Renting with a dog and getting applications rejected

[L3tti316]

Me and my partner have been to visit three properties over the last week, fell in love with all of them each time and even though the advertisements says pets are allowed (we wouldn’t apply or view the house otherwise) we are rejected every time and when we ask why they say it’s because of the dog.

I know landlords don’t care about details but he is a medium sized dog, loves nothing more than spending his days out sleeping in the garden, completely house trained and on top of this I am a very house proud person who hoovers twice a day and loves a clean house.

We have been renting now for 5 years so obviously there are landlords out there that don’t mind pets, but I almost feel like asking during the viewing if they actually MEAN that they allow pets because if they’re going to base their final decision off wether or not a person has pets why even write in the advert that they don’t mind?

I’m just ranting I suppose. Anybody else had this issue? I just feel really deflated after yet another no, I can’t keep getting my hopes up each time to have this gut wrenching feeling no more than 4/5 hours later! 😔

I’m sorry but I have to disagree, I know a lot of people are nose blind to the smells of their own pets but we’ve gotten back from week long holidays before and me and my partner have been like ‘oooo is that what people smell when they walk in our house? It smells really nice’ so no sorry, no dog smell here when you regularly clean carpets, hoover, mop and generally are clean people! 🙂 I hate to say it but my mom has four dogs and doesn’t keep up with cleaning and her house can smell pretty horrific when you walk in. So that’s why I agree you can smell them when a person doesn’t regularly keep up with cleaning but when you do, there is no smell.

It’s a real shame to tarnish everybody with pets with the same brush though. Not all dog owners have dogs that cause damage. I am not just saying it but we’ve rented in two properties and the dog has caused no damage anywhere. I get that a LL can’t see that when looking at applications though.

When I rented my old place out, I only accepted people with pets. The EA often sent people without pets even though I’d been clear!

I wonder if you offered a larger deposit & reiterated again to the EA about what you’ve
says here (he’s good/groomed often/you’re house proud etc).

I hoover downstairs twice a day yes as this is predominantly where the dog spends most of his time. He rarely, if ever, goes upstairs.

I do think with our next application we may try and ‘sell’ him a little more. He’s also 14, it’s horrible to say but he isn’t going to be around forever, he’s hardly a 6 month old puppy.

Oh I’m not blaming them. I just think if they state it’s okay and then use the fact we have a dog as the reason to reject us that it’s not fair, I wouldn’t apply and get my hopes up if that were going to be the case. I get that other applicants with no pets may appear more favourable but the way it’s being relayed to us is that the dog = an immediate no when they state it’s fine for pets. 😕

To be fair, if I had to make money from a house to pay my own bills and had to choose between a dog owner or not, I'd choose the non dog owner unless no-one else is available.

It will be more risk for them and may stop others renting in the future. I say this as a dog owner too.

Can your dog go to a relative until you have proved yourself to the landlord and then ask? Or offer more deposit?

I’m a landlord and although I love dogs, I don’t allow them. Previous tenant with a dog wrecked the place. Also you can give notice and leave the place stinking of dog. Other tenants would be put off.

This isn’t an option unfortunately 😩 My mom could possibly but she lives half way across the country so it doesn’t seem doable. I think it’s illegal for a LL to accept a higher deposit but I think we may offer x amount extra each month in rent and to have the place professionally cleaned if we ever decided to leave. Which honestly is unlikely, we have both said we want to live in our next house for a very long time, our dog is 14, it breaks my heart to say but he won’t be around forever.

I also think it’s this^ the problem is lack of rental properties so LL can choose.
I also wonder if it’s something else but they are saying that it’s a dog just because it’s simpler.

Possibly. We do have two primary school aged children but are viewing 4 bedroom houses, I can’t imagine the landlords of said houses aren’t expecting families to view it and want to move in.

