Hi,

How easy is it to find rented accomodation that allows two dogs? Moving in November and will be bringing my furry friends . Are there any dog friendly letting agents?

Cheers guys,

Dani

We have neighbours who have three large dogs in a small apartment. Not ideal for the dogs but I guess you can find places that are dog friendly.

Hi Dani,

There are no agencies that are particularly dog friendly as such. A tip: even if doesnt specificall say in the advert that the place allows pets, it never hurts to ask.

Small dogs arent a problem most of the time but you might face a little but more resistance with bigger dogs. How big are your dogs? I kept being asked if mine was a large dog when I asked if dogs were allowed. Having said that, I had a harder time finding a landlord who will accepting a musical instrument than a dog.

Good luck in your search.

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Remember when someone annoys you, it takes 42 muscles to frown, BUT it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and b****-slap the mother-f***er upside the head.

What city will you be moving to?

If you are looking to live in an area where housing is particularly tight (ZH, GE), you might want to use a relocation agent. A relo agent is someone who works for you, as opposed to an estate agent who represents the landlord.

A good relocation agent will scout out appropriate properties, will do the leg work, will advise you - and speak on your behalf, which can be the thing that swings the landlord in your favor. When you are looking to rent with multiple dogs, it's often a good idea to have a pro in your corner.

You'd want to make sure that the relocation agent you choose is 'dog friendly', though.

You might want to think about looking at properties away from the city center, perhaps a more rural-ish village. The Swiss transportation system is very good - you can live quite far out and still have an easy commute.

Also, consider older properties or those not in pristine condition. We compromised on the quality of the house in favor of a large garden for the dogs. The house we rented was small, older, not quite up to date - which meant the landlord was less likely to object to our mutts. A landlord might be reticent to rent his luxury flat to a family with dogs due to the likelihood of damage. There may also be less competition for older properties.

Good luck with your search!

I have two Jack Russel terriers in an apartment.

As was said before, get a relo agent to help if poss and hammer into them that it needs to be dog friendly. I visited some only to be told they wont accept dogs...WTF!!! Arghhhh

Best of luck and shout if ya need help. Don't forget to get the pet passport sorted etc

Nope, it is not an impossible task. Luckily for us dog owners there are still dog friendly owners and agents. But really, it is not the owner or agent who are going to be the challenge, it's your neighbours who will give you grief.

What you want is a dog friendly neighbourhood. We have dogs and have rented properties over the years. They were houses, not remote, but with fenced gardens and in some cases the owners had dogs and lived there before with dogs.

Also, two dogs are not noisier than one. Two dogs can be quieter than one. When left alone, they have each other, so they are not lonely.

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Make sure you get a good relocation agent! Ours was useless. Her advice was "is there no way you can rehome the dogs?". Unfortunately that's what we had to do, as every place we looked at we were turned down because of the dogs. It probably didn't help that one of the dogs was about to go on the banned breeds list, but don't start me on that nonsense.

We were basically told, "look your foreign, you have no history here, so you're not going to be top of the list to begin with. You are just giving them more reasons to turn you down". This was despite having a decent budget and being willing to compromise on area, condition, size etc.

Sorry to have to add a bit of balance to the thread.

OMGWTFBBQ?

Anyways, most people say (when I ask) that cats are OK but no dogs...but I am sure that if you do get a good relocation agency then there will be no problem

Good luck!

That makes me so mad. You should have fired your relocation agent. I could never suggest to a client to rehome a pet. Your relo agent wasted your time showing you properties where dogs were not okay. The banned breeds list does not exist in all Cantons...you should have come to Aargau.

It has already been said, having dogs means compromising on where you live.

Unfortunately, there seem to be very few relocation agents who own dogs, let alone pets and they just don't get it.

I think there are two challenges in the rental market: pet-friendly housing and child-friendly housing.

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Actually cats are becoming more of an issue than dogs, at least in my experience.

We have a Golden Retreiver and about 1/2 of the places we looked into would not take dogs. And you should ask even if it doesn`t say pets are allowed.

