Renting a home when you have pets

News for tenants with pets

Over the New Year, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick announced that he would overhaul the model tenancy contract to make it easier for tenants to have pets. The then Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government said more young people and families than ever before were renting and should be able to enjoy the happiness that a pet can bring to their lives.  He added that only around seven per cent of rental properties were currently advertised as suitable for pets, meaning many people struggled to find a home suitable for themselves and their animals. Mr Jenrick’s statement said, “I’m overhauling our model tenancy contract to encourage more landlords to consider opening their doors to responsible pet owners. And we will be listening to tenants and landlords to see what more we can do to tackle this issue in a way that is fair to both.”A statement from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says that the overhauling of the tenancy agreement will be made public later on this year is just the start, being “part of this new government’s mission to improve life for tenants, recognising that more are renting and for longer in life” and went on to say “the government will be bringing forward a bill to update the relationship between tenants and landlords as well as to introduce a Lifetime Deposit scheme, to make moving between properties easier and cheaper.”

Landlord concerns over renting to tenants with pets

Since this announcement at the start of 2020, property legislators have reminded landlords and letting agents that as the government’s tenancy contract is not mandatory, the Minister’s announcement has no basis in law and landlords can refuse tenants permission for pets.

Although RSPCA figures show 44% of households in the UK own a pet, landlords remain wary of damage being caused which the deposit would not always cover the cost of repair.  On top of the recent cap on tenancy deposits at five weeks’ rent, many landlords flatly refuse to accept pet-owning tenants as the deposit amount does not cover damage caused by the animals.

Pet Rentals at Wills & Smerdon

At Wills & Smerdon we understand how finding a property where the Landlord accepts pets can be very difficult.  Unlike many other UK letting agencies, we want to help pet owners and we do not automatically insert a ‘no pets’ clause into our standard tenancy agreement.  Of course, not all of our rental properties will accept pets, but we have a large majority who do, and as pet owners ourselves, we encourage Landlords to consider this option. We fully understand that Landlords who exclude pet owners from their properties are missing out on a large share of the rental market as almost half of the households in the UK currently own a pet.