apartment summary?!
That is one of the biggest things stopping people from owning pets in Chicago. There are so many no dog apartments, or they have severe weight limits. I had a really hard time finding a place with Miss M. Luckily we own now, because I don't know how hard it would be with our 2 big ones.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny - when I see a listing that says no dogs, I'm immediately like "Well, I wouldn't want to live there anyway, so there!" I often forget that properties may have no pet policies because it raises insurance premiums. I've often become frustrated with the urban lifestyle in general because of the limitations of cooperative ownership - and this search only exacerbates it! Maybe I'm destined for a farm out in the boondocks?!
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