Rental Properties with Pets. Urgent.

regency_man

Calling Landlords!

Seeking advice.  A friend of mine is in a difficult situation, she has split up with her partner and needs to find a new home fast.  She doesn't have savings able to buy a property but makes a reasonable steady income to be able to afford up to £800pcm in rent.  The problem is, she has a dog and we are finding it impossible to locate properties.   Every time we come accross one that looks ideal (large unfurnished houses with hard flooring, a garden and near a park for walks) the ad looks perfect until we get to the last line, often in capitals and without any context: STRICTLY NO PETS.

Having rented when younger I thought this was only common on furnished properties, but seemingly this is now the norm on all rentals, even unfurnished ones.

The dog is very well behaved and completely house-trained, and the owner is the most dilligent pet owner you could imagine, however most agents will refuse to even engage with her if the dog is mentioned.

We seem to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.  One school of advice is to not mention the pet, then just move it in at a later date and hope the landlord doesn't notice, or by that point doesn't care so long as the rent keeps coming, but this is dishonest.  We'd like to engage with landlords, allow them to meet the pet and owner and understand it wouldn't be a problem, even willing sign a contract to say they'd pay for extra deep cleaning etc. when moving out, but with most landlords now sheilded behind a layer of agents, it seems impossible to even have this conversation. 

As landlords, what would your advice be?  When you put 'STRICTLY NO PETS' in your listings, do you really mean it?  Or would you be willing to relax the rule if you met the pet and owner, agreed extra terms etc?

Thanks!

Comms69

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

theartfullodger

Comms69 said:

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

Exactly.  But if her actions are to ignore terms of her contact, why would she expect landlord to stick to his responsibility?  Asking for a friend.

Falafels

When I was renting out my property, I stipulated 'No Pets', but unofficially I was prepared to look at it on a case-by-case basis. Mind you, there's no way I'd have agreed to the prospective tenant who had five cats and wanted £50/month off the rent!

It did involve putting an extra clause into the contract, making the tenant responsible for any damage done by the pet and for a deep clean at the end of the tenancy.

[Deleted User]

theartfullodger said:

Comms69 said:

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

Exactly.  But if her actions are to ignore terms of her contact, why would she expect landlord to stick to his responsibility?  Asking for a friend.

Because the law requires the landlord to behave in certain ways under law ? 

OP - its a tricky one. I have a cockapoo dog and he sleeps in my bed with me. I think he is cleaner than most men !  

Often you dont meet landlords, just the agents and I can imagine they would be even more difficult to persuade. As a landlord myself, Im not keen on pets ( definitely not cats ) because of the damage dogs can do to gardens. Now if I found out a good tenant suddenly had a small clean dog, what would I do ? Realistically ? With the 6 months notice required to get anyone out nowdays and having tenants paying their rent and good in all other circumstances ...... Id do nothing but grumble and say ruined grass / smelly or soiled carpets/ chewed walls will be coming out of deposit.

Comms69

theartfullodger said:

Comms69 said:

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

Exactly.  But if her actions are to ignore terms of her contact, why would she expect landlord to stick to his responsibility?  Asking for a friend.

Rightly or wrongly, a LL has many statutory responsibilities, which cant be ignored. A tenant does not.

regency_man

Densol said:

OP - its a tricky one. I have a cockapoo dog and he sleeps in my bed with me. I think he is cleaner than most men !  

Haha!  Exactly.  I can tell you from experience, cleaning a little dog sick off the floor is NOTHING compared to cleaning up a glass of a red wine that a human has spilled, but you don't see adverts saying NO WINE DRINKERS!

regency_man

Falafels said:

When I was renting out my property, I stipulated 'No Pets', but unofficially I was prepared to look at it on a case-by-case basis. Mind you, there's no way I'd have agreed to the prospective tenant who had five cats and wanted £50/month off the rent!

It did involve putting an extra clause into the contract, making the tenant responsible for any damage done by the pet and for a deep clean at the end of the tenancy.

Yes, I am wondering if the secret code is:
NO PETS = I'll consider pets.
STRICTLY NO PETS = Actually no pets. 

Aranyani

theartfullodger said:

Comms69 said:

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

Exactly.  But if her actions are to ignore terms of her contact, why would she expect landlord to stick to his responsibility?  Asking for a friend.

Because keeping a pet is something a landlord shouldn't be allowed to have control of for their tenants. but keeping the property safe, habitable and in good repair is a responsibility that they definitely should bear!  

Comms69

Aranyani said:

theartfullodger said:

Comms69 said:

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

Exactly.  But if her actions are to ignore terms of her contact, why would she expect landlord to stick to his responsibility?  Asking for a friend.

Because keeping a pet is something a landlord shouldn't be allowed to have control of for their tenants. but keeping the property safe, habitable and in good repair is a responsibility that they definitely should bear!  

I think the LL should be able to dictate, just as things currently stand - effectively they cant. 

Aranyani

Comms69 said:

Aranyani said:

theartfullodger said:

Comms69 said:

Realistic answer - dont tell them. Do it anyway, risk an eviction down the line

Exactly.  But if her actions are to ignore terms of her contact, why would she expect landlord to stick to his responsibility?  Asking for a friend.

Because keeping a pet is something a landlord shouldn't be allowed to have control of for their tenants. but keeping the property safe, habitable and in good repair is a responsibility that they definitely should bear!  

I think the LL should be able to dictate, just as things currently stand - effectively they can't. 

Maybe they should be able to dictate hair colour too, after all dye can stain bathrooms.  Or what spices tenants can cook with, turmeric is a nightmare to get out.