How to manage getting a cat in grad school?

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Also, it might be worth noting that it's quite common for animals to be traumatized by extended travel like that. Changing environments for a cat can be an extremely delicate process, but throw in quarantine time and time spent in a box on a plane... I really, really wouldn't recommend it. I know two people who have moved to other countries with cats - both cats were probably in the age range of 3-5 and very well behaved. One (if I recall correctly) had to be quarantined and it all ended up fine. The other one was not quarantined, but after moving to the new place would urinate everywhere and became quite hostile. Two data points is not statistically significant of course, but you should know that there is a risk to travelling with cats.

[Yanaka]

Poor babies. Thanks for the additional info.

Fffff and I thought our landlords had too much leeway on our deposit and rents... Wow we're so cool here in France. Why am I moving again?  

So wait--can they also kick you out for no reason and whenever they want? Do the people have any rights at all? 

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

16 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Poor babies. Thanks for the additional info.

Fffff and I thought our landlords had too much leeway on our deposit and rents... Wow we're so cool here in France. Why am I moving again?  

So wait--can they also kick you out for no reason and whenever they want? Do the people have any rights at all? 

They can only kick you out if you're violating your lease, but I've never heard of anyone getting evicted for any reason other than not paying rent for >1 month. I'm technically violating my lease right now - I'm paying for one cat ($50/mo) but I have two. In a previous apartment, I got fined for lease violations (stupid things that would only be in leases for student housing - air-drying dishes is what I got fined for). Tenant rights are pretty lax unfortunately depending on where you live, but if you are kicked out for a reason other than lease violation, you can likely report it to some federal agency somewhere or something.

[stereopticons]

I've never been kicked out of an apartment. But each state has its own tenant rights, so what rights you do have depends on where you live. 

[TakeruK]

45 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

So wait--can they also kick you out for no reason and whenever they want? Do the people have any rights at all? 

It's still pretty hard for a landlord to actually evict someone. You'd have to break your lease and/or not pay rent (which is part of breaking your lease). 

However, in practice, there are many ways a landlord can force someone out. For example, they can just choose to raise your rent by some amount that makes it no longer desirable to live there. There are no rent control laws here in my part of California, so bringing rent to $200/month above the market rate is an easy way to force someone out. In Ontario, rent raises were regulated and they only went up by inflation each year. In this way, tenants are protected because even if the market rate goes way up, if you've already been there, you get to stay locked into your low rate.

Another shady practice that landlords here use is forcing tenants to repeatedly sign fixed-term leases. In Ontario, the usual lease was for 12 months and then after that, it automatically switches to a month-to-month lease on the same initial lease conditions unless both the tenant and the landlord chooses to sign another fixed term lease. This basically means that once you sign a lease, you are allowed to live there indefinitely as long as you follow the lease. In California, this doesn't automatically happen (some landlords do this but not all). Instead, what many landlords do (and I consider this exploitative) is after your first fixed-term is up (let's say it's 12 months), they only give you two options: either sign a X-month fixed term lease or switch to month-to-month at a much higher rate (like $500/month higher). And each time, the "X" could be different, because the landlords want to avoid having a whole bunch of units unoccupied at the same time etc. so they will ask for things like 9 month or 11 month or 13 month leases to achieve that. 

Ultimately, I think the main difference in the laws in my province in Canada and my current state in the US is that my former home had laws that valued the tenant's right to a home over the landlord's right to run a profitable business while my current home has it the opposite way. But as others said, this is something that varies that the province/state level so different places in Canada and the US will have different rules. 

[stereopticons]

Seconding @TakeruK's comments about lease terms. Everywhere I've ever lived (many apartments in several US states), after the initial 12 months was up, I had to sign either a new 12 month lease or pay $200 more a month to have month to month. I'm actually worried about that in my current apartment. My lease is up in April but if I get into a PhD program, I won't move until July or August. 

