Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone seen this in California? I heard from a few fellow herpers that a landlord is unable to make you get rid of or evict you for any reptiles or other animals in a cage 24/7. Now, I keep nothing dangerous our the least bit poisonous, I keep ball pythons, 3 corn snakes and some geckos. I've been living here for going on 3 years now with out incident. I've rescued 23 cats out of the complex to help out the landlord since we're pretty overrun. I've kept her up to date on what pets I have, I paid the pet deposite upon moving in. I brought my pets into the office on numorous occasions, let them play with my cats, took a ball python with me to get some sun while I got the mail, ect. She said they were fine since they only cared about signing in dogs for the record. Stupid me, I didnt get that in writing.

So, my toilet breaks, the maintenence guy comes and fixes it. 3 days later I get a letter in the mail that either I get rid of all the animals except the dogs, or they will evict me.

This is my setup. At that point I had locking critter keepers with pins in place holding my reptiles for sale, animal plastic racks holding my own snakes. I have not had an escape from the apartments.

There are many other people in this complex that have cats, reptiles and birds that they dont even make pay the pet deposite, I did pay it with them knowing what animals I was keeping.

I find out the maintenence guy was angry because the landlord made him give up his iguana when he moved in and didnt want me to have reptiles either if he couldnt, this was told to me by another maintenence guy.

Is there anything I can do? Aside from looking for a new place, which I'm already doing. Is it true that they are not allowed to evict for anything in a cage 24/7?
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3.0 normal Ball python
1.0 66% het stripe ball python
2.2 amel corn snakes
0.1 Blood red Hypo
1.1 Bearded dragons
1.1 Leopard gecko
1 phantom blue merle toy australian shepherd
2.1 cats

Ask to see your rental contract that you signed.The owners cant just suddenly make up rules as they go along.I used to rent when I lived in CA too and sometimes owners think they can do whatever they want.
Thats why we moved to the midwest so we could afford to buy a house.Now owners cant tell us what to do but city officials can...Pretty soon there will be no place left to move to have personal freedoms.
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Dont be a Dumb a** , just move the animals out , tell the landlord they are gone , then after they check , move them in again ??? Duh ??
Or take them to court , the law you refer to is on your side.

Well, a property manager can do whatever he feels as long as it is written in the lease. (Or not written as the case may be.) I would do a google search to be sure, but I highly doubt the state can MAKE a property manager have to accept animals, save for service animals. I know many places in MN won't allow ferrets, supposedly 24/7 caged animals, because of the extra smell. In fact, I was looking into renting a townhouse a few years back and she wouldn't allow anything other than fish, that's perfectly legal here in MN, I can't see how California would be able to force that on landowners.

Truly, do a google search, I found out all the information about the laws governing exotics in both my city and state level. That is your best source of information. (I found out my brother in law can't move to my hometown because he owns a boa and all are banned from the city.)

We had our geckos written into our rental applications, if anything happens, we've got solid proof, if you've got something like that then you've got a fight... but who wants to live too long at a place that you've fought.

Good luck.
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0.1 Albino Leo Gecko
0.1 Crested Gecko
1.0 Dear Boyfriend
Departed: Harvey and Spock

I know it doesn't help you know, but a big part of what saved my animals was that I HAD made sure it was specified in my rental agreement that I could keep any animals that were maintained in water-proof cages (such as aquariums or tubs) as long as the water-proof cages weren't filled with water (since my place has a strict no-fishtank policy). The property manager tried to deny this when the maintenance man freaked out, but since we had something her boss had signed permitting it and saying it was totally covered by the HUGE pet deposit I paid for my dogs, she was out of luck.

Also, a lot of cities have codes that say something along the lines of if you "flagrantly own" the pets for a certain amount of time (i.e., don't hide them for 30 days to six months) and they don't object, then even if they do try to later they are out of luck because they permitted it for so long. So it could very well help you out to have any witnesses or written statements that they were prominently displayed in front of property employees/managers previously.

It also never hurts to try to reason with them. Have your vet write a letter reassuring they are not dangerous to other tenants. Ask a prior landlord to write how unobtrusive and unproblematic they were in your last place. If you're back is really against the wall, offer an extra amount in addition to your prior pet deposit, but if you do this insist on a reciept AND written permission to keep the snakes you currently have for the duration of your lease.

I forgot to add, the law in California also says that if any part of the rental contract is unclear to you, then the verbal clarification made by the other party supercedes it. So, her verbal assurances that the herps were okay is, at worst, an amendment to the rental contract allowing you to keep them.

Would love to know how this turned out for you.