Cat 'complaint'

cottonhead

We have lived in our current home for 8 years and for the last 2 1/2 years have had a cat. She is an older cat who hardly goes outside.
Our property is leasehold and we pay a management company ( who are useless) a monthly fee. The T+C's state you need permission to keep a cat but I never sought permission. I know its 'the rules' but our cat doenst impact on anybody else. We have our own front door etc.
Today I receive a letter entitled 'cat complaint' from the management company. I can only guess one of the neighbours must have grassed us up.

We hardly know the rest of the neighbours as they are tennants who seem to move frequently. However an old bloke and his much younger wife moved in next door a year ago. He gives me the creeps. Always poking his nose in and asking too many questions and stands so close to me it gives me the creeps. To add to that his wife just ignores me if we ever exchange hello's. Anyway I decided the best strategy was to distance myself so I say hi but no more and then only if he says it first so as not to be rude. So with that in mind and becauase I know he is such a busy body with to much time on his hands I am guessing it might be them who 'complained'. Makes me cross to think we have lived here so long and never caused trouble.

Anyway I am not going to complete the 'permission to have a cat form' I did even think of being sarcastic and sending it back asking for permission to keep a crocodile or something! Just makes me cross that people can be so petty.

Judith_W

Please don't risk your tenancy for the sake of filling out a form. I'm sure they won't have a problem with it and are just doing their job. It may well be the neighbour who commented but at the end of the day it is a reasonable rule of the tenancy.

hazyjo

I'd fill in the form too. But then I'd never have got a cat without permission if that's what was needed - sorry! It's the way leasehold often works so I just wouldn't have risked it. My cats are far too 'valuable' to me to have some I]insert expletive[/I tell me I can't keep them!

Jx

dodger1

If you had followed the terms and conditions in the first place this wouldn't now be a potential problem.

jojo_2012_2

Can they prove you own it? Surely you're just opening your door to check the weather and a cat happens to run in lol

unsure

You can hardly complain about the behaviour of others when the situation is a result of you knowingly ignoring the requirements of your tenancy agreement.

It seems you are also prepared to escalate the situation by refusing to complete the required documentation. That seems somewhat unwise and is likely to have consequences. It's your choice entirely but it seems unfair to blame others or to expect them to acquiesce with your decision to ignore your responsibilities as a tenant. After all, how hard is it to fill in the form? You could have saved yourself any grief by doing so from the outset.

Soundgirlrocks

I would fill in the form and do things correctly, but if for some reason you don't get permission I'd then go through the lease with a fine tooth comb and see what infractions your neighbours have committed laminate flooring for example, not cleaning windows is another common one depends if you want go down the tit for tat route. Most lease are broken in some way or other.

cottonhead

I totally agree in one sense that it is the rules. However I just don't see how its anyones business. What you keep / do in your home so long it doenst impact on anyone else. We pay the mortgage and have lived here 8 years with no problems. The management company also want £65 for completing the form which seems ridiculous to me. I can't wait to move and buy a freehold to be honest. I know I probably sound like I am making a fuss over nothing and should just follow the rules. Maybe its because the way the management company tell us what to do and what not to do, takes away some of the feeling that this is our home.........

Jellybean_Jo

Do you have a communal garden or anything? I know you said you've got your own door, but are any of the outside spaces communal?

Werdnal

Correct me if I am wrong, but OP never said they were a tenant?

The property is leasehold - OP are you the owner of that leasehold, or are you renting from the leaseholder?

Regardless anyway, you have breached the terms and conditions of the lease by not asking permission. Chances are, the freeholder/management company may have granted permission if you had asked in advance, but now they are likely to demand you get rid of the cat! Or may even fine you for breaching your lease.

You may not like it, but thats the lease you signed and accepted when you took on the property. They cannot make clauses for instance that you can "have 1 cat or a budgie, but not a dog", so they invoke a total "no pets without permission" clause. If everyone in the block decided to ingore the clause, you could have the "mad cat woman" downstairs with a collection of unneutered moggies producing a litter every 8 weeks, and the chap on the top floor with 2 staffy/pitbull crosses who are locked in and barking all day whilst he is at work.

I understand you feel aggrieved that you may have been shopped, but you know you were breaking the rules anyway!

If you decide not to return the paperwork or pay the fee, I suspect management company will invesitgate further and may impose a heavier fine for your lack of compliance!

GAH

At the end of the day I'm sure the management company actually couldn't care less that you have a cat, they have got better things to do, but they have to be seen as acting upon a complaint if they receive one.

I have never heard of a management company make someone get rid of a cat.