My (at the time) 17 year old daughter and I moved into a two bedroom apartment. One of my really good friends would often come over and bring her service animal with her. A lot of times, when she came over, my daughter would take the dog for walks because it gave her a chance to get out of the apartment for a bit and play with the dog. This dog was still pretty much a puppy but was well trained and never made any messes in my apartment or did any damage what so ever. They were often over every other day, having dinner and watching a movie with us. It is also somewhat important to note that my friend is very obviously a lesbian so I think the fact we were new to the apartments and there is a very masculine female with rainbow sticker covered her car coming by with a dog regularly, she assumed I was a lesbian (I'll explain why I think this is the case in a moment). But in reality, she was just a really good friend who was hanging out with me while I went through a bad breakup and tried to cope with being a single mom on one income again while my 17 year old went through the "Since you are my mom, you are stupid and I know everything *judgejudge*" phase.
The manager noticed my daughter walking a dog regularly so one day at work I get a call from the landlord saying I need to pay a pet deposit for the dog. I explained it was not my dog but the dog of a guest. She insisted that it didn't matter. If an animal so much and stepped foot in my apartment I had to pay a pet deposit. I said "So let me get this straight. If my neighbor downstairs come to my apartment for even five minutes with her little dog I have to pay a pet deposit?" The landlady said "Yes". I said "You need to read your own lease agreement again because it doesn't say that. Also, the dog is a service animal so you can't charge a pet deposit anyways." She proceeded to tell me that it didn't matter if it was a service animal, I still had to pay a deposit.
At this point I got off the phone with her because I don't play these bs games. I had been warned by a friend in the apartments that this lady was a bit off her rocker and would try to pull stuff (she recently went into my friends apartment when she was at work with no notification. My friend found this out from a neighbor who is home all day and watched her go in and come back out which the landlady still denies). I heard a story from one of the employees who was off work and fed up with working for this lady that she tried this on a tenant that had a service animal and knew perfectly well you can't charge for a service animal. I got online, printed out the laws on service animals and pet deposits and went to the office directly after work.
When I got to the office I walked in and put the paperwork on her desk and said "You can't charge me for my Guest having a Service Animal."
Now at this point you would think this would be the end of it.. nope.
Then she starts drilling me on my friend. How often is she over? Does she ever stay the night? If she stays the night they need to increase the portion I pay for water use because my guest is using water....
WHAT?
I flat out told her the lease specifically says I am charged a portion of the water/sewer/garbage based on the total OCCUPANTS in my apartment and a guest does not count as an occupant. She argued with me about this. I said "Fine but you need to charge the lady downstairs more because she has her entire family there every day (5-7 people coming over and spending the evening Every Single Day). I told her I always read my lease and I know my rights. Then she went back to harping on if my "friend" stays the night (she never did). I told her this was really none of her business but she kept going about it so I told her no.. she Never spends the night.
In the end she made me sign a piece of paper that I did not have to pay a pet deposit but would be responsible for any messes made by the dog in my apartment. That seemed perfectly reasonable so I signed it.
She left me alone after that. I think she realized she couldn't pull anything over on me because I actually read things through and research my rights. I also have no issue standing up for myself in a calm and professional way. I have a feeling her and I will go at it again when I move out. I plan to have the carpets cleaned professionally myself because I hear she will try to charge you for the carpet even if you have lived there for 3+ years and the carpet needs to be replaced. She lied on the move in paperwork and said the carpet was new (she told me when she gave me the key not to go in yet because the carpets were wet. New carpet isn't wet), forced me to sign the "walk through" paperwork when I signed the lease and then conveniently left that piece of paper out of my lease paperwork. I will never sign one of those before I've done the walk through again so I learned my lesson there. When I get the carpet cleaned I will keep the receipt in case she tries to charge me to clean the already cleaned carpet.
I also plan to take pictures of the water damaged ceiling in my bedroom from the roof leaking which they still have not fixed.
We will see next July when I get a house.
Landlady is nuts, tries to charge me a pet deposit for a friend visiting with her service animal and then tries to 20 question me about if my masculine female friend is "staying the night".