Animal shelters welcome renter's right to have pet

Animal shelters say a new law giving tenants in England the right to request a pet - that landlords cannot unreasonably refuse - could mean fewer animals need to be put up for adoption.

The measure is part of the Renters' Rights Act that also bans no‑fault evictions, and comes into force on 1 May.

Pets can no longer be refused from properties without good reason, tenants can challenge a refusal and landlords cannot legally enforce a no-pets ban in their tenancy agreements.

Alison Richards, Cats Protection Chief Veterinary Officer, from Bridport in Dorset said:"We estimate around three cats per day at our sites across the UK are coming into care because of housing issues."

Animal charity Blue Cross said the number of dogs coming to its centres has increased by 120%, and the number of cats by 80%, in the past four years.

It add that a lot of these are also due to housing changes or landlords not allowing pets in the home.

The change in the law is welcomed by the charity, that has been campaigning for years.

Kirsty Smith, Admissions Coordinator at Blue Cross in Southampton in Hampshire said: "It's so important. If they actually have the security of being able to keep their pets with them, it's going to make such a difference for responsible pet owners and obviously for the pets that have to go through that upheaval."

She added: "A lot of the pets are coming from loving homes and it's through no fault of their own or their owner's fault that they're having to come in.

"It's just the circumstances. So it would be so nice to see those pets staying in their homes. So obviously today, pet owners can put a request for their landlord to be able to have a pet."

Smith said: "It hopefully will reduce the amount of requests that we have and then we can focus on those other pets that for whatever reason, maybe their owners have died and they really desperately need rescue space.

"Where the pets that are coming in due to rental issues have got a loving home that they could stay in if they just had the right permission."

Cats Protection is also hoping it will help reduce the numbers coming to its centres as a result of housing.

Richards said: "Looking here at our Dorset cat centre, that equates to about 10% of the cats that we homed last year having come into care originally because owners were no longer able to keep them because of issues around renting and things.

"So Cats Protection so excited and pleased to see this change."

She added: "It will be able to help us as an organisation at both ends.

"Both relinquishment into our care, but also the number of people who feel able to take a cat on and enrich both theirs and the cat's lives through kind of having them in the home."

She hopes that the impact of the changes will hopefully be seen soon: "I think the more we can be talking about this change and promoting it and building awareness, hopefully the speedier we'll start to see those changes in people's behaviour in landlords being able to support people to keep pets in their home."

However, the Renters Rights Act may not be positive for everyone.

Debbie Darvill, Lettings Director at Sparks Ellison in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire, said: "I think landlords will feel less empowered, and I think some of them are just not comfortable with it and won't want to continue as landlords.

"There will be another generation of landlords coming through that won't know any different and they'll be quite happy with it, but it's just going through that sort of pain barrier, really.

Darvill added tenants can challenge landlords if they refuse their application around keeping pets.

She said: "If a tenant requests a pet and the landlord refuses, if the tenant's not happy with that, then there is a re-dress scheme that the tenant can go to, a private rented sector ombudsman, so they can escalate it to that level if they think that they've been unfairly refused a pet in a property.

"However, that particular ombudsman scheme is not going to be up and running until about 2028.

"So in the meantime, if a tenant wasn't happy, they would have to go to court."

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