‘Completely disproportionate’: UK tenants feel the bite of ‘pet rent’

23 comments

1. Seems pretty fair really, pets cause, or have the potential to cause, significant damage.

2. I’ve always ignored the no pet policy when renting. Just don’t cause damage and if it happens sort it out yourself.

3. How long before there is a curry premium for racist landlords?

4. I’m renting with the council so don’t come for me but my kids are way worse than our cat for damage, the cat ruined the carpets but the kids have just trashed the place, nail polish on everything, greasy handprints, holes in the wall from them swinging things around. Slime lizard marks where they chucked them on the wall or ceiling, broken doors and cupboards. We plan on filling the holes and painting the whole place with a white base before we go, that way the next folk can just come in and decorate.

   We’ve hit the point where there’s no point in decorating because the kids just wreck everything nice and clean and pretty. I’ll wait until they’re like 10 then do it, save myself the bother 😂

5. Cats will destroy sofas etc but dog smell is real for most dogs. It requires an epic clean to remove it.

6. Pets should cost more to tenants than none pet owners.

7. Pet rent is just an excuse for land bastards to milk more money from their tenants. If you rent a place you don’t pay extra for each child or each extra tenant, you just pay the going rate for the property.

   If landlords want to allow pets but also want to protect their investment they should be asking for an additional deposit.

8. Trying to rent with pets is a nightmare

   It took us ages to find somewhere in our price range that allowed a cat. Most of the places are not even in good condition and don’t allow pets in case they cause damage.

   Like mate, you haven’t decorated this shit hole for 20years and it’s got damp in every room, my cat is the least of your worries here

9. An extra £100 a month to cover cleaning at the end of the tenancy…I’m just not telling the landlord and paying for any problems myself at the end of the tenancy. What kind of dirt do landlords think a dog will cause that will cost £1200 a year to fix? 

10. The issue with this law is that since there is more demand than supply for housing the landlord can choose someone without pets and just not say why they chose that person over someone with pets.

11. Pet rules are ridiculous. The damage they cause is either covered by a deposit or it isn’t, it’s either part of wear and tear or it’s not, charging per rent is a joke.

    Happy to have my mind changed but I currently think it’s an excuse for a cash grab. Similar to places that charge more for couples too.

12. We were lucky when we moved as we only had a charge of £250 per pet on top of the deposit, much rather than than a monthly surcharge.

13. I aren’t allowed a pet in my council high rise flat. If I get one, it will void my tenancy if they find out. It’s so sad. I know people would say “just get one!” But I’m that scared of being kicked out. I can’t. I live alone too so it would help massively. I’d even pay extra to be allowed one, but even that’s not allowed. Gutting.

14. Our landlord didn’t want pets, but we must have done something right when we met him because when we mentioned it again, he agreed. He added a ‘claws’ in the contract. We ended up getting a rescue cat who only clawed a bit of the carpet.

    Turned out to be the best landlord we ever had and stayed for 8 yrs.

15. We had to get special permission for our cats when we bought a flat, so not even a rental! They both died while we were there but never told our landlord when we bought a new cat to avoid any hassle. It just seemed ludicrous that we could own a flat but still not be allowed to have a pet.

16. I’ve always moved my dog in, he is house trained and never had any issues, I’m a very clean OCD type of person anyway and my dog has never once messed in the house.

17. When I moved into my council house theres a 2 pet rule. I had 4 cats but only declared 2, Ive only 3 now.

    Same as next door have 3 dogs, although 1s a huge staffy and 2 little frenchies. the frenchises togethers dont make a real dog 😛

18. thank previous government for creation of rental generation with lack of protection for renters

19. The whole issue is supply and demand.

    There’s really no point in putting political energy into issues like this. Because someone makes a rule that pet owners have to be able to charged the same as people without pets … so landlords ban pets … so we have to have rules forcing people to accept tenants with pets … and then we have to read articles about wayward poets keeping a bear in their rooms at Cambridge and a menagerie of monkeys at the priory.

    And it’s all just wasted effort and sound and fury signifying nothing.

    You want cheap rent? France (which has plenty of housing problems and homelessness) has 37m homes and about the same population as the UK which as 30m homes.

    We need ~10 million more homes, especially if you factor in future net migration as climate change worsens.

    We should just all be banding together to get major planning reform done (what Labour is currently proposing is nothing like enough) and getting a massive building program on.

    And then sure after that people with pets will be charged 10% more, but the total price will be half of what it is now and everyone will be fine and people will feel rich again.

    This country really has only one core problem and we’re doomed until we really get serious about fixing it.

20. “Competely disproportionate”???

    My last tenant’s dog completely wrecked the kitchen. They allowed it to piss up the units so when they moved out the entire kitchen had to be replaced. It took an age to get the stink of dog piss out of the concrete flooring.

    My lad rented a house where the previous tenant had had cats. Every external corner on the walls had massive scratch marks gouged in the wallpaper and the plaster. Many of the door frames did too where the cat had been allowed to use them as a scratching post.

21. When I moved into my current house, the carpets upstairs stank of dog urine, the back door had been scratched at by dogs to the point of having actual holes in it and the kitchen lino was torn to shreds. There were also plastic bags of dogshit left in the backs of all the flowerbeds.

    The landlord paid for new doors, carpets and kitchen lino, I sorted the garden.

    I can kind of see why my landlord no longer allows pets.

22. We’ve been lucky with our cat; two landlords have allowed her without too much bother, and the only damage she’s caused is to our own furniture.

    My child on the other hand has “cleaned” the wall with baby wipes and stripped the paint, hulk smashed her way out of her stair-gate taking a chunk of wall with it, and peed on the floor many times.

23. Pets aren’t the problem tbh. It’s irresponsible tenants. Which is part of the business landlords have signed up to

    If a dog trashed a kitchen, it was the tenant who allowed it to happen. If they allow a dog to trash the property I’m guessing they didn’t give a shit about it tbh.

    Landlords are just asking to be lied to and screwed over. You wanted this business, well suck it up and deal with it. You’ve accepted these risks.

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