New housing minister to be lobbied by ‘pet with lets’ campaigners

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Campaigners have vowed to take their ongoing battle for pet rental reform to the new housing minister.

AdvoCATS founder Jen Berezai (pictured) is writing to Simon Clarke (main pic), to ensure he’s aware of its Heads for Tails campaign – calling for an amended Tenant Fees Act 2019 to allow for landlords to require pet insurance and/or by adding a pet deposit to permitted payments – and ongoing efforts to make proposed reforms work in practice.

As part of the Fairer Renting White Paper, landlords will need a good reason to refuse permission for a tenant to have an animal in their home and if they do say no, tenants will get the power to challenge their decision.

Landlords will also be able to request that tenants’ pets are fully insured – meaning that damage to property is likely to be covered by the pet’s insurance policy.

However, Berezai tells LandlordZONE: “We’re concerned that the new minister won’t have the same priorities and he certainly isn’t up-to-speed with our report and why pet reform is important. We need to keep the issue on the agenda.”

She also plans to write to outgoing housing minister Eddie Hughes, thanking him for his support and asking him if he’ll add his name to Advocat’s list of supporting MPs and peers, which now numbers 41.

Advocats is part of a working group including The Lettings Hub and the NRLA which meets regularly to discuss the issue. It is also promoting a Society for Companion Animal Studies online conference on 18^th September, Pet Friendly Housing – How can we keep people and pets together?, which landlords can join. The group has previously reported how the ban on keeping animals is the second biggest reason for tenants relinquishing pets to rescue centres.

You can register here Register here for the conference.

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