Pet rules in coops

My husband and I are first time coop buyers. We have a small, well-behaved dog and two small, clean, quiet cats (for the record, we never wanted three pets, but inherited the second cat when my mom lost her house in hurricane Sandy). We have always been transparent with our agent and sellers' agents about our pets. We recently saw a place we loved, in what was billed to us as "one of the pet... [more]

My husband and I are first time coop buyers. We have a small, well-behaved dog and two small, clean, quiet cats (for the record, we never wanted three pets, but inherited the second cat when my mom lost her house in hurricane Sandy). We have always been transparent with our agent and sellers' agents about our pets. We recently saw a place we loved, in what was billed to us as "one of the pet friendliest buildings in the neighborhood" (although that's been said to us a lot). The seller's agent, who also happens to live in the building, said, "The rule is one pet per room. I think there's one woman who has 9 cats!" Since the apartment we liked has 5 rooms we weren't worried. We told her right off the bat that we had three pets and she said that was no problem. So, we put in an offer, it's accepted, and we're moving to contract. We review the coop application and see that, lo and behold, the pet policy states a 2 pet maximum (max one dog, and max two pets total, so you can have a dog and a cat, or two cats, but not more). Of course, we freak out. Our broker tells us not to worry -- he reassures us that because the seller's agent lives in the building, if she thinks it's won't be a problem, it won't be. He thinks that she'll have sway over the board and says she wouldn't let us move forward if she thought it was a big risk, because her reputation with the board is on the line. Then we talk to our attorney who tells us otherwise. He says not to trust the brokers at all, that they have no control over the board or the rules and if the rule is no more than two, then that's the rule, no way around it. He says our only options are to either get rid of a pet or lie. He also says most coops have a two-pet limit so we will be in this position on almost any place we try to buy. Our brokers don't think we should lie, but rather be honest with the board and assume that we'll be strong enough candidates that they'll allow the extra cat. After all, it's just one cat instead of two, not at the level of let's say trying to get a dog into a no-pets building, or trying to get a pit-bull accepted in a building that has a 20 pound max. I feel very torn. I hate the idea of lying and went into this wanting to be upfront and transparent. On the other hand, I feel like if we're completely honest with the board and just try to fly in the face of the house rules when applying, we're setting ourselves up to be rejected. I don't see why they would be inclined to make an exception for us -- rules are rules, and while we might be great potential tenants, at the end of the day coop boards reject people all the time ,and this seems as good a reason as any other. I feel more inclined to just say we have one dog and one cat, and assume that it'll be easy to just not mention the second cat, who will more or less fly under the radar. We'll have to be a little sneaky, but nothing crazy. I don't like lying, but it just seems like the safer option -- if a lot of people in the building ignore the rule anyway (based on what the seller's agent said), it doesn't seem like as big a risk as being honest and getting flat out denied. And if it's true that most buildings have this rule, then moving on from this place might not help us because we could end up in the same position over and over again. Was curious to get outside thoughts/suggestions. Having never gone through a coop board application or lived in a coop board before, I really have little sense of how these things play out. I wouldn't consider trying to get into a no-pets building and lying about all of them, nor would I lie about the dog. But two cats vs one seems much more minor. Help! [less]