Some things to consider:
1). What floor will you be on ?
2). Does the building have a lift ?
3). Are there "facilities" close By ?

Some places we looked into, although were dog friendly, had no dog walking area for blocks. Needless to say that could be a very bad thing... Especially at 1 AM

We also had a temporary flat that, although had grassy area right outside the door, the neighbors complained when the dog would even pee on it.
We got blamed for everyone elses dog that did their business in the yard.

Keep a good supply of the "Bravo" bags with you at all times...

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I will always remember my friend.... She was truly one of a kind.....

Dog friendly apartment are around, just depend's how good your relo' agent is, but TBH I wouldn't rely on them as most seem to trot out the same stuff, which is sometimes not even in your criteria. All the ones ours came up with were hopeless, and strangely she showed a couple (woman work with my wife) the same apartments and they had no pets but 1 child! She also said we wouldn't get the apartment we lived in... so much for local knowledge

You are not moving for a long time so you can do plenty of groundwork yourself. We have 3 labs and got the only apartment we applied for, we:
- trawled the sites and picked apartment's that suited OUR criteria,
- made up a speadsheet and sent it to the relo' agent, prioritsed for viewing's
- asked her to add any she had access to which MATCHED them, even though hers didn't, and make the viewing appointments.
- ensure you ask the letting agent about pets.
- City centre's will always be more difficult that rural, so bear that in mind.

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How do you know if a Frenchman has been in your garden.... your rubbish is gone, your dog is pregnant.... but at least your cabbages are pest free

WOW! Well some caats can really destroy things, I had one that liked destroying the wall paper and then proceeded to eat it (a bit silly IMO)

Have to say this is not my experience.
Have moved twice in Switzerland and we have restricted our search to areas outside of Zurich e.g Dubendorf, Meilen, Bulach.
We have never had a problem finding accommodation that accepts dogs.

Thankfully, when I've had dogs visiting, my neighbors have been okay. Then again, they "all" know I had to leave my dog behind in the US and am still working on hubby with regard to either bringing her here or getting another dog. (At this point, I think my mother would be heartbroken if I were to bring the dog here, she's been good company for her and walking her has helped get mom up and moving when she's been down.)

So far as this goes:
My landlady DID look a bit dismayed when she saw our cat (even though hubby had specifically asked if cats would be allowed before we moved in) and asked me if she scratches the walls and gave me "advice" on where the litter box should go. I happen to think bathroom tiles are better choice than wood parquet, thankfully she agreed.

Which brings me to something else:
Some folks seem to think foreign = daft. If you have a chance to view the area where you're interested before moving in (as opposed to renting straight from the internet), make sure you investigate where the nearest "play" areas are as well as likely walking routes. Knowing exactly whether or not the block where your place of interest is has been made dog friendly will go some way toward easing the mind of an agent / landlord which seem to be skeptical.

I still wouldn't push it if the landlord seems more than a little reluctant BUT I think that if s/he knows (some are "absentee") how pet friendly the area is, s/he may not worry as much about barking and it's affects on his/her other tenants. If the worry is damage though, there's not much you can do.

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The Joys of Opticianry

Great thread.

I agree finding housing with a pet is a difficult task.
I've been in ZH for over a year and I am now looking to bring my dog over from the US. The apartment search is exhausting. That said, does anyone know specific rental agencies that allow dogs. Or, is anyone (with a pet) know of any spaces opening up in their rental communities in the coming months?

Thanks in advance.

Agree with summeryrainy here - we got all place doing just that .

It's not always up to an agency, it is up to the apartment owner too.

Hey Guys,

How does one go about finding these mythical "relocation agents"? My husband and I have always gone about finding apartments on Homegate.ch — this must be the super bootleg approach! Now that we have dogs, a relocation agent might be the better angle.

Thanks!

Mrs. Doolittle who wrote the post above your's (#18) is a relocation consultant and is very real...anything but mythical. If you are looking to stay in the Baden area I would get in touch with her and see whether she can help you.