Advice Needed - Buying a Leasehold flat without confirmation my cat will be allowed

NameUnavailable

The lease may not say anything about pets (in which case you don't need to worry at all) or might say something like 'no pets which may cause annoyance' (you can have your cat but if anyone complains they might tell you to rehome it) or it might explicitly forbid pets.

What does the lease say? 

l love animals, don't have any pets myself but currently live with 3 dogs! I did view a flat recently which was in a nice block but there was cat poo in the communal hallway - if I lived there I'd be complaining to the management company about it!

I guess it's not the pet that is the problem most of the time, it's bad pet owners!

canaldumidi

I'd be surprised if the current leaseholder can apply (formally) for permission on your behalf.

As I suggested above, a friendly laid-back freeholder might respond positively and all would be well.

But a 'buy-the-book' freeholder would perhaps grant the current leaseholder consent, but that would not carry forward legally to you. It would be consent for him, not you.

Of course, it would give you a good indication of how the freeholder would be likely to respond when you, in turn, later applied, but in terms of legal consent it would not provide you the 100% caste-iron security.

bouicca21

OP, you really need to read the lease to see just what it says (or doesn’t say) about pets. 

If you do need permission, then I do quite understand why the management company can’t give it to someone who does not as yet occupy the flat.  But I would have thought that it could quite easily give an undertaking that such permission will be granted once you own the lease.

Leesabee1

Just ask the seller to ask their property manager. I had the same for one of my residents yesterday and I emailed their estate agent on their behalf to provide confirmation that they just need to apply to the Landlord. If there are already pets at the block then they will also know this and you will have reassurance that permission is normally granted

TripleH

Canaldumidi, I was thinking more that the current leaseholder apply for themselves even if have no cat. If they are given permission then it makes it easier for the Op.

(Above is assuming that the lease does not provide any information one way or another).

When we've home hunted we always check to see if there are dogs about wholook to live there.

Agree that pet owners who don't clean up after themselves are awful. One of our cats followed me in the lift once and when she found out she was on another floor had an accident. I went back and cleaned it up.

Another building resident let his dog deficate in the internal communal areas and denied it was him even when he was shown him stood there as his dog relieved themselves on cctv.

eddddy

TripleH said:

Canaldumidi, I was thinking more that the current leaseholder apply for themselves even if have no cat. If they are given permission then it makes it easier for the Op.

The current leaseholder would be applying for consent to keep a cat in the flat.

There's no reason why that consent has to be personal to the current leaseholder only.

Unless the consent letter says otherwise, the consent would continue if there is a change of leaseholder.

(In simple terms, it probably wouldn't give consent for John Smith to keep a cat in flat 4, it should give consent for 'the leaseholder' to keep a cat in flat 4. And the OP would become 'the leaseholder' at some point.)


If the freeholder says the consent terminates with a change of leaseholder, the freeholder has to have a 'reasonable' reason for making that condition. (If the freeholder doesn't have a 'reasonable' reason, the leaseholder can challenge it.)


But in any case, there's still a risk - as any consent letter will probably give the freeholder the right to terminate consent, if the cat causes annoyance and there are complaints.

Indigo_and_Violet

Agreeing with the general tone of the advice here.

A reasonable freeholder should be able to either grant permission before exchange or at leave give an indication that permission is likely to be granted (e.g. we can't give formal permission now but typically an application for a single cat to be kept entirely within the leaseholders property would be approved).

If they can't do that then I wouldn't proceed, partly because of the risk that they wouldn't allow the cat and partly because if your freeholders are this unhelpful over a routine request I wouldn't want to be dealing with them for anything more complicated. 

Would you be able to speak to work about the fact that you are trying to secure a property but haven't found somewhere suitable? Where we are travelodges etc are still quite cheap so they might be willing to have you in two days a week (one overnight) while you are still looking. 

canaldumidi

I'd re-iterate that it's worth checkingout the building. Buyer should be doing that anyway, irrespective of the pet issue. What are the oter leaseholers/occupants like? Are there any pets in  the building?.....

TripleH

We had a purchase when from the first visit to look round, we made it clear we had cats, we raised that we had cats and if that would be a problem multiple times.

It was only after we spoke to someone about doing marketing for the place that we were told we needed permission for pets and that we should have asked sooner.

We provided the email chain to show we had, but in the end, we just had to fill out a form requesting permission.

FreeBear

To those of you that have suggested getting rid of the cat - Shame on you. A cat, like any other pet, it is a life long commitment. It would be no different to getting rid of a child if the lease said "no children".