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."