dogs and lettings

lynzpower

Conrad wrote:

Us Landlords have the right to shape our lives as we see fit. I have enough worry and stress without adding potential flash points to my life.

I dont want to worry about Dog smells, people having thier benefits cut (ie caught for fraud so I suffer) etc. I focus my energy on engineering a happy life with my children, Im simply not going to take unnecessary risks that might keep me awake at night.

No one with pets plans to wreck the house / cause odours / transmit foot - poo, just as no one getting married thinks they will split - up, but reality often dictates bad outcomes, so again I seek to remove all potential stress from life where possible.

Stress is largely self - inflicted, dont blame careful LLs for wanting to avoid it.

I thought you said youd sold off all your UK BTLs to diversify

I guess selling them all off and not being a landlord anymore would be the best way of getting stress free

pingua

We offered 6 months in advance as well as deposit - this still did us no good with most agents !!

Ian_W

wendykearney wrote:

How do smokers get on cause i've not seen one yet that allowed smoking..
wendy

If it's Conrad, don't let on before you move in then tell him you started due to the stress of not being able to keep a dog!

catkins

Conrad wrote:

This issue for me would be smell. I find Doggy types dont seem to notice the smell ALL dog owners houses reek of.
If you were the owner you would want the property returned as found. You might not object to dogs but Im betting something might be unacceptable to you. Try and equate things you find unacceptable with different things you may accept but others would object to.

I cant bare the thought of Dogs having trodden in other Dogs poo then walking in your house. Watch any Dog and you will see it walks through others poo.

Ive never even accepted a cup of tea in a Doggy house.

There is nothing wrong with my sense of smell and I can assure you my house does not smell. Do you allow smokers cos their houses reek.

Children can (and often do) cause a lot more damage than dogs in a rented property

AndrewSmith

Conrad wrote:

This issue for me would be smell. I find Doggy types dont seem to notice the smell ALL dog owners houses reek of.

Ridiculus statement to make. Dog hygene is the same as human hygene. If you clean your dog and feed it properly then smell is not an issue. My springer sits in the office here with me all day. I just make sure that I vacuum and polish properly.

I cant bare the thought of Dogs having trodden in other Dogs poo then walking in your house. Watch any Dog and you will see it walks through others poo.

Ive never even accepted a cup of tea in a Doggy house.

Check the bottom of your shoes. You will have walked through cat and dog p1ss but will not have noticed. Same thing.

So let's get this in perspective. I, for example, live in a £300,000 4 bed detached house which is cleaned and vacuumed at least 4 times a week.

Are you saying that my house would not be acceptable for you to drink a cup of tea in? You really are a self opinionated w@nker arn't you? I doubt anyone would want you in their home anyway.

prudryden

Don't worry. Conrad's credibility is in tatters anyway. Just read his post on BTL and investing in general.

RHemmings

vyvyan wrote:

A lot of agents have a blanket ban on pets/ smokers & benefits.

I have had to ask to get my 2 cats accepted each time over the 12 years I've been renting. 90% of the time I'm turned down so I walk away. In the place I'm in now I've Got '2 cats permitted' on my agreement and I had to pay a higher deposit to cover the possible damage they might do. My cats are quite elderly now and do far more sleeping than damaging!

Surely though, landlords who refuse children, pets, benefits etc are eliminating a huge part of their potential market. Most healthy income, childess, petless professionals are buyers, not renters.

Blanket bans on pets are unfair clauses and may not be enforceable.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/DAAEFE58-1AAB-422A-AFED-BDE6C654A4EE/0/oft356.pdf

prudryden

The OFT states "We are unlikely to object to a term prohibiting the keeping of pets that could harm the propery, affect subsequent tenants or be a nuisance to other residents." Lot of scope there.

pigeonpie

I'm interested in the EU law angle; does anyone have a link? (EU website completely unfathomable). It is illegal to prevent someone from keeping pets in France. Don't know about other countries. But this is under recent French law. Subject to usual don't poo in common areas or bite the postman/neighbours, bark all the time etc.
This is NOT an animal loving country, despite the tabloids' claims to the contrary.
Check out doggy rights in France and Belgium and compare to here - they go into shops, restaurants, aircraft (if small) and trains in the compartment with you and I even saw a yorkshire picking out its food in a shopping trolley in a supermarket .

We looked at a rental in France (rented with cats) and asked the owners if they minded. They looked at us as if we were mad to ask.

Here we gave the agent instructions to only show us flats where the owner would be ok, which narrowed it down by about 50%. I think it is area dependent. If you go for the private route, try to get them to think of you as a good tenant first and then mention that you have a dog but that you have rented with him before, never any problems etc. Have you got refs? Good luck.
I would def not rent without LL's permission if the lease banned pets as it's too risky. If the lease is silent on pets, you have a strong argument that the omission means that you can keep your dog - although you could still run into the no nuisance clause etc. "nuisance" may be more unreasonably interpreted here too, probably though frequency and consistency of bad behaviour - unless doggy bites the LL. (Where's Conrad? )

prudryden

I am unable to find any reference to a law in France making it illegal to ban certain pets. Where did you see this? I have noticed that some rental properties in France specifically state they are dog/cat friendly, but that some of the properties don't allow pets. So, I'm confused until I can read something.