Adopting a dog from a rescue centre when renting

[AllGoodDogs]

When you adopt an animal from a rescue I know you have to sign to say whether you rent or own your home. If you rent you need to get written confirmation from your landlord to say you are allowed a pet. If you say you own the home, do the rescue centre check to make sure this is the case?

Back story.. A friend of mine rents out a house and has heard through the grapevine that her tenants have adopted 2 dogs from somewhere, but her rental policy says no pets and she hasn't been approached to agree to them adopting. So did they lie, or have the tenants found an agency that will adopt regardless of tenant status? I know when we adopted a rat from the rspca we lived in a mortgaged leasehold flat and had to show a copy of the lease to show we were allowed him!

Thanks :)

[Pipandmum]

What does that matter? She should get her tenants to get rid of the dogs as they are breaking the terms of the lease.

[AllGoodDogs]

Because she wants to know if they lied to the rescue centre or if they dropped the ball.

[bloodywhitecat]

Do all rescues ask the question? I adopted from Many Tears and they definitely did but another local, smaller rescue didn't ask, they just came and did a home inspection (which we passed).

[AllGoodDogs]

I assumed any rescue worth it's salt would check, but I guess smaller ones may not. I don't know where these may have come from. We have Blue Cross and RSPCA nearby but there may well be smaller ones I've not heard of.

[AllGoodDogs]

Her knowing that the dogs were adopted under false pretences would give her more grounds for eviction if that's what she wants to do. Ie if she can prove they lied.

[HUZZAH212]

I don't understand what the rescue has to do with it at all? Her tenants have broken their agreement with her. What is she hoping for here - some financial compensation from the rescue?

[AllGoodDogs]

No, but proof that the lied to obtain them is another nail in their coffin.

I'm not rescue bashing here, please don't miss the point I'm trying to make.

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

Your friend should inspect the property and establish if the dogs have caused any damage.

If they have, by all means start the eviction process. If not, there's no point in evicting - it's expensive and time consuming, and tenants with dogs tend to stay longer as it's such a pain finding somewhere that takes dogs. Do quarterly inspections and make it clear that if the dogs start causing damage or you get complaints from neighbours then they'll be getting a section 21 notice.

Bear in mind that they may not have got them from a rescue centre - they may have been privately rehomed, either via the internet or from friends / family. It's not necessarily worth trying to identify the source of the dogs, but rather to deal with the situation as it currently is.

[SophyStantonLacy]

We rent (we own a house elsewhere that we rent out, our tenants moved their dog in without asking permission & made sure it was hidden every time there was an inspection - annoying to be lied to, & we would have said yes if they had asked anyway). Anyway we ended up not going the rescue route, but when I ticked that we were renting, I had to send a confirmation letter or copy of tenancy agreement to prove that our landlords agree.

[DogInATent]

Because she wants to know if they lied to the rescue centre or if they dropped the ball.
It doesn't matter. She's getting hung up on irrelevant detail.

Her knowing that the dogs were adopted under false pretences would give her more grounds for eviction if that's what she wants to do. Ie if she can prove they lied.
Tell her not to be so silly. They broke the terms of the lease, what else does she need? Whether they lied to the rescue centre makes absolutely no difference to the fact they broke the terms of the lease. Pursuing this line of enquiry just makes her look vindictive, because the only possible reason to find out would be to dob her in to the rescue and have the dogs taken back.

Unless she really wants to be known as the landlord that made her tenants homeless and took their dogs away, she should stop this line of questioning right now.

[AvocadosBeforeMortgages]

Her knowing that the dogs were adopted under false pretences would give her more grounds for eviction if that's what she wants to do. Ie if she can prove they lied.

It won't affect whether or not she can evict her tenants. Your friend really needs to brush up on the law relating to landlords and tenants, as she sounds a bit clueless. If they are paying their rent and are still in the fixed term of their tenancy agreement, the court costs, lawyers fees, lost rent and hassle associated with attempting to evict them (success would be questionable) will outweigh anything she might gain materially. If they're not paying rent she can use a Section 8. If they're out of the fixed term of their tenancy agreement she can use a Section 21.

FWIW I did a fair bit of research into this after ending up in a weird situation of moving into a no pets flatshare that came with a dog who had been left behind by a previous tenant. The landlord never did find out as far as I know, but my research basically suggested there was nothing he could sensibly do while we were still in the fixed term.

The Landlord Zone forum would be a good place for her to post with the legally relevant information. This is also full of good info forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5180214

[sleepwouldbenice]

DogInATent no the landlord wouldn't be responsible for making the tenants homeless and if they lose their dogs. The tenants are for breaking the terms of their lease.....

[DogInATent]

I know they wouldn't legally be responsible, but local and social media don't get excited by technicalities.

How the dogs were acquired is a petty distraction.

[AnnaMaryS]

That’s so evil. Why would she want to evict a family just because they’re adopting a pet? Landlords like this are the worst.

[tabulahrasa]

I’ve never had to prove i own my house. But that’s not going to tell you whether they were asked that and lied or they weren’t asked...

Also, people often say adopted when they should just say bought.

And tbh, it’s all a bit irrelevant anyway.

[ProbablyDogNappersHunX]

This post is nearly 4 years old folks

[CandlelightGlow]

I have written permission from my landlord (housing association) to say I can get a dog, however I don't have one yet so haven't approached any rescues. However, when I was in the market for a cat a few years ago, the rescue I contacted did ask if I rented or owned, and when I said rented they did ask if I had the landlord's permission. They did ask for proof of this, however at the end of the day, my LL has simply emailed me from their commercial address, if it's a private landlord with a personal email address surely this can be easily faked anyway? I have no idea how far they would go in terms of vetting this for truthfulness.

[CandlelightGlow]

@ProbablyDogNappersHunX

This post is nearly 4 years old folks

d'oh!