ANALYSIS: Why leasehold rules mean millions of tenants will never be allowed pets

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Pet-loving apartment block tenants are beginning to rail against leasehold rules banning pets in blocks of flats, with at least one case potentially heading for the courts.

LandlordZONE has heard of a pending legal action concerning a leaseholder who bought a pet after moving into a London block; her lease outlined how the management company would usually approve requests, but because she did not officially get permission, the case is now going through mediation. If a solution cannot be found, the leaseholder faces losing her home.

Most leasehold flats, especially those in large blocks, specifically ban pets in the lease and so far, legal battles to overcome this have failed, as have other initiatives and legal attempts to challenge landlords who refuse pets.

David Smith, property solicitor at JMW, says landlords would find it hard to turn down a pet on disability grounds, but that they retain the right to say no for any other reason.

“One recent legal challenge from a tenant who wanted to live with his dog because he said it would benefit his mental health, was thrown out by the court,” Smith tells LandlordZONE.

Communal harmony

Nigel Glen, CEO of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (pictured), suspects the majority of leases forbid pets but says the standard clause aims to try to protect communal harmony.

He tells LandlordZONE: “I don’t believe this is meant to be a killjoy or a way to charge fees for licences – instead I suspect it is a feature of communal living.

“I’m a zoologist by training so animals fascinate me. But not everyone likes pets and people with allergies, phobias or simply easily disturbed have to be taken into consideration.” 

The latest attempt to solve the conundrum of keeping pets is Petscore, a scoring-based platform that lets pet owners build up a profile for their pet to show landlords and letting agents.

It follows Andrew Rosindell’s scuppered private members’ bill to give tenants the right to live with their pets if they proved they were ‘responsible and caring’, while animal charity AdvoCATS is pushing for the Tenant Fees Act to be amended to allow landlords to either take additional deposits off tenants seeking to rent with pets or require tenants to take out extra insurance.

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£58,000 fine for a first-time offence despite ‘naïve mistake’ – judge

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A landlord family have been slapped with a £28,000 rent repayment order (RRO) and combined fines of £30,000 for a first-time offence of neglecting to licence their HMO.

Colin and Jacqueline Cain were ordered to pay £4,000 each to seven former tenants of their house in Wiggington Road (pictured), York, by a First Tier Property Tribunal after property manager Victoria Cain was fined £20,000 by York City Council and Colin Cain was fined £10,000.

But the fine could have been much worse – the couple were given a 30% discount on the RRO after admitting their ‘one-time’ mistake in not applying for a licence, that they had been badly advised, had tried to reach a settlement with the tenants and that they lacked funds to repay the penalty.

The tribunal also heard that there had been no complaints about the accommodation or management from the tenants or council, and that the Cains were the “very opposite of serial offenders” flouting the law.

One-time offence

“This one-time offence occurred by mistake, through naivety as to legal requirements,” it said.

The seven tenants had sought a rent repayment order of £40,350 for rent paid during the 12-month tenancy from 1st July 2018.

It ruled: “The respondents were not professional landlords with a wider property portfolio. The above findings concerning the respondents’ good conduct and clean history justify a discount to the rent to be repaid.

“The tribunal considers a discount in the order of 15% in each of these areas to be appropriate, giving rise to a repayment of 70% of the total rent.”

LandlordZONE has approached York City Council for comment.

Read the full decision.

Read more about HMO management.

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BREAKING: Leading property educators gather to launch self-regulation scheme

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An initiative to bring in self-regulation of the property education sector has been launched, recognising that its reputation faces ‘major issues’ as more and more ‘get rich quick’ operators join the fray.

Called the Property Educators Accreditation Scheme or PEAS, it is backed by key members of the educator sector.

This includes John Howard, Mark Lloyd of Property Master Academy; Ranjan Bhattacharya of Succeed in Property and property consultant David Temple, all of whom have been through a rigorous and six-month long vetting process.

It also has the backing of evictions expert Paul Shamplina; Sean Hooker, Head of Redress at the PRS; Kirsty Roberts of Asset Academy (pictured), whose husband and Home under the Hammer TV presenter Martin is also a property educator; compliance consultant Julie Ford, David Sandeman of the Essential Information Group and David Smith of JMW Solicitors.

PEAS is operated by the Property Investors Bureau headed up by Cyril Thomas (pictured), who also runs his own property management firm.

Enforcement

Thomas told a launch gathering at the offices of Hamilton Fraser (main pic) that the PEAS scheme is designed to help future students looking for a property educator to discover ‘the good guys’ who have signed up to be ethical and transparent, and that it will strike a balance between cooperation and enforcement.

 “Anyone looking for property education that sees the PEAS badge on training/marketing materials, can feel confident that the educator has been through a thorough and varied accreditation process and that they have a transparent money back guarantee amongst other things,” says Thomas.

Decent honest

John Howards (pictured) says: “In my view the property education industry has been calling out for an organisation that distinguishes between the genuine decent honest property educators and others who will not be accepted into PEAS.”

Lloyds adds: “Our industry has been under scrutiny for a number of years and we believe this will help improve standards and transparency for those looking to invest in their property education.”

Tim Frome of the PRS, says: “We at the Property Redress Scheme are pleased to support PEAS as we share the same objective of increasing standards in the property industry and providing consumers with suitable redress if they have an issue with a provider of a service”.

For more information about PEAS or the Property Investors Bureau, email on info@pibuk.org or call on 01206 700 123.

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