Expand rentals for pet owners

Family pets are popular in Hawaii — and with an expected boom of apartment rentals in urban Honolulu, the time is right to make it easier for landlords to accept pets by mitigating concerns about pet damage in rentals.

It comes as no surprise, then, that animal lovers support a proposal that would allow a landlord to charge up to an extra month’s worth of security deposit by a renter for one or more pets. The Legislature should enact the bill that would allow the extra amount, a move that stands to foster more housing options for prospective tenants with pets.

Hawaii landlords now are limited to charging no more than one month’s rent for security, while several other states have allowed an extra monthly security deposit for pet owners. If no damage is done, the pet owner would be refunded the add-on deposit at the end of the lease.

If the renter’s pet has caused damage that exceeds the one-month deposit under the present system, "the landlord’s only recourse is to go through an already backlogged court system to be awarded a judgment and then attempt to collect the judgment through a long and often fruitless collection process," Honolulu real estate broker Ian Bigelow testified to legislators. "Because of this, many landlords opt to not rent to tenants that have pets." Not surprisingly, the Hawaii Association of Realtors supports the bill.

Those complaints are well-founded, and the Humane Society of the United States agrees. Property owners may have experienced renters who didn’t safely confine their pets or pick up their feces or left ruined carpets and drapes, sometimes having sneaked pets in. "All these concerns are legitimate," the society acknowledges on its website in advice to pet owners.

The Hawaiian Humane Society agrees and supports Senate Bill 328, pointing to a Ward Research study last year that more than 700,000 cats and dogs reside in Hawaii and nearly 60 percent of Oahu households have at least one pet, amounting to 375,000 pets on the island.

The increased deposit would have the effect of allowing "more pet-friendly opportunities as it will address the financial concerns by landlords and property owners alike of pet-related issues," testified Jennifer J. Han of the Hawaiian Humane Society. "We believe a pet security deposit of no more than one month’s rent is reasonable." Owners of "assistance animals" — those with disabilities in need of the animals by doctor verification — are immune from extra deposit charges by federal law.

Enactment of the extra deposit charge, which would take effect in November if passed into law, is not likely to result in "Sorry, no pets" signs being dropped into garbage cans in high volume. Nor should it cause changes in the policy of some house or apartment owners who allow some pets, such as cats or dogs weighing less than 20 pounds. Those entering agreements on either side who are skeptical may want to take photographs of carpets, drapes, etc., at the outset. Still, enactment of this bill would offer more flexibility for renters, and enhance a mutually agreeable situation that helps maintain a landlord’s property.