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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to be upset with my Landlady.....

107 replies

MsToni · 30/03/2011 20:50

.....for saying we can't have a puppy?

My little man and I fell in love with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and we have everything ready for him.

I made the mistake of telling my L'lady about it last night (we are renting) and she was very dissuasive saying it was hard work, he'd need constant care and attention bla bla bla.

10 minutes later, she sends a text saying she and her husband discussed it and "its not a good idea, by the time its trained, it could damage the wooden floors, they open their bowels on the floor, its impossible to get the smell and stain out, they are unhappy with the idea of a dog in the house...."

I understand the demands of having a puppy, and I was prepared to accept the early settling issues, have a trainer in, get a comfy "doggy space" in the (huge) kitchen, ensure he's fully trained before settling him in his "area" in the lounge, dog sitter/walker when I'm at work etc.

My partner says I've OCD because I'm excessively clean and like everything spanking neat and clean so I'd be the last person to allow a puppy ruin the house.

Now, I'm so upset. I just want to go ahead and get him and tell her it was too late to change the plan. We have a good relationship and I don't want to ruin it but I'm just so upset with her now, I can't / don't even want to speak with her (yet).

I'm really not happy with her.

(Sorry for venting) :( :(

OP posts:

dignified · 31/03/2011 11:36

If you work full time and have a pup your going to come back to a serious mess . They need to be constantly supervised and let out hourly , i found my pup more hard work than a baby . If your adamant you could offer a large deposit in case it does do any damage , but if your not there a lot , it absoluteley will.

Shes right about weeing on floorboards though.

PinkToeNails · 31/03/2011 11:37

Point accepted pout. I was being very small minded and basing my views on just few dogs - I hate it when others do the same so I do apologise.

I shouldn't label all dogs/owners as being the same.

harassedinherpants · 31/03/2011 11:44

"Well thanks a bunch to all those people because you give the rest of us a bad name and cause us incredible problems when seeking to rent."

I'd like to agree with Valhalla on this!!

We sold our house to rent about 3yrs ago and wouldn't view a house that wouldn't take my beloved 10yr old cocker. We paid an extra £500 deposit though. Unfortunately he got very ill and had to be pts 6 months later. I have to say though that as a puppy no one would have wanted him lol!! He was a chewer then and wrecked my dining room table, doors and kitchen units...... As a 10yr old though he was no bother.

We haven't got another dog (although would love to) as we're still renting and don't feel we could at the moment, so we have a 16 week old kitten now. Much less bother than a puppy!!

BreconBeBuggered · 31/03/2011 11:44

When I was looking for somewhere to rent a few years ago, most of the landlords of the houses I liked the look of stipulated No Children, never mind No Pets (and they hadn't even met mine :o). I don't think YABU if there was no express No Pets clause in your rental contract. But leaving a puppy in the house alone when you're at work is probably asking for trouble.

scaryteacher · 31/03/2011 11:45

I'm happy to rent to someone with cats (even had a new backdoor made with a cat flap for the tenants), but not dogs.

pingu2209 · 31/03/2011 11:45

Few landlords accept pets, those that do will ask for a much larger deposit, possibly as much as 3 times as much and the terms are changed so that any scratches or chews or urine staines have to be fixed as new etc.

Perhaps you can ask your landlord whether she would accept you having a puppy but offer her 2 times the original deposit which you get back at the end of tenancy as long as there are no puppy marks.

If you are not prepared to do this, I can't see why any landlord should let you have an animal at all.

dolldaggabuzzbuzz · 31/03/2011 11:46

You only pay Rent. It is not your house. It is not your decision. Your Landlady owns you now.

Hand in your notice. Find somewhere to rent where you are allowed a pet, your home - your life.

minipie · 31/03/2011 12:07

Woah there everybody.

OP says "there was NO "No Pets Clause" in Agreement."

