I rent out my property in South Africa and I had a terrible experience with a pet owner.

The guy who rented kept 2 Jack Russells inside the house. Either they were not houstrained or they were locked inside for extended periods, but when he moved out I HAD TO REPLACE OVER 100 SQUARE METERS OF CARPETING. He also had a Maccaw (sp) Parrot which was not kept in a cage. I have meranti wood cottage-pane windows. Within 3 months this PET had destroyed most of the window frames in my house.

Standard practice is that the Landlord gets an additional month's rent up-front as a security/damages deposit. Believe me - the deposit didn't come close to cover the over $3000 damage to my house - never mind the two months it stood empty whilst we fixed it up before we could rent it again.

Admittedly they WERE the ultimate nightmare tenant, but I now do things differently - You can rent my house, but if you have pets I want TWO MONTHS rent as security/damages deposit and not one month.

I learned the hard way that not all pet owners are responsible