Government tells landlords how to handle pet requests and refusals

This is for the birds and people who have not been experienced landlords. Tenants generally do what they want, getting pets isn’t a question I get asked. One tenant had 7 dogs, one a tarantulas and was breeding cockroaches to feed them. All a surprise and not requested. I think most of my tenants. moved in without a dog but now have one – the question to ask permission never came up. That’s my experience.

read it. An absolutely pointless bit of ‘guidance’.
Gives no clarity at all on the matter about what IS deemed reasonable excuse.
As ever focus will be on the LL to interpret this as best they can.
Going to be very interesting given the lack of guidance/details if a tenant decides to take the matter to court – where is the evidence they intend to rely on that proves the LL has been ‘unreasonable’ in the first instance to even meet the legal threshold to make a claim?
Surely the civil rules apply and the T also has to prove they have tried to mediate with the LL before taking legal action?
As part of the claim do they have to show a ‘harm’ of some kind has occurred by the LL not granting permission by virtue of the refusal?
I can’t see Legal Aid funding this either so are there really going to be that many claims by T’s in reality?
I would suggest if anything there would be more claims for breaches of tenancy and ergo S8 possession claims by LL’s where T’s have not asked permission in the first place (and got a pet) or situations where refusal has been given, but T gets a pet anyway.

No indication of HMOs being a special case – I would not want someone else’s pet in a shared kitchen, or a cat litter tray.

Can ‘allergy’ be used in these cases.You can bet that certain groups will never allow dogs in their properties.

Valid points about many tenants don’t even ask they just bring pets in, which is then a breach of the tenancy, but judges will probably side with tenants in this corrupt system. Landlord’s just need to claim they are allergic to pets, which is a danger to their health and how about all the neighbours who may not want pets together with a lease that bans pets.

Another tenant has an allergy?

How would you necessarily know that? And if you didn’t know and you granted the pet request would that tenant have a claim against you if it forced them to move out.

Basically a pathetic level of so called guidance from the government. It could only work properly if the advice (or requirement) was to specifically question and record other tenant’s medical conditions that may be incompatible with pets in the shared house. And that basically gives the veto to other tenants? How does a tenant necessarily know they’ve got an allergy if they haven’t been exposed to that pet? Is it reasonable to restrict the choice of that shared home for future tenants who may have allergies once a pet has been installed by one tenant in a shared house? HMOs are by nature quite high turnover in tenant numbers.

This is just the start of the reality that awaits those clueless outside of their PPE degree bubble and cannot seem to grasp any implications, only ideology.

I am an agent with allergies as has the lady we use for our inspections, mine to cats hers to dogs , how will this work??
They say agents need to keep on top of inspections so is this a reasonable refusal as I we are not the landlord.
Some of my clients will accept a small dog in a 2 bed terraced and do the inspections themselves ALL my clients blankly refuse cats due to the damage they cause and cat fleas.
The smell of dog is easy to eradicate by purchasing what is called a bomb from Halfords, this is what car sales men use to get rid of smells in a car prior to re selling.

Saying a dog is trained could mean anything. Trained to attack intruders, such as the landlord or tradespeople for example?
Even a fully continenet dog may spend all day whining and howling while the owner is absent or become incontinent in later life.
Fortunately it seems the RRA totally excludes puppies and kittens, as there is no way anyone could claim they are house trained at that age. Hopefully that will deter some of the inexperienced wannabe pets owners who want a really cute, little bundle of fluff with zero comprehension of the realities of looking after it.
Let’s not forget when the pet thing was first mentioned it was supposed to be for responsible pet owners with well behaved pets. I interpret that to mean people with experience of pet ownership and an existing pet that can be viewed as part of the tenancy application process. Now it seems to have morphed into any animal for any tenant regardless of experience or indication of responsibility.
I do have pets in 2 of my properties and 2 other properties have had pets previously, so I’m not totally anti. The simple fact is some properties are suitable for some pets, others aren’t.

Bizarre that a freeholder of a leasehold block can prohibit pets and seemingly get away with it but an individual residential landlord cannot.

I cannot see tenants bothering to ask for permission.

Reply to the comment left by Jo Westlake at 20/11/2025 – 10:02
Some tenants are suitable for some pets, others aren’t…

Is there any information on how this policy effects HMOs having a HMO full of cats & dogs would not be a nice experience for some tenants?