In that case, surely, she is entitled to get a pet. Landlady can't stop her, she can only charge her for any damage the pet does (which could be a lot).

Now, I agree it's pretty silly of the landlady to have left this clause out, however since she did, I'd have thought the OP can get the dog?

(By the way OP, does sound like you're a bit optimistic about how much you'd be able to control the mess and damage a puppy would make ... if you like everything neat and clean, you could be in for a bit of a shock...)

JaneS · 31/03/2011 12:13

No wonder tenants get screwed over all the time with so many ignorant prats out there! And I don't mean the OP, I mean the people commenting here who clearly haven't read the thread and/or don't know the first thing about tenancy law.

The OP has said her place does NOT, repeat NOT, as in 'NOT' have a 'No Pets' clause. She is therefore totally entitled to get a pet. Many people would have sought out a tenancy with no 'no pets' clause specifically, and would be furious to find the landlady changing her mind. Legally, she has no right to stop the OP getting a pet, although of course it would be a very bad idea as the landlady clearly is against it and would charge for repair of inevitable damage/cleaning.

The idiot who trotted out the 'its not your house, you just pay rent' line has really got on my wick. (Can you tell, huh?). A tenant has a 'right to quiet enjoyment'; a right to treat their rented home as their home. The landlady has rights too, but for the duration of the tenancy, providing the tenant keeps to the contract, what she has agreed to is to let the tenant treat the place as their house.

I rent, and of course I do my best to keep things smooth with our landlords. But that does not mean tenants have no rights or that landlords can break the contract at a whim.

DooinMeCleanin · 31/03/2011 12:19

Tennants with pets can now get a special insurance to cover any damage their pet might cause to the rental. If you point this out to her she might be more lenient?

What kind of wooden floors do you have btw? We have wood in our house and have had a puppy and a non house trained rescue dog and a cat who pisses when he gets stresses i.e. when we get puppies and rescue dogs and my floorboards aren't ruined. The finish protects them, so long as it's cleaned up fairly quickly. The pets and accidents is exactly why I chose the floors we have. The bare floor boards on the stairs is a different matter, it soaks in straight away and requires much bleaching and scrubbing to get the smell out.

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 31/03/2011 12:25

Little red - hope you managed to sort your other problem out - you do sound fed up bless you! As a LL I look on it as it is the tenants HOME and as long as they abide by the rules and keep it in decent condition I dont get involved with it at all......... but it is my house.....it will be my house long after they have left.

Insurance wouldnt make any difference on my outlook to having a pet, I wouldnt want the inconvenience of sorting it out. I think regardless of whether OP has the No pet clause or not...if she gets a puppy and her LL has said no she is asking for trouble and will prob be served notice.

Hammy02 · 31/03/2011 13:40

YABU. We rent and didn't even risk having a dog for one night when a couple of friends were coming to stay with us. They left their dog with a neighbour. It's not your house so it's not your decision to make.

emptyshell · 31/03/2011 14:32

I rented for years and refused to look at any properties that wouldn't allow me to have the tripod-cat... thankfully I found a letting agency who found the idea of an elderly tripod-cat needing a home quite endearing (and the fact we both... my husband and I, not the cat... had respectable sounding jobs helped a fair whack as well). Have had to pay extra deposits in case of damage (in one case managed to get a 25% reduction in this based on the fact that the cat had 25% less claws), or have had carpet cleaning clauses in the agreement for the end of the tenancy.

Was getting harder and harder to find somewhere to allow us to rent with the cat when we wanted to move out because landlord was shite doing repairs though - mainly because there are so many people chasing rented properties around our way, so letting agencies were getting too lazy to even call any landlord and ask if they'd allow a cat... in the end we bought and promptly got a dog but no way would I have got him in a rental property just in case of the damage - even with a very calm, well behaved older dog - he's still taken paint off the kitchen door and back door, and "improved" the garden somewhat.

poutintrout · 31/03/2011 14:40

Going off on a bit of a tangent. I saw the weirdest advert for a rented house on rightmove the other day. Something along the limes of "calling all cat lovers" and it was basically a house that came complete with two cats that the prospective tenant would be required to care for for the duration of the tenancy. Never seen anything like that before...

