Please help! Dog in flat

Baileyborough

Hi guys,

My fiancee and I are renting in a small ground floor flat in London for the past year and a half (2 year lease, due up in April 2015 or so).

We also have a pug, so finding a pet friendly property was a pre-requisite for us.

We eventually found the property we have now, and were delighted when the agent told us that it was dog friendly. Also, the prior tenant had two dogs in the property.

So, after numerous verbal confirmations and one email, we rented, and have been fine here since.

Yesterday I spoke to the landlady about an unrelated issue, and in conversation I mentioned the dog. She was surprised that we had a dog. I was surprised that she didn't know. She asked if it was in the tenancy agreement and I said I thought it was. I told her we thought she knew etc.

I dug through the aggreement and found that it doesn't explicitly say we can have a dog - we need to ask permission from the landlady. Based on all our correspondances with the agents, we had no reason to think that she
1. didn't know we had one
2. hadn't already given the okay.

So now I'm kind of freaking out. I'm not sure what she can do to us (make us leave?), and frankly, we don't have the money for deposits etc at this point in time.

Please please please help, am I safe, or what can or should I do?

Thanks,

Conor.
Now I'm freaking out a small bit.

Voyager2002

Personally I would contact the agent first.

lmwarr21

I would not worry at the moment. Just ask your LL if it is a problem, say you mentioned the dog to the EA at the start. Don't worry unless it becomes a problem which at the moment it is not. LL has not told you to leave!

Baileyborough

Not yet! I've gone through the trail of events that led to us not informing her (essentially, had no reason to think she didn't already know), sent her the one piece of written confirmation I have (a brief email with me saying to the agent is he SURE that the LL is okay with us having a pug, and the response saying absolutely, there's already two dogs there etc), and reiterated that there was never any attempt at deception etc.

It's just a very scary time, as I do not have anything in the way of a safety net at this moment in time should she try to push us out.

Owain_Moneysaver

She can't evict you without a court order.

Her grounds for obtaining a court order during the fixed term of the tenancy are limited.

You have permission from the agents to have a dog.

Even if you didn't have permission, a blanket clause in the tenancy agreement that you CANNOT have a dog is an unfair contract term and unenforceable.

SeduLOUs

It is fairly common practice to pay an additional deposit for a pet. We paid the normal one month's rent deposit, plus an extra £250 specifically because of our dog.

On the other hand, it seems fairly clear that you did everything that you reasonably could to make EA you were dealing with aware, and if they didn't update the landlord then that is a gripe she needs to be taking up with them.

The house was obviously dog friendly as there had been dogs in the past, so I honestly don't see this becoming a major issue for you. The landlord may give the EA a complaint about it all, but I very much doubt she will attempt to evict as it's a pain to do and she would have to find a new tenant.

If she does talk about an additional deposit, it may be worth being reasonable rather than just saying no, perhaps offering to pay the additional over the course of several months as you were not at fault and it's a bit much to expect you to just cough up immediately. Like everything else, be sure to get any agreement in writing. Any additional deposit would also need to be secured in the same way the initial deposit was.

thesaint

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Even if you didn't have permission, a blanket clause in the tenancy agreement that you CANNOT have a dog is an unfair contract term and unenforceable.

You won't find any legislation to support your view.

ruggedtoast

They cant make you move out early because you have a dog. They can issue you an S21 to leave whenever the contract is up if they want so you can stop worrying about it, for now anyway.

theartfullodger

thesaint wrote: »

You won't find any legislation to support your view.

The various "Unfair Terms etc" legislative Acts & regulations provide the legal legislative basis of support for Owain's view, as I'm sure we'd all agree. In particular this one
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/2083/made

I think you may be referring to OFT356 " Guidance on unfair terms in tenancy agreements" which we know is but guidance, but highly likely to stand up in court were it to get that far (sadly at about the same time the s21 eviction was going through).

Owain_Moneysaver

thesaint wrote: »

You won't find any legislation to support your view.

You will find the Office of Fair Trading (as was) does.

Unfair terms in tenancy agreements

Cautious_Optimist

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

You will find the Office of Fair Trading (as was) does.

Unfair terms in tenancy agreements

So what about all the "no pets, no smokers, no DSS" notices?
Are all of these meaningless or illegal?