Animals, kids hinder home quest

Bernice Ryan and her daughter Yvonne, 15, found it hard to find a rental property that allowed pets. Photo / Joel Ford

Bernice Ryan knows how hard it is to find a place to rent where she is allowed pets.

She has lived in Tauranga for 43 years and following a relationship break-up 10 years ago has been living in rental properties.

She has lived in three properties in those 10 years and says it took her about nine months to find her most recent rental.

"It is just so hard," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.

"When I first had to look for a rental I had three cats and two guinea pigs. The house I ended up renting was on the same property as the landlord and they didn't mind my pets so that was okay. I was there for five years but wanted to move closer to town so tried to look for another place and I was pretty lucky that I was able to find another house where the owners didn't mind us having pets."

But Ms Ryan said finding her most recent property was hard and she attributed that to having various pets and four children. "It took ages to find a house that was both suitable and would allow us to live there with four kids, two cats, a bird and a small dog," she said.

"I had excellent references and steady income and I think people would look at the fact I had four kids and pets and didn't want to let us have the house."

She said the owners of her current house were on their OE and she was not sure when she would have to move out.

"I'm not looking forward to it," she said. "I hope they give me plenty of notice because I'll need it to find another house."