Pets, leaseholders and 'unreasonably' withholding consent

jjlandlord

Werdnal wrote: »

Landlord does not need to justify anything to you.

Well:

- Can I have a cat? I will have the appropriate cleaning done when we leave.
- No.
- Why?
- Because. And I don't want to hear about it again.

Does not strike me as being reasonable. Just for this LL should justify.

martinsurrey wrote: »

and his defence of "I don’t like cats and the risk of a cat smell communal areas"

Because you think this is a 'reasonable' ground to withhold consent?

IMO, in relation to a cat, with tenant consenting to have property cleaned, sprayed, etc., the only reasonable cause to withhold consent is that leasehold prohibits pets.

JamesWright1987

jjlandlord wrote: »

Well:

- Can I have a cat? I will have the appropriate cleaning done when we leave.
- No.
- Why?
- Because. And I don't want to hear about it again.

Does not strike me as being reasonable. Just for this LL should justify.

Any prohibition that the the leasehold may contain does not apply to OP as OP is not subject to the leasehold.

Sorry if I sound a little thick but what's an 'OP'?

jjlandlord

JamesWright1987 wrote: »

Sorry if I sound a little thick but what's an 'OP'?

That's you, as Original Post(er)

JamesWright1987

Aha, thanks for clearing that one up

krlyr

Pretend the reply come back as "Sorry, the landlord said no as he's allergic", voila, you have your reasonable justification and you're in the exact same position.

jjlandlord

krlyr wrote: »

Pretend the reply come back as "Sorry, the landlord said no as he's allergic", voila, you have your reasonable justification and you're in the exact same position.

Not too sure that whether landlord is allergic is relevant.

JamesWright1987

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

The landlord probably doesn't want to give his reasons because of all the inevitable protracted wheedling, like a bloke dumping a girlfriend but she has to know why, why, why so she can fix it ....

Come again?

JamesWright1987

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

He may think you will counter any argument he puts forward and it will never end.

He says he's worried about damage ... you say you'll put it right
He says he's worried about fleas ... you say you'll deinfest the carpet
He says he's worried about allergic future tenants ... you say you'll clean up

and so on and so on until one of you dies of old age.

surely then, he's breaking the terms of the contract as this could be deemed as "unreasonable". I'd argue that because the contract states he can charge us for cleaning / damage and the fact that we've agreed to Pay this, the above bullet points are mute?

Has anyone faced a similar situation and has anyone got any first hand advice?

jjlandlord

Eton_Rifle wrote: »

He may think you will counter any argument he puts forward and it will never end.

Well, landlord should give one reasonable argument, then stick to it instead of trying to give unconvincing reasons that just show he's just being unreasonable... Or worse, refusing to even give his reason.

pmlindyloo

OP, I think you are missing the point.

You may be entirely right and the landlord is being unreasonable in refusing to let you have a cat.

However, it really doesn't make any difference.

You could 'win' and the landlord is forced to let you keep a cat but in the end he will 'win' because he will issue you with a Section 21 and get you out eventually. He does not have to provide any reasonto do this.

Do you want to stay?

Your choice.