Renting with pets

[purpleme12]

If i'm looking for a new house with pets (2 cats) - and a rabbit but he's outside so it's not really relevant.
what do I do I mean what's best is it best if I just ring letting agents and ask do you have any that accept pets?
or do I trawl their websites find one I want and then call up and ask if that one accepts pets? and if so how should I word it do you think? so that they'll be more likely.
because I know a lot of the time letting agents just say no pets generally.

and where would I look for landlords not going through letting agents?

Open Rent. (Online letting agent)

Ring letting agents, let them know what pets you have.
We also offered to pay extra security deposit and have written into lease that we will get carpets professionally cleaned.
We rent unfurnished so they weren't worried about damage to furniture (we have cat).

We paid £100 per ddog when we got a tenancy. Not sure if paying a pet bond is now legal. You could suggest you would pay for professional clean + carpets before you moved out...

Ditto qazxc. I rent. Have three dogs. I'm scrupulous about flea control, protect anything they could damage, and will have the carpets professionally cleaned when we leave. Also have rugs covering most of the carpets.

Open rent when you put in allow pets into the search narrows it down so much there's no properties there!
But I will keep it in mind in case anything updates

thank you everyone
more contributions ideas are welcomed.

It's very hard (and why we ended up buying). Some will take pets. My best advice is if you find a house you like tell the EAs you have pets. IME most will say they'll ask the landlord and they might take you.

I would speak to the agents but it’s hard. I had to rent at short notice with a child (that was difficult on its own) and had to rehome my cat.

I can't rehome them I wouldn't be able to live. i'm terrified of the landlord saying he doesn't want us anymore in this property or he wants to sell or something. terrified

We've always just looked for houses, gone to view them(even ones that say no pets) then mentioned we have cats if we are interested in it. We've found most of them fine with cats, it's dogs they mostly say no to round here. (We've also got guinea pigs who are currently living inside due to weather, we just hide them if we have an inspection 😁)

it isn't the letting agents making the rules, it is for each landlord to decide what they will or will not accept. Open Rent is just another property portal.

previously you could offer a higher deposit, but it is now illegal for the landlord to take that. You could ask Shelter for their solution as they campaigned for this. Perhaps offer a higher rent, but of course that is an ongoing cost that you won't get back as you would with a deposit.

think about it - cats can cause massive clawing and excreting damage and with no higher deposit, the landlord just has to absorb the cost. Which tenant would you choose if you were running this business?

Keeping pets against a tenancy is of course a breach, so don't blubber if the landlord then breaches his side. As eviction is so difficult that probably won't happen but in life you generally get back what you give out.

I'm not sure what the last paragraph was about it sounded almost like you were having a go for me having pets when the tenancy didn't allow it and then blubbering and that's not even what this thread is about
This thread is asking for advice on renting with pets

I know that ultimately it's the landlord decision but I've heard that letting agents just put this blanket policy on automatically on their properties and I've also heard they advise landlords on things like this and they tend to go with their advice a lot of the time

@ler I didn't think of doing it that way that's an idea

Also I think some letting agents just don't bother asking the landlord individually

We have two cats and unless the agent specifically asked when we called, I didn't mention pets until we viewed.

We offered 950 for our current place instead of 925 because we have pets. So it's worth offering s bit more over the advertised rent.

Thank you that's helpful
I didn't really want to offer more rent but it's perhaps something I should consider

Did you just say you've got 2 cats and is this ok? And accept no as an answer if that was the case?
Sorry if this is a stupid question

it's all about mitigating the damage risk. So if your cats haven't caused damage in your current home then mention that - perhaps your current landlord will give you a reference?

if otherwise you don't smoke, have run a home before (as clearly you have) and have enough income to cover the rent and bills comfortably then that's all most landlords will want.