Dear Daphne:
 
I'm not sure I can help you with your apartment dilemma, but I certainly
can empathize!  Scott and I were looking last week at apartments down in
North Carolina.  We live in a private house in NY and this is our first
move with Oakey and Mojo.  We only had a short amount of time to look for
one, so we restricted our search to complexes that listed "pets
conditional" (whatever that means!) or "small pets welcome".
 
The first apartment we looked at was great...  except the manager told us
that the ferrets were out of the question, and maybe we should "think of
getting rid of them"!!!  She told us we stood very little chance of
getting any complex to take us.  We left.
 
We decided to ask the places directly about ferrets, right off the bat,
to avoid further disapointment, and waste of time.  The second place said
"sure, we take pets".  We loved the place and filled out the lease.  We
came back with our deposit later, only to learn that there had been a
"mistake", and while dogs and cats were allowed, and a $200/pet deposit
and $20/pet/month "rent" would be imposed, our ferrets would not be
acceptable residents...  because some ferret caused $800 worth of damage
in 1985 at an apartment owned by their nationwide chain!!  We argued
this...  wouldn't our deposits and rent be good enough to cover any
damage they might conceive the ferrets might do (as if puppies and cats
do no harm), etc...  She told us she couldn`t do anything because it was
a national chain.
 
The third apartment was a success...  the employee there said that our
ferrets were welcome after checking with her manager.  We put it in
WRITING on our lease that our boys were welcome.  Also we paid a $200
total deposit and an extra $10/month rent.
 
Pet deposit and pet rent do not seem to be exclusive to ferrets...
it`s supposed to cover any damage your pets may do to the rug, etc...
a high price... but seems to be the norm.
 
As usual, the amount of ferret-ignorance around is huge.  The first
two apartments hid behind the Equal Housing Act as a reason for the
rejection.  I think it is discrimination... but I think that the
apartments probably have some sort of legal right to do this if they
advertise "pets conditional".  But, I'm not a lawyer...
 
I commend you for wanting to convince them and change their "policy"...
but recommend that you keep looking for another place for more
open-minded views about pets for now.
 
I`d also like to know if anyone with some legal background could tell
us if this could be discrimination?
 
Maybe there should be a database of apartment complex corporations
that allow ferrets in the US?
 
Kim and Scott
Oakey (currently peddling Iam's to pay his share of the rent)
Mojo ("I'm too cute to pay rent!")
[Posted in FML issue 1151]