Feb

Paws for thought? Pet-friendly model tenancy will cause problems, says leading inventory firm

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Proposals to include more inclusive wording within updated model tenancy agreement will create more disputes with renters, it is claimed.

Landlords face more
disputes with pet-owning tenants following the Government’s plans to remove
restrictions on well-behaved pets from the model tenancy agreement.

Inventory services
provider No Letting Go warns it could cause confusion and put landlords’
properties at risk from unnecessary damage.

Bans on
well-behaved pets will disappear after housing
secretary Robert Jenrick said earlier
this year that he wanted to ensure more landlords were catering for responsible
pet owners.

Total bans on
renters with pets would only be implemented where there is a good reason, such
as a property being too small or having no outside space.

However, Nick
Lyons, CEO and Founder of No Letting Go, says problems could arise due to subjective
animal behaviour.

“If tenants are
able to argue that their pets are ‘well-behaved’, it may be harder for a
landlord to successfully make deductions from a security deposit where damage
is caused,” he says.

Lyons believes grey
areas over liability could cause financial problems for landlords. “We’re also
wondering what would happen to a deposit and the liability for damage if pets
were introduced during a tenancy,” he adds.

Well
behaved

The
Residential Landlords Association agrees that it will be difficult for
landlords to know whether pets are well behaved.

It has
already warned the Government that capping deposits would make it harder for
tenants with pets to access rented housing and believes there
should be an opportunity to increase them to reflect this heightened
risk.

Policy
manager John Stewart, has told LandordZone: “What happens in properties where a
tenant wants a pet, but another one is allergic to it? And will new grounds for
possessing properties be introduced to deal with irresponsible pet owners?”

A
revised model tenancy agreement will be published by the Government later this
year.

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