Bill launched to give tenants right to live with their pets in rented homes
Conservative MP Andrew Rosindale has cross-party backing for his proposed legislation, which would severely curtail agents' ability to refuse tenant applicants with pets.
A Tory MP has launched a Bill in parliament that would ban letting agents and landlords from rejecting tenants who want to live with their pets.
Due for a second reading in January and if it achieves Royal Assent later next year, it would drop a bombshell on the private rented sector, complicating both tenancy contracts and landlord insurance.
MP Andrew Rosindell’s Dogs and Domestic Animals (Accommodation and Protection) Bill aims to give tenants the right to live with their pets, but only if they can prove they are ‘responsible and caring’.
Rosindell (pictured, below) says the Government’s earlier efforts to tackle the issues by removing ‘no-pet clauses’ from its model tenancy agreement earlier this year did not go far enough.
His Bill – known as Jasmine’s law after a dog owned by the Adams family in Surrey was famously prevented from living in a privately rented house – is supported by 11 other cross-party MPs including Andrea Leadsom and Tim Farron.
“For most people, being separated from their dog is no different from being separated from their brother or sister,” he says.
“Sadly, pet owners who move into rented accommodation face the reality that their family could be torn apart, because most landlords in Britain have unnecessary bans or restrictions on pets ownership.”
The Bill will make pet owners pass a test of responsible ownership including certificate from a vet before moving in confirming that they have a healthy, well-behaved animal and are considered to be a responsible owner.
As Friendly says, How hard was it when they allowed Landlords to charge extra £200 deposit for pet. No damage, full deposit back. Tenant a winner.
As we know, Govt din’t like that simple thing where everyone won. We told Govt this would happen & here we are. Landlords till ain’t gonna take if they don’t want, they got a queue of people to choose from.
Govt & Councils interference is wrecking the rental market for tenants.
I’m biggest HB Landlord in Nottm & my tenants can’t leave me any more. No one will take them.
I can’t believe what I’m reading, or maybe I can. I’m sure this would be the final straw for a large number of landlords who don’t want pets in their property. Usually it’s because they’ve had a bad experience with a previous tenant who had a pet – I’ve seen it hundreds of times before. How does the vet know that the cat or dog isn’t going to scratch the wallpaper, tear at the carpets, urinate on the carpets, causing costly damage for the poor landlord to sort out when they abscond without paying the final month’s rent? I could go on, but what’s the point?! Why do we (as Agents) let The Government dictate to us all the time?!
…and what about a tenant who’s out at work all day – separated from his dog like a brother or sister! more like isolated locked up in a flat all day unable to tend to its basic needs.
Do they want us to fill HMOs with cats and dogs, bedlam. Landlords own their properties. they pay for them, repair and maintain them. It’s up to them to decide who and what can live in them.
They can live with their pet, that’s fine; but good luck finding a house thanks to the deposit ban.
Farcical! Is he not aware that landlords stopped taking pets when his own party’s legislation made it impossibe to take additional bonds for pets, thereby making them too high a risk?!