It’s really unfortunate you’ve had this experience. I know I’ve said it a lot on this thread now but it’s a shame because we absolutely are the opposite tenants to the ones you’ve mentioned. He’s house trained, well behaved, sleeps all day, never damaged anything and we’re very house proud people. Like I’ve also said though I do get it, landlords don’t know this information and can only go off very little written on the application form and I totally do understand why those without a dog are more favourable.

I'd always allow dogs, tenants stay longer and are nice people. BUT one tenant moved her father in without permission and his dog. He was mentally unwell, smashed up things in the house, brought in dog fleas and bed bugs. We evicted them cost of solicitors £3.5k, cost of debugging, decorating, repairs, new carpet £3.8k.

So I'm a bit off dogs and tenants at the moment.

We’re landlords and we don’t ‘accept’ pets in flats but we do in 2 of our 3 family houses. (One of them we’re not allowed to have the fence above 2m.
We would never accept aggressive breeds - if you have a nice breed it might be worth pointing out if your dog is a less aggressive breed.

Yes, they do but it’s children AND a dog in your case.
I feel your pain. A friend went to EA and offered £100 more after months of looking. He had 2 small children, no pets but the competition was very fierce. And in our area it was before Covid.
I’m scared to think what it’s now.

Then don't be a landlord 🤷🏻‍♀️

Frankly they shouldn't be allowed to refuse or reject you on pets, or children, or anything else they see fit to.

If landlords can't cope with that then they shouldn't be landlords. We need more housing associations and less cowboy landlords in this country. I'm yet to come across a decent landlord!

Keep trying OP. I have a property and would allow pets , more so than children tbh

Could you take a reference from the previous LL to give to EA before viewing ?

I do find myself agreeing. I’m obviously not a landlord myself but I’ve been talking to my partner a lot about it and I honestly think it would look more appealing to me to allow a family with one small dog in my property (maybe with a positive reference first from landlord to show dog never caused any damage or mess) as they’re likely to stay in it long term. Which is exactly what we want, we’re talking 10+ years! 😩 I’m repeating myself again but the dog is 14, he isn’t going to be around forever and we’ve both agreed we won’t be having another as it just breaks your heart when they pass away.

Thank you, I think we’ll definitely consider this!

I agree with this. I might’ve been lucky but the 4 tenants I had were the opposite. All had the houses professionally cleaned, carpets cleaned, no damage. Pet owners are very grateful to be able to take their pets so make sure it’s left at least how they found it.

I have friends who rent houses out & don’t allow pets & they’ve spend thousands on trashed houses & unpaid rent. One was infested with maggots & rTs by the time they got the guy out.

If the children are also off putting they need to stop writing ‘perfect location with plenty of schools nearby’ in the advertisement! 😂 Oddly the two houses we’ve rented now we’ve gotten immediately without applying for anything else and they were also pre Covid. The competition does seem a lot more intense now though I will admit. The house we applied for last week had 12 others applying, I wasn’t shocked when that came back as a no tbh. But one we saw today was only 4 so thought we stood a good chance.

Absolutely. We’ve discussed what we’d do before moving from our current house and we 100% plan on having the carpets cleaned beforehand and making sure everywhere is spotless. Even have spoken about jetwashing the slabs in the front and back garden again even though we only did them a month a go. I would never dream of leaving it a mess.

When we moved in the place was thick with dust, stains on carpet (the landlord did replace them once we asked after a year of renting), wallpaper ripped and burnt from candles being too close, black stains from smoke on every wall, door etc. the smell of smoke didn’t leave for a good 6-8 weeks. After that experience I would never let the next tenant go through the same thing, it was horrible.

@ineedsomemoremetime yep exactly what you said no one is renting properties now hence the massive dirth of available let’s. Shelter who don’t actually shelter anyone are a massive part of the problem

I just want to add to this the previous tenants also left the mirrored wardrobe with glass smashed and doors hanging off. I know the stains on carpet could have been from their dog but the rest was certainly not done by it. Tenants themselves can easily do just as much damage, if not more. There was even pink hair dye stains in the bath and along the bath panel which we happily repainted ourselves with our own money, again.. certainly not done by the dog.