My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Iowa
I live in a tourist community in northwestern Iowa. Around November, I was looking for an apartment with my partner and our ~5ish year old cat. This community clears out during the winter and there were quite a few empty condos available for winter rent. It was difficult to find a place, but we did manage to find a condo owner who would allow us to have a pet.
He told us that we could have the pet when we initiated contact although, the idiot that I am, I didn't get this guaranteed in writing. The lease simply states that we need to abide by all the rules on the homeowners association of these units, and we thought we were. We have emails with the landlord in which we told him we had moved the cat in and he has been in the unit and obviously knows there is a cat here.
Today, we were at the shelter and found a kitten that we'd like to rescue. We sent a message to our landlord to see if this would be ok and he informed us that the homeowners association does not allow pets and he was reminded of that in a newsletter he received in the fall.
So we are now in a situation where we have a cat in our unit that is technically not allowed although the owner of the unit knew we were in violation when we moved in. I'm concerned that if anyone found out about the animal that we'd be evicted, fined, or be forced to part with the animal. I feel the original lease was signed in bad faith if the landlord knew that we were in violation in one of the stipulations at the signing. I had never read the rules of the homeowners association and had believed that if the landlord allowed us to have the pet then we weren't in violation, after all, I never signed an agreement with the HOA.
How enforceable is our lease contract in this case and what happens if our pet is discovered? The only evidence that we have that he knew about the pet is an email exchange in which we explicitly told him we had moved in the cat. I'm assuming that he knew this was in violation of the HOA's rules but was desperate to rent the place this winter.
Any input is greatly appreciated.

