My lease is almost up and I started looking, and I forgot how much having a dog shrinks the list. Half the DTLA buildings either say no dogs over 25 pounds or hit you with a pet rent that basically adds another few hundred a month on top of the rent that already went up on me.
She's a mellow 40 pound mutt, never barks, but on paper she reads like a liability to these places. Which parts of LA actually make it easy to rent with a dog, no weird breed or weight games? Trying to figure out where to even point my search.
Ugh the weight limit thing is so annoying, my girl is right around that size too and I hit the same wall. Marina del Rey and the Playa area were way easier for me honestly, a lot of the bigger complexes out here are used to dogs because everyone walks them along the Ballona Creek path and Burton Chase Park.
Just budget for the pet rent, it's kind of unavoidable, but I found the westside places cared more that she was chill than what she weighed.
Koreatown surprised me. I kept telling myself a dog would fix my whole stay-inside-for-three-days problem and when I actually looked, a bunch of the older buildings off Wilshire and around Larchmont edge just wanted a deposit and didn't care about breed. The newer luxury towers were the strict ones.
Atwater Village and the Eastside in general are dog country, half of Griffith Park is basically a dog commute from here. Landlords around Atwater, Eagle Rock, Highland Park are mostly small owners, not corporate, so they'll meet the dog and make a call instead of hiding behind a 25 pound rule.
The tradeoff is you're dealing with a person, not a portal, so bring vet records and a reference from your current place. Goes a long way with the mom-and-pop owners.
Worth knowing the game a little. The weight and breed limits are usually the big management companies covering insurance liability, not a real fear of your dog. Smaller independent landlords in West LA and the Palms area were a lot more flexible when I looked, and a written note from a previous landlord saying she was clean and quiet basically erased the objection.
Skip the shiny new buildings, that's your whole problem right there. The corporate stuff runs on breed and weight rules because a spreadsheet told them to. Older privately owned places around the Marina and Mar Vista will actually look at the dog. Pet rent is here to stay though, just factor it in and move on.
Los Feliz, Silver Lake and parts of Echo Park are noticeably more dog-friendly. You see dogs everywhere and a lot of the smaller apartment buildings seem more reasonable about them. West Hollywood is pretty good too, although obviously you’re paying for it and most people here have small dogs.
The 25 lb rule sounds kinda insane because it makes zero sense. My neighbor has two tiny dogs that bark at literally oxygen while some of the bigger dogs spend 80% of the day sleeping on the floor.
