Feb

Four-legged fail! Our poll shows less than half of landlords accept pets

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The government is preparing to make its model tenancy more pet friendly, but will landlords pay any attention?

As the government
prepares to reveal its revised model tenancy agreement to an expectant landlord
community, a poll by LandlordZONE reveals less than half are prepared to accept
pets.

During a poll of
landlords conducted across social media over the weekend, just 48.3% said
they’d rent properties to tenants with moggies and doggies.

Such a low acceptance
level may be shocking to campaigners and pet-owning tenants alike, but it’s an
improvement on the current private rental market, where research among listings
shows that, at best, 90% of properties advertised to rent say ‘no pets
allowed’.

Lettings agency
Benham & Reeves recently revealed that its research showed just 7% of
landlords actively welcomed pets even though 44% of households in the UK have
them.

The company also
warns that it believes more landlords will say no to pets despite the expected
changes to the model tenancy.

“Since the government
banned tenant fees capping deposits at no more than five weeks’ rent, landlords
have been left with no wiggle room when it comes to the potential damage caused
by pets,” says boss Marc von Grundherr.

“As a result, 90% of
our landlords are now saying no to pets with many of those already within a
rental property being notified they will have to leave once they reach the
renewal stage.”

As
LandlordZone reported
last week, the updated model tenancy is expected to be published at
any moment and will ask landlords to consider tenants with pets much more
strongly within its guidance.

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