Tenant has moved in with a dog

grumiofoundation

housebuyer143 said:

grumiofoundation said:

SueDebt said:

It's a long story but I have a tenant who has moved in with a dog even though the tenancy agreement specifies no pets.

My estate agent (who provided the tenancy agreement) says that part of the agreement is not enforceable nowadays.

Is anybody aware of a change in the law which means that clause is not allowed or enforceable?

Why don't you want a dog living in the property?

I believe legally a landlord cannot reasonably refuse a tenant requesting to have a pet. Such as if the lease of the property forbidding one.

You could serve a section 8 notice for breach of the tenancy agreement. If the tenant refuses to leave (as is their legal right) there is no guarantee a judge would agree with you. They may determine that it is not reasonable of you to refuse the tenants a pet.  

Possibly as above your agent said they could have a pet when showing them round, but didn't update the tenancy agreement.  In which case any action to evict them (see below) would fail if they can prove this.

For example we once had a tenancy agreement saying we weren't allowed to hand washing on the balcony. However since the property didn't have a balcony would have been hard for the landlord to evict based on that breach. 

Or possibly your agent is trying to save you the time and effort of trying to evict them?

I worked at an agency and they did this exact thing. Told the tenant they could have a dog and didn't ask the landlord when they moved in. 
Landlord found out about a month later, applied for a section 8 and actually got possession. Felt very sorry for those tenants.

Assuming the tenants had no proof then? 

AFAIK anything the agent says to the tenants is the same as the landlord doing so - so if they had proof I assume section 8 would have been thrown out? 

We viewed a property which said no pets but asked agent at viewing if cat would be allowed. They said would check with landlord and confirmed it would over the phone (so no record -  unlike Nixon I don’t record my own calls). We made sure we emailed saying “as agreed permission for …..” to (hopefully) cover ourselves if the situation described above occurred. (Also when higher deposits could be charged for pets so again made sure that we stated that when confirming transfer of deposit).

Despite this agreement the contract did still have no pets clause in it as well. 

housebuyer143

grumiofoundation said:

housebuyer143 said:

grumiofoundation said:

SueDebt said:

It's a long story but I have a tenant who has moved in with a dog even though the tenancy agreement specifies no pets.

My estate agent (who provided the tenancy agreement) says that part of the agreement is not enforceable nowadays.

Is anybody aware of a change in the law which means that clause is not allowed or enforceable?

Why don't you want a dog living in the property?

I believe legally a landlord cannot reasonably refuse a tenant requesting to have a pet. Such as if the lease of the property forbidding one.

You could serve a section 8 notice for breach of the tenancy agreement. If the tenant refuses to leave (as is their legal right) there is no guarantee a judge would agree with you. They may determine that it is not reasonable of you to refuse the tenants a pet.  

Possibly as above your agent said they could have a pet when showing them round, but didn't update the tenancy agreement.  In which case any action to evict them (see below) would fail if they can prove this.

For example we once had a tenancy agreement saying we weren't allowed to hand washing on the balcony. However since the property didn't have a balcony would have been hard for the landlord to evict based on that breach. 

Or possibly your agent is trying to save you the time and effort of trying to evict them?

I worked at an agency and they did this exact thing. Told the tenant they could have a dog and didn't ask the landlord when they moved in. 
Landlord found out about a month later, applied for a section 8 and actually got possession. Felt very sorry for those tenants.

Assuming the tenants had no proof then? 

AFAIK anything the agent says to the tenants is the same as the landlord doing so - so if they had proof I assume section 8 would have been thrown out? 

We viewed a property which said no pets but asked agent at viewing if cat would be allowed. They said would check with landlord and confirmed it would over the phone (so no record -  unlike Nixon I don’t record my own calls). We made sure we emailed saying “as agreed permission for …..” to (hopefully) cover ourselves if the situation described above occurred. (Also when higher deposits could be charged for pets so again made sure that we stated that when confirming transfer of deposit).

Despite this agreement the contract did still have no pets clause in it as well. 

No written proof at all, but the person who let it told me outright they had told them they could have the dog and didn't let the landlord know. So in traditional letting agent fashion they let the tenants get screwed for their own mistakes.
100% get it all in writing. 

FreeBear

If it is a service dog, you need to tread very, very carefully. First step would be to determine the status of the animal.

Murphybear

I worked with many landlords over the years and most of them were happy with pets.  We were working in mainly rural Devon, I think that was very different from a city.  Occasionally one would accept cats but not dogs, I think they thought they were less trouble.  Obviously didn’t realise there is nothing on Earth quite like the sound of a cat about to be sick  . One tenant got 3 pet rats then asked me if she could have rats.  Fortunately the landlady didn’t mind when I asked her.  

I would have hated trying to evict the rats

SueDebt

Thanks everyone for all the replies.

I just wanted to know what the legal position was as my estate agent told me that pets had to be allowed under a new law and I didn't think that was correct.

According to the link someone kindly provided that is not currently the case.

Woolsery

Murphybear said:

 Obviously didn’t realise there is nothing on Earth quite like the sound of a cat about to be sick  .

I will take your sick cat any day over the smell of certain dogs, which is impossible to remove from soft furnishings. Ever had a dog lover's car? Bleurgh!

TripleH

We have nice brown sand splodge carpets. They're meant to be grey but the cats disagree.

The age of an animal can make a difference. A puppy or a very elderly dog may cause more 'damage' but then can either of them compete with a 'sugared-up toddler with a sharpie?'

Robbo66

grumiofoundation said:

SueDebt said:

It's a long story but I have a tenant who has moved in with a dog even though the tenancy agreement specifies no pets.

My estate agent (who provided the tenancy agreement) says that part of the agreement is not enforceable nowadays.

Is anybody aware of a change in the law which means that clause is not allowed or enforceable?

Why don't you want a dog living in the property?

I believe legally a landlord cannot reasonably refuse a tenant requesting to have a pet. Such as if the lease of the property forbidding one.

Then you believe wrong, there is currently no requirement for Landlords to accept pets and they can refuse tenants with pets with the exception being guide dogs and similar

grumiofoundation

Robbo66 said:

grumiofoundation said:

SueDebt said:

It's a long story but I have a tenant who has moved in with a dog even though the tenancy agreement specifies no pets.

My estate agent (who provided the tenancy agreement) says that part of the agreement is not enforceable nowadays.

Is anybody aware of a change in the law which means that clause is not allowed or enforceable?

Why don't you want a dog living in the property?

I believe legally a landlord cannot reasonably refuse a tenant requesting to have a pet. Such as if the lease of the property forbidding one.

Then you believe wrong, there is currently no requirement for Landlords to accept pets and they can refuse tenants with pets with the exception being guide dogs and similar

I was just following what I could find online. I couldn’t find anything that said a blanket ban on pets would always be enforceable. 

A landlord can of course refuse to take on a tenant with pets but that is very different to evicting a tenant who got a pet without permission. 

Obviously as link below says what is determined as reasonable is not cut and dried. I am expert no so idea what the outcomes of recent court cases on the subject have been. 

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/can-my-landlord-prevent-me-from-keeping-a-pet/

Mr.Generous

I advertiise property with rent XXX per month, and XXX + £25 for rent with pets. If its a cat Ill drop it to £10, small dog £15 etc, but by increasing the rent I can increase the deposit, no other way of doing that, and in general pets DO cause some damage.

Should be able to do the same for children really