[bob_the_engineer]

We are looking for a rental for around 6 months (unfurnished), end of Jan for around six months around Lower Hutt.

Now for the painful bit, we have two big dogs, they are well behaved and won’t chew anything, I’m completely confident about that and I’m more than happy to pay a larger security bond in case of damage.

Any suggestions of where to start?

Cheers Bob

[jess]

Hi Bob. We came over with a tiny 3kg chihuahua (not a yippie dog either) that couldn't harm a thing, but found agencies to be very cut and dry on the dog issue. Explaining her size did not help, even when cats were allowed. The agencies do work with a few owners who will allow dogs I hear, but not a single house we looked at would.

We found our rental through the Dominion Post Wednesday listings. By calling individual landlords instead of going through Quinovic or the Professionals we had much better luck. Individual homeowners were much more likely to negotiate on things and hear us out.

By the way Korokoro, very close to the city in the Lower Hutt area, has some houses with amazing views and we really liked the rentals there. If you don't mind hills...

[incredible hulse]

Hi Bob
We came over with a dog (Boxer) and found that no agents, or private rentals would take us (apart from one house that I wouldn't have classed as fit for living in). The only properties we found that would take us were baches (we were looking up in Kapiti) on a shorter term let basis. We cut a relatively good deal as we had it for 3 months but it still worked out more expensive than a rental

Steve

[pint of guinness]

hi

we brought our 2 labbies over - arrived in august this year. we are renting a lovely house near silverstream, but we had very little choice as most landlords don't allow pets in their houses. we viewed one other house, but it was awful. we are moving out of this house sometime next month when we complete on the one we are buying, and as the landlord actually allows pets, it will be snapped up again!

we are also paying more than the original rent cost because we have 2 dogs, and originally the landlord was only willing to have one pet in the house. we made friends very quickly with the letting agent and she sweet-talked him for us ;)

good luck with the move

[jen]

This is very depressing reading - we're arriving in Welly Jan 1 and have two dogs, 40 lbs and 75 lbs (they're sweet mutts; one aussie shepherd/border collie and one queensland/mystery dog!).

My husband's employer is putting us up in an extended stay apartment for the first month so at least we have some time to look for a rental, but if nobody will consider you even if you have a chihuahua I think we're in for a rough time. :no

[sizzlingbadger]

Jen,
one way around it is to leave the dog back in the UK with someone you trust. We did this for 3 months as we knew we had very little chance of getting a rental that would take dogs. We then moved into our own house and my in laws sorted all the dog paperwork and he was bought over.

Bob,
Have a look on trademe a lot of rentals on there are straight through the landlord rather than agency and as has been said the Dominion Post.

[sarahw]

I'd also recommend going direct through the landlords (via Trademe or the Dom Post) - whilst we were in the rental we rented through the Professionals (which said strictly no dogs on the paperwork) we informed our landlord we were getting kittens & he said no problem - we could even have a puppy or dog if we wanted under certain circumstances. I think speaking to/meeting the landlords directly will be easier for renting a property with dogs... what made me laugh is that a lot of rentals aren't... well very nice - I can't see what difference it would make to let people have dogs in them! Especially people who have brought their pets half-way across the world - I mean its not like you're going to pay thousands to bring a problem dog over is it?!

[jess]

what made me laugh is that a lot of rentals aren't... well very nice - I can't see what difference it would make to let people have dogs in them! Especially people who have brought their pets half-way across the world - I mean its not like you're going to pay thousands to bring a problem dog over is it?!

Yes exactly!!!

I think there are just so many people looking to rent in the Welly area that landlords can afford to be a heck of a lot pickier than the renters get to be.

[bob_the_engineer]

Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.

I know what you’re talking about with the difficulty of renting. The landlords closed mindednes to tenants with dogs its really stupid.

In Napier I only found two people who were willing to give me a rental, one was a farmer, he had a cottage on his land, it was beautiful but just too far away to be practical. The other was the property brokers on Clive square Napier (who we rented from for a while). http://www.propertybrokers.co.nz/

The guy in the property brokers recognised that a daft pom with a pampered pooch (or two) was actually quite a good prospect! The rent was paid, the house wasn’t damaged and I’m so grateful to him for giving us a house to live in while we bought somewhere that I’d recommend him to anyone.

The comment about the state of some NZ rentals made me smile too.

The thing that also made me laugh was so many NZ’ers said “you told them you had a dog, why?” Although I’m not prepared to do this, as an immigrant I have a very strong opinion that you respect the laws, rules and customs or you get the hell out, so even telling a fib to a landlord is a big no no.

Oh well the Dominion Post Wednesday listings and trade me, are looking like my best options, but pint of Guinness I’d really appreciate it if you could let me have the name/phone number of your rental agent.

Again thanks to you all, Bob.