This is day 28 of my 31 days of tips on tenancy agreements series. To see the rest of the series click here.
Letting to tenants with pets
Most landlords are adamant. No pets. Pets can cause damage to the property, future tenants with allergies may not want to live there, and you are worried about neighbours complaining about barking dogs.
However maybe you should sometimes re-consider this blanket prohibition, particularly if you are finding it hard to let your property. Would allowing a tenant with a pet really be so terrible? Depending on the tenant and the pet of course.
Research by the Dogs Trust shows that
- 78% of pet owners have experienced difficulty in finding accommodation which accepts pets
- 54% were never able to find a suitable property, and
- 8% had to rehome their pet
The majority of pet owners are decent responsible people. In most cases, if you offer them a tenancy, they will be so grateful to have found a somewhere where they can keep their pet that they will take good care to keep it, by paying rent promptly and keeping the property in good condition. You may also find it considerably easier to find a tenant for your property as your pool of prospective tenants will be so much wider.
However you do need to protect your position and the tenancy agreement is the best place to do this. For example
- The agreement should have a section where details of the pet are set out, including the breed of animal (where known) and microchip details, and
- Provide for a non returnable ‘pet payment’ (to be used to get the property thoroughly cleaned professionally when they vacate)
- Have details of the animal’s vet and
- The name, address and contact telephone number of someone who will look after the animal if anything happens to the tenant (ie so you are not stuck with it)
The agreement should also have pet related terms and conditions, setting out things such as the tenants responsibility for the welfare of the animal, and for ensuring that it does not cause a disturbance.
You can find more information on the Lets for Pets web-site. Note that Landlord Law members can use our special letting with pets tenancy agreement, available to annual members.
You will also find a lot of general information about letting to tenants with pets in the article that you will find here.
If you *don’t* want to have pets, make sure that your prohibition clause is valid. Please see the guidance given on Day 16 regarding this.
Do you have any comments on this section? Do you allow your tenants to keep pets or are you very much against it? Have you experienced any problems with pets in properties? Do you have any funny stories?
Tomorrow I will be looking at preparing the agreement and signature
NB Read about my tenancy agreements service here.
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