A woman was left shocked after being told she would have to pay a pet deposit of €900 along with a standard deposit after she attended a viewing of an apartment in Dublin.
Speaking to RTE's Joe Duffy, the woman said she and her partner are trying to save for a mortgage but are finding it extremely difficult to find anywhere with affordable rent.
She said: "So I went to view an apartment in Dublin as myself and my boyfriend are trying to get into the property market.
"Now we are saving for a mortgage, but I'm sure you're aware of how miserable that is it is in this country, you know, but I know it will look good when we are applying for a mortgage, but just as a couple, we wanted our own space you know yourself."
When she arrived at the viewing, the woman said that she found it strange that it wasn't the landlord who would be showing her around the apartment.
She said: "When I went for the viewing, first of all, I realised it wasn't a landlord that was actually showing me the apartment. It was actually the lady living there, which I thought was a bit odd, but I just thought, look, I'll go with it anyway.
"And it was a nice apartment it was fully furnished, but I seen they had a dog and like we do have a dog so we were looking for a place that accepts dogs and it was pet friendly like you know.
"So I was just chatting away with her, and she was like oh yeah, we have a dog, so she was like just so you know you actually have to pay a €900 pet deposit fee."
Both deposits, along with the first month's rent, would mean the couple would have to pay almost €5,000 before moving in.
The woman said she could not understand how her normal deposit would not cover any potential damage caused by the dog, a cavalier King Charles.
She said: "I'm not even sure it's legal to even ask anyone to pay that much for a pet deposit. Like if any damage was done or if anything happened, surely the deposit in itself would cover for that, no?"
She added: "He's trained like he wouldn't damage anything even in the house that I'm in at the moment like he doesn't do anything."
