It's your reality, at your specific apartment complex. You can't say the way your apartment complex works is the same as mine will work or make blanket generalities that all apartment complexes run the same way. The people
in-charge and who make the decisions at my complex specifically said twice, to the point of being annoyed, that you can have dogs. I'm sure there are a lot of rules on the books that they choose not to follow, perhaps because it doesn't matter or because they are outdated.
But like I said, I will triple check and make them more mad.