JaneS · 31/03/2011 19:27

Hi desperate - I was fed up when I wrote that, yes! Kind of you to ask about the other thing - I really appreciated all your advice on that thread. Basically, we sent an email forwarding them all the communication we've had from them and showing they've sent us out-of-date letters that don't make sense, and contradict each other. We asked them to send us proper bills and communicate in writing, as we think things get missed when they text or leave messages on the phone (and when they send out of date letters, for that matter ...). Got a one-line response with no apology for the way they communicate, saying they will allow us to pay by the end of next month.

DH reckons they won't be organized enough to send a bill, mind, as they've not bothered to reply to us about that.

mollymole · 31/03/2011 19:53

'no pets' says tenancy agreement - what don't you understand about this - if you want to do whatever you like you will have to buy your own house or find a tenancy that allows pets

JaneS · 31/03/2011 19:59

Mandy2003 · 31/03/2011 20:03

The OP's tenancy agreement does NOT have a clause saying no pets!

But one think concerns me OP, you say that you are so clean you sometimes worry you border on OCD: I am like this and the cumulative effect of shed hair, puddles and piles (or even the pads/paper required to contain it, damage (however accidental), smells (inevitable), greasy patches on the corners of everything (natural oils in the coat)...doesn't do a heck of a lot for you mental state, please believe me! I had a dog staying for a month and was in bits when it left.

shockers · 31/03/2011 20:03

mandy, come to mine if you need to race or fence. I'll have to draw the line at high jump though... the ceilings are on the low side.

Mandy2003 · 31/03/2011 20:04

Oh, emptyshell I love the 25% discount for 25% less claws

Mandy2003 · 31/03/2011 20:06

Thanks shockers! This was the original lease written in the 70s, so it couldn't even apply to fitness DVDs either! I wonder what kind of previous behaviour in one of their other properties could have led to this clause I really do. Or what precedent in a law book that they copied out of?

gordyslovesheep · 31/03/2011 20:14

slightly OT but I recently brought a new build - and it's not lease hold but it still states that I can have only 2 dogs and no chickens !

thankfully I have 2 cats and 3 guinea pigs - no mention of them !

knockinonyerdoor · 31/03/2011 20:51

OP we rented and had a cat - the landlord let us bring the cat on condition we put down a deposit with him for any damage. We gave him the equivalent of £250, when we moved out he inspected the house and gave us the money back.

(in fact we got more back because over the 5 years he'd had it he'd put it in a bank account earning interest and he gave us the interest too! did I mention he was a great landlord?)

Why not contact your landlady and offer a deposit to cover any possible damage repair or cleaning that may be required in the event of an 'accident' with the puppy? Perhaps she's worried you might ruin her floors and then leave her with the bill for cleaning.

Heebiejeebie · 31/03/2011 21:16

YABU. 'Little man' qv yesterday's annoying abbreviations thread.

dazzlingdeborahrose · 31/03/2011 22:04

Tenancy agreements aside.... As the owner (and big fan) of cavaliers, they're not suited to being outdoor dogs. I see you were considering having him live in the garden They are very much house dogs and incredibly social. In fact I know a couple of breeders who won't let people have their puppies if they're going to keep them in a kennel. They lose the chewing habit fairly early and are brilliant with children's. They're very bright and easy to train - and given the circumstances you're in I think it would be well worth your while to put in the hours to have an obedient and well trained dog. Although you can get away with a walk around the block, they do need regular off leash exercise. They're very energetic so you need to burn that off, then you'll find them less likely to be destructive round the house. That said, much as I love my darling cavalier, he's just a dog and I wouldn't risk losing my home over him. Good luck!

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