[rising_star]

The lease terms one is interesting and I think depends a lot on the rental market where you live. I've lived in the same place for almost 2.5 years and only ever signed an initial lease for 12 months. One could argue that I'm technically violating that lease because I have two dogs, rather than the one dog listed on the lease, but that lease also expired last year. We never made a formal agreement about month-to-month but I just keep paying the same amount I used to pay and it's been fine on both ends. I don't know that I'll get much of my security deposit back but I didn't pay a pet deposit at this place either and there's definitely some stuff in need of repair/replacement at this point. It's worth noting that i don't live in a college town and there's a fairly weak rental market here so that is probably why I'm able to do a month-to-month lease with no change in terms.

As for pet rent or deposits, almost every place I ever lived before this required either or both pet rent or a pet deposit. The most expensive pet deposit I remember paying was $300, which was whether you had a cat, a dog, or one of each. Another place I lived had a $250 pet deposit. I've never lived in a place with pet rent (I've looked at them but they never worked out for whatever reason) but I've seen rates of $10-50/month depending on the landlord, location, type of pet, and number of pets. 

I would agree that you may not want to get a pet if you know you're making a big move soon. Traveling with pets, even ones who travel well, makes everything more stressful (also usually more expensive). There will be plenty of animals in need of a good home once you get to the USA so if you do want to have one, you'll be able to find one.

[Yanaka]

Yeah that's what I will do.

All of your posts about renting in the US has scared me a little. I'm always hoping to find situations in which the system does not screw you up over there, but it seems that really everything is thought to make you fail. Jobs, health insurance, banks, housing. Education. I don't see why there should be a pet rent. If there's a deposit, then that should be enough. Your animal is not costing them anything more than possible damage that can be covered by the deposit, and maybe also repaired by the tenant if, like, the dog chewed every single door in the apartment or ate plaster off the walls...

[TakeruK]

43 minutes ago, Yanaka said:

Yeah that's what I will do.

All of your posts about renting in the US has scared me a little. I'm always hoping to find situations in which the system does not screw you up over there, but it seems that really everything is thought to make you fail. Jobs, health insurance, banks, housing. Education. I don't see why there should be a pet rent. If there's a deposit, then that should be enough. Your animal is not costing them anything more than possible damage that can be covered by the deposit, and maybe also repaired by the tenant if, like, the dog chewed every single door in the apartment or ate plaster off the walls...

I have not yet encountered a place that charges both pet rent and pet deposit. The deposit can be set to whatever amount (in California the legal limit is three(!!) months rent but in my town, rent is like $1500+ per month so the deposit is usually more like $1000). So, you should certainly find out if there will be extra charges for pets before renting, but I wouldn't tell them ahead of time that you are getting a pet otherwise they might try to add it into the deposit.

[Pink Fuzzy Bunny]

Had to pay a pet deposit and pet rent for my current place. Pet deposit is one month's rent ($1100) and pet rent is $50 per pet.

[Cheshire_Cat]

I have to pay a pet "fee" (Not even a deposit. You won't get it back) and a pet rent at the place I am about to move to. I don't mind as much because they have a dog park, a dog wash station, and doggie waste stations everywhere so I won't have to worry about that.  They are earning the rent, imo.  OTOH, my old place just randomly decided to add a $20 pet rent, after already charging a large pet fee, without making any improvements to the quality of pet ownership.

   They are also totally screwing me over on the move out.  The fees for repairing things is horrendous.  The first apartment I was in was very reasonable when I moved out and only charged a $80 cleaning fee, which is reasonable, but this one wants to charge $35 just to clean the toilet...  good thing I have an overlap of 1.5 months with my new apartment to clean.  And my former roommate ruined the kitchen linoleum by burning it, but it was crap to begin with and could be scratched by anything.  They charge $300 to replace that.  And my former roommate's room needs its carpet replaced... and my former roommate is broke, so we'll see if I get any money from him.  He is my brother, so he will be shamed until he pays me back, but it is still stressing me out right now.

[spectastic]

i agree with pet deposit. take care of your apartment, and you'll get it back. pet fee/rent, on the other hand, is a total dick move.