Pet damage to floor, renting

EmmaJ_3

I am currently renting a 3-bedroom house with my boyfriend, we've been here 9 months now (originally a 6-month AST and it was extended last November to run until May). We'd like to continue renting here for the forseeable future, probably a few years.

We originally paid £150 extra deposit for my pets - house rabbits, and some pet rats. Deposit was rent (£675) + £100, we paid total £925. The pet rats are in one of the bedrooms. The house rabbits live semi-free range downstairs - there is a 'sun room' off the kitchen which is theirs, and when we're in in the evenings we let them through to the rest of the house under supervision. There has been no damage so far.

The kitchen has a vinyl (I think) floor, wood effect, looked great in the photos but is a bit cheap up close. It doesn't even run the full kitchen, areas under the fridge & dishwasher aren't floored nor into the understairs cupboard. There is a sliding door to the cupboard under the stairs which had caught on the vinyl and caused a small hole before we moved in. It was small and hardly noticeable, but made the door stick quite a bit.

Last night the door from the sun room to the kitchen was left ajar.....and my rabbit Jessica has taken it upon herself to enlarge this hole quite a bit. It's now very noticeable.

As tenant what do I need to do now?? Does the repair come out of the deposit or should I arrange the repair myself?? The flooring underneath the vinyl is terracotta (I think) tiling, it's quite nice but would be bloody cold underfoot!! But the vinyl flooring was obviously dirt cheap in the first place.

My contract just says things like 'the tenant agrees not to cause damage', it's a standard National Landlord Association, AST, they haven't even taken out the part about communal hallways even though we're a self-contained terraced house.

My fear is that the landlord will no longer allow pets, if that happened we'd have to move. Can they turn round and say that??? The contract says 'not to keep animals without the landlord's permission', but we have their permission and they have £150 of our money for it. It's all done through a letting agency.

I'm really worried about this, and quite embarressed too, we're model tenants otherwise, young professionals, rent by standing order, keep house in excellent condition otherwise.

rach!_3

cant you buy another roll of cheap lino and lay that? my sister kept a dog in her rented house, with permission from LL and when the floor needed replacing she bought it and my dad laid it, then when they moved they got full deposit back
HTH

merlinthehappypig

I agree with rach!. It will be much cheaper to do it yourself than allow the LL to help himself from the deposit.

Gorgeous_George

Can you not patch it for now and replace the lino when you are due to move out? Whatever you do, it is your responsibility and is the reason taht your LL took the deposit.

GG