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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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) Blush :( :(

OP posts:
SugarPasteFrog · 31/03/2011 22:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Browncoats · 31/03/2011 22:37

Agree with dazzlingdeborahrose, if you keep most, if not all, dogs outside they become more difficult to train IME (granted, not vast experience). Dogs are social animals and the more you let them encounter difficult situations and 'correct' their behaviour on the spot, the better trained they are. If you keep a dog outside it becomes easier for the dog to decide the rules. They're pack animals and need to feel part of a pack.

I disagree with dazzlingdeborahrose on the dog being 'just a dog'. No way, once I've decided to have a pet they become part of the family and there's no way I'd give them up and I WOULD risk my home over him.

I hope you can find a good compromise with your LL - there has been some good advice in this thread.

hugglymugly · 31/03/2011 22:54

I'm a landlord, we rent out the house which is next door to us. We use a lettings agency to get new tenants and do the inventory and contracts. Their standard recommendation was "no pets", and that makes sense in our circumstances especially in terms of dogs. Even though the ground floor flat has access to a reasonable sized garden, as owners of the property we'd have to be responsible for securing the boundaries, and that would involve costs to us.

Our agency, though, is very good at assessing people (which is why we use them) and in the past we've accepted their recommendation of a tenant who was reliant on benefits, which has worked wonderfully well. If they recommended to us a possible tenant who had a dog, we'd consider to that. But that would only be someone who clearly demonstrated a good knowledge and long experience of dogs. It wouldn't work for someone embarking on a new experience of a puppy.

flyingspaghettimonster · 01/04/2011 00:16

we got evicted because we had a child after moving into a 'no children' flat... they didn't mention they were going to do that until our daughter was almost 6 months old... I wouldn't risk getting evicted on short notice over a dog... obviously, we had to keep the child :-)

BitOfFun · 01/04/2011 00:22

I can understand your disappointment.

Perhaps, when you've calmed down, you could come up with a few constructive suggestions of how you can minimise any damage/pay for it, and put together a case to persuade her?

It does seems a bit, er, "ruff" if your tenancy agreement didn't specify 'No Pets'.

sunnydelight · 01/04/2011 05:08

YABU, it is not your property. We got a puppy a year ago and although I love her to bits she has scratched the wooden floors, peed on a rug so it had to be thrown out (luckily it wasn't the carpet underneath), dug holes in the garden etc.

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 01/04/2011 09:43

LittleRed - I reckon your DH is right....your agency sound so inefficient they prob wont remember to bill you!

HengshanRoad · 01/04/2011 09:53

YABU. It's her house.

YABU also for referring to your son as your "little man", unless he is actually a pygmy.

kreecherlivesupstairs · 01/04/2011 10:01

I just re read it. Is the OPs little man a dwarf or an elf?

goingroundthebend4 · 01/04/2011 10:07

my tenancy says no pets .I have been here a year and am considering getting a puppy as i am at home .The very first thing I did was to email my landlord and ask him before looked any further into it .But ater looking in and weighing things up I ahve decided not to for now

Im lucky he told me can have a dog , cat or what ever i liked .But mines long term rental .The house came with a yard that he brought and I have no neighbours to annoy either

JaneS · 01/04/2011 11:01

desperate - here's hoping! Grin They didn't tell us our landlady was dead for a year, so it's not unlikely!

I do just hate the attitude some people seem to have - as if anyone who rents is scum of the earth and should be grateful for kindly landlords 'allowing' them to breathe their air.

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 01/04/2011 12:01

OMG - a dead landlady and they didnt tell you..oh dear :)

I love my tenants when they are decent law abiding people who treat my lovely bungalow the way it should be treated and if it werent for you tenants............ unfortunately the few scum bags as usual ruin it for the majority of decent folk!

JaneS · 01/04/2011 12:13

I expect it's always like that on both sides - a few nasty and most decent. Thanks btw for being so nice and cheering me up, and it's not even my thread. Smile

ZacharyQuack · 01/04/2011 12:19

I assumed the "little man" was the OP's minature husband. OP, are you Sophie Dahl?

minipie · 01/04/2011 12:19

can people please read the thread

The OP here has a tenancy which does NOT say "no pets"

So she is entitled to have a pet (subject to paying for any damage).

Ok, she'll annoy her landlady. But she won't be doing anything wrong.

Gah.

JaneS · 01/04/2011 12:23

Grin So mean, Zachery, so mean! Grin

BluddyMoFo · 01/04/2011 12:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

memphis83 · 01/04/2011 12:25

i thought if you didnt enter the property with an animal they didnt have to add it to the clause, my LL has put in ours one dog only, and that we have to get carpets cleaned when we move, making improvements to the house doesnt give the right to do what you want in their house, we have re carpeted whole house but i will still get them cleaned when we move, the last tenant had a cat that caused loads of damage he is currently going through the courts to get back the money for damages. my sister has been kicked out of 2 properties as she has a dog and didnt mention it when she moved in, she tried to argie saying but it doesnt say no pets on the agreement it didnt work

minipie · 01/04/2011 12:26

Yes but you're allowed to do anything that isn't specifically disallowed in the lease.

tyler80 · 01/04/2011 12:26

Blanket no pet clauses are unreasonable terms in a tenancy agreement. Not that it matters in this case as there was no mention of pets in kid agreement.

I'm so glad we now rent from a company who expect nothing more than the rent paid and the property returned as we found it. Nothing worse than landlords who don't understand that when other people pay them significant amounts of money to live in their house it's no longer their home.

minipie · 01/04/2011 12:28

Your sister shouldn't have been kicked out memphis Sad unless the lease had come to an end or she was in breach of something else in the lease.

Desperateforthinnerthighs · 01/04/2011 13:01

Minipie - my contract doesnt tell my tenants not to set fire to the place....does that mean they can?? A bit extreme but you get my drift........

JaneS · 01/04/2011 13:11

desperate, there's a law against arson, though, which covers it! Wink

LaWeasel · 01/04/2011 13:13

Our contract specifies the existing cat we already have too (and that any poo/wee has to be cleared up straight away!). If something were to happen to him I wouldn't expect to be able to get a kitten just because we'd had a cat before. I'd expect to negotiate, and that probably they'd be sympathetic and another adult cat would be allowed, but I wouldn't have any expectation of any other animal being automatically okay.

I totally understand why LL wouldn't want baby animals in their properties - you can be as good an owner as possibly and you still can't have much control until they are older - and I think it's pretty niave to assume that it will be okay just because the contract doesn't have a no pets clause.

If you went through a letting agency the standard sort of agreement will be that you have to ask written permission re pets and redecoration.

This is what it means to rent.

minipie · 01/04/2011 13:15

Thank you LRD

there's probably a clause in the lease about taking reasonable care of the property too, which would also cover it.

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