Pet friendly accommodation?

chucknorris

Recently my wife and I (who are both dog lovers and landlords) have been thinking that we may be guilty of being a bit hypocritical so are thinking about changing our ways and allowing tenants to keep pets.

However we would want to charge a premium, not to make additional profit, just enough to compensate us for any additional costs, damages or loss of rent. I think a larger deposit would be asked for too.

EDIT: someone below inserted a link and an extract form that explains the premium better then me:

Pet payment: You may also want to ask pet-owning tenants for a non-refundable pet payment to cover the cost of professionally cleaning the property once they have moved out. This would cover the cleaning of carpets, soft-furnishings and curtains.
It is good practice to provide the tenant with a written estimate for professionally cleaning your property so that they know the pet payment you are asking for is fair.
Any pet payment taken by the landlord or letting agent should be taken at the start of the tenancy and would be non-refundable.


Does anyone have any experience of how much tenants tend to pay extra to keep a pet? If they aren't really willing to pay more then the idea is doomed to failure.

dannymccann

Our last landlord allowed us to have a 'small' dog (staffy x jack russel) after we had moved in, she basically said we will take some money out of your deposit to clean the carpets when you leave. At the time there wasnt a certain amount disclosed, but we trusted her as she was a good landlord. Get some quotes from local places about carpet cleaning and either add that on top of the deposit or make it clear in the contract that that amount will be taken off the deposit to clean the carpets at the end of the contract.

dizziblonde

Got charged an additional £200 deposit in one place to keep a cat - my mum haggled it down to £150 based on the fact she had 25% less claws than the average four-legged variety (she's an amputee). I thought that was hitting stupidly excessive levels tbh in terms of additional deposits. I don't begrudge paying extra - but that was getting a bit too high in my mind - especially for a wonky moggie who never even moves from the sofa unless prodded into action.

Current place has a "clean the carpets and repair any damage when you leave" clause added to the contract with permission.

I would never move into a house where the rent was actually increased in order to have a pet which seems to be what you're planning. That smacks of trying to get people over a barrel and juice them for all they have.

N79

chucknorris wrote: »

Recently my wife and I (who are both dog lovers and landlords) have been thinking that we may be guilty of being a bit hypocritical so are thinking about changing our ways and allowing tenants to keep pets.

However we would want to charge a premium, not to make additional profit, just enough to compensate us for any additional costs, damages or loss of rent. I think a larger deposit would be asked for too.

Does anyone have any experience of how much tenants tend to pay extra to keep a pet? If they aren't really willing to pay more then the idea is doomed to failure.

1. Under no circumstances charge a "premium" or refer to charging a premium. This is a specific legal term when used in association with leases and would spell disaster for a short term residential LL.

2. Maximum deposit you can take is 2 months. Anything higher will be a "premium".

One option would be to take a large deposit (up to 2 months) and write into the contract that the T will pay for flee treatment at the end of the tenancy in return for permission to keep the pets. Given the problems of flees then this really is essential.

lizzielondon

I would take a larger deposit than has been suggested here.

A relative of mine has a problem tenant at the mo and has found out she has had a dog in the house without permission and both the front door and back door have huge scratch marks on the inside where the poor dog has obviously desperate to get out, but not allowed :eek:

then again seems to be a huge dog, i suppose you could stipulate small pets only?

lizzielondon

didn't see N79's post- didn't know about the premium

N79 could you have 2 separate deposits to get round this? a regular security deposit and a pet damage deposit? Or would this also count as a premium?

jangor_2

I suppose I am very lucky as my LL has dogs of her own so she did not charge me any extra for my two dogs (3 legged BC and a small spaniel cross). However the agreement does state that on departure I am to have the carpets cleaned and any damage repaired which is of course fair enough. However I keep rugs over the carpets and my dogs are walked 2/3 times daily and sleep the remainder of the time! I don't think, apart from a few hairs, that anyone would actually notice that dogs live with me. I would however be happy to pay an additional deposit if requested. I always get very annoyed when I read of pet owners who allow their pets to damage property as it is very difficult to find LLs who are willing to rent to pet owners as it is.

bramble1

we paid to have carpets and walls professionally cleaned after our tenancy ended, we have a labrador.

DawnW

I am currently a LL, and as I keep animals myself, advertised my property (large 3 bed house with garden, so perfectly suitable) as 'pets considered'. That meant I wanted to see the pet(s) first. A well behaved dog or cat, or small caged things fine, but large aggressive dogs (and owners) who would !!!!!! off the neighbours not fine.

My tenants have a quite elderly cat, which has caused no problems at all to the neighbours. I didn't ask for an additional deposit. However, I do appreciate the flea thing - when these tenants leave however we intend to completely do up the house and live in it ourselves - I don't mean it is not liveable in how it is, but we want to change the internal layout to make a big kitchen and a utility room - so lots of building work,and all carpets etc will go anyway, so if it happened that the cat had clawed them or wee'd on them, it wouldn't really matter.

I guess if I was looking to rent it out again though, I would have thought differently about it though.

BadgerFace_2

We're just looking at the moment and I would be very happy to professionally clean, double deposit etc. If, however, you asked for additional rent, I would not touch you with a barge pole.

Have a look at Letswithpets dot org dot uk, it explains the benefits and also gives example lease clauses etc.

LittleMissAspie

chucknorris wrote: »

However we would want to charge a premium, not to make additional profit, just enough to compensate us for any additional costs, damages or loss of rent. I think a larger deposit would be asked for too.

The whole point of the deposit is to compensate you for any additional costs or damages, so what exactly is your "premium" for? How would a pet cause loss of rent?

chucknorris wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of how much tenants tend to pay extra to keep a pet? If they aren't really willing to pay more then the idea is doomed to failure.

I'm a tenant with a pet and would not be prepared to pay extra. Do you really think a pet will cause more damage than the ordinary deposit costs? If so, why not charge more rent and deposit for renting to a couple over a single person? After all, two people are twice as likely to cause damage than one person. While you're at it you should charge a premium for children too. And red wine drinkers. And clumsy people.