Allowed pet dog in contract, landlord says no

[yved33]

Hi, we are privately renting a house, the landlord has moved to Australia but we deal with the managing agents. We moved in in March 2006 with an elderly pet dog and two rabbits. We have been on shorthold assured tenancies of 6 months each. In December of 2006 we had to have dog pts . In my grief addled brain i decided to email the managing agent to let him know, and said that although i could not face the prospect at the time, would it be ok in the future to get another dog. God knows why i didn't just assume we could as we had one before! He said he couldn't see a problem, but would ask landlord. Landlord said no . Have asked for her to reconsider but again no. She stated that a bored puppy would damage the house and as we were both at work all day it wouldn't be fair. Thing is, we wanted a young rescue dog, and i don't work at all. Here all the time apart from the school run! We have since looked at our contract, and it states 1 dog allowed, can i use this fact to my advantage at all??

[Planner]

If thats what the contract says then, yes you can have a 1 pet dog!!.

If the landlord doesnt like that particular term of the contract, they shouldnt have signed it. Maybe you dont like the term "Rent of £500 should be paid monthly", and should ignore that to!!!

[yved33]

Thanks for the reply Planner, i'm fighting the urge to go out tomorrow and get a dog lol!
We were trying to move house to somewhere we could have a dog but it fell through (credit check not good enough, although debts all paid off now). So we had actually given notice here and have had to tell them we're staying, so managing agent said he would try asking again about the dog as he knew it was a big deal to us. Me, being stubborn and bloody minded think 'well even if she says no we still can cos it's in the contract!' Where as DH wants to wait for answer from agent as he is worried that we will upset the apple cart and she won't renew our tenancy in March.

If the agent comes back with the answer no from the landlord, what can we do? I'm afraid i'm very stubborn and won't be able to just leave it at that! One thing i'm worried about is that she will faff about until March and then get another agreement done, this time not allowing a dog. Sorry for the mega post but would welcome ideas and advice please.

[MrShed]

In realistic terms, there is nothing preventing you from getting a dog and moving it in tomorrow. They have allowed this in the contract. However, be aware that if the LA/LL get wind of the new dog, you are correct that there is every possibility that they wont renew the tenancy. However, this is the only thing they can do.

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

I would just like to add:

1.It would be classed unreasonable not to allow a tenant to have a pet dog.If the tenant wanted to keep a tiger in the property that would be deemed unreasonable on the part of the tenant and thus reasonable for the landlord to refuse.This is just an extreme example here.

2.The only exceptions to this are if the dog is dangerous or causes a nuisance i.e. by causing noise or a health hazard by fouling in common areas of a property i.e. in the case of a block of flats.

3.Always remember the reasonbility test applies to keep pets.

4.Please read previos posts posted by myself here within the Landlord & Tenant section of this site in the past regarding this sort of scenario and the best ways of dealing with it.

I hope this helps.

If you have any more questions,just ask.

Keep us posted.

All the best!

[londonblue]

If you get a rescue dog via the RSPCA, then part of their screening process also requires that you show them your current tenancy agreement, which would clearly state that you can keep a dog.

Obviously this doesn't help the relationship with your landlady, but as Planner says, the contract works both ways.

Maybe explain that you're at home and you wouldn't be leaving the dog alone for long periods of time (never a good course of action if it can be avoided for most dogs, anyway, and the RSPCA will check this also in their suitability questionnaire)

Hope it works out.

[Aequitas]

Originally Posted by Nightmare4banks

1.It would be classed unreasonable not to allow a tenant to have a pet dog.

2...

3.Always remember the reasonbility test applies to keep pets.

4...

I quote what I said in another thead:

I have to query the idea that a prohibition on keeping pets would be an unfair term. Whilst acknowledging that the list of terms that may be regarded as unfair as set out in Schedule 2 to the Regulations is "indicative and non-exhaustive", I cannot see which of them would apply.