Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To get a cat without asking landlord?

227 replies

lananana · 30/12/2016 19:25

Wooden floors throughout so no danger of carpets being ripped. Previous tenant smoked and left the house in a state which I spent ages cleaning. Agents said no pets when I moved in.

OP posts:
Temporaryname137 · 31/12/2016 09:03

Also, ignore the garbage about the unfair contract terms act. that deals with excluding liability under contracts etc, eg you cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury. it has the arse end of fuck all to do with tenancy agreements! I think that pp might have been talking about fair consumer terms - eg there is a not legally tested school of thought that says it's unfair for residential landlords to have break clauses part way through the term - but even that would not apply here.

You would be in breach and possibly told to leave. Then you'd have to find a landlord who would take a cat. You only have to read the threads on here to see that isn't easy - for all the reasons set out above!

Original poster
lananana · 31/12/2016 09:09

Ok so I clearly am being unreasonable in not asking. I will ask.

But just for the record it sounds like a lot of people on here are describing lions rather than cats Hmm and they definitely don't smell. Cats are the least smelly pets I've ever owned.

OP posts:
Chops2016 · 31/12/2016 09:19

I don't find cats smelly in themselves, but their pee absolutely honks!

Binkybix · 31/12/2016 09:22

I think asking is the right thing.

I do think that cats smell too - if you have no pets you are more likely to notice it.

ScarletForYa · 31/12/2016 09:24

I have a cat. Their litter trays/boxes smell, even regularly changed ones.

I have an enclosed one but kept outside.

Their food also stinks. If you walk info a home where cats and their food, litter boxes are kept inside you can smell it.

And also some people's noses are more sensitive than others. There's also nose blindness where people don't realise their home stinks because they've become immune to it.

DeleteOrDecay · 31/12/2016 09:30

If you don't like it, why not buy your own place

I agree that tenants should ask before getting a pet but this is a silly comment, if only life were so simple eh?

And according to another poster tenants shouldn't have pets either. Okay thenHmm

Anyway back to the op, just ask. A lot of tenancy agreements state 'no pets' as standard but if you speak to them some LL will be willing to compromise. Honesty is key.

Yoarchie · 31/12/2016 09:47

Cats piss
A relative had a cat in a rental and apparently there is a kind of light you can shine showing where cats have pissed even if it has been cleaned up.
The rental had piss in every room, fucking gross.
You would be crazy to do it

amammabear · 31/12/2016 10:45

To anybody with any kind of sensitivity to pet dander, you can smell them the second you walk in the door- and I'm taking minor irritation, not severe allergies. Some them do wee everywhere etc.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 31/12/2016 10:50

People who think their cats don't smell are completely deluded.

And yes to the allergies, if DH goes within a few metres of a cat hair his eyes and nose start streaking like Niagra Falls!

ChocoChou · 31/12/2016 11:08

When I was looking for somewhere to rent all the properties stated no pets. I have a (large) dog so asked the agents to suggest a higher deposit to the LLs. All of them we asked agreed not a problem... money talks!

SisterMoonshine · 31/12/2016 12:41

We all know, just from the threads on here, how much cars piss people off. Deficating in gardens, killing birds, going into people's houses. How you could keep it a secret I don't know.

Grindelwaldswand · 31/12/2016 23:56

Cats are probably worse than dogs for tge stench and hair even the most ocd person would struggle keeping a clean home with a cat around. You can't clean what you can't smell or see because you've grown immune, not to mention the scratches everywhere and chewing. Yes some cats chew!! Hmm

GimmeeMoore · 01/01/2017 15:30

Cats do smell,they cast hair.they smell,they are a living animal with an odour
I have no pets,when I go to visit pet owners I can smell the pets.
my friends are fastidiously clean,their Home smells of cats.cats smell.end of

Saracen · 01/01/2017 15:56

Haven't RTFT so sorry if someone has pointed this out.

Do you realise that you could be evicted with two weeks' notice for breach of contract? What happens to you AND the poor cat then? If you've struggled in the past to find a property where pets are allowed, try doing it in just two weeks, without a reference from your current landlord and while short of money because your landlord has made a deduction from your deposit to pay for a deep clean and flea treatment even if the cat has done no visible damage.

GrannyGoggles · 01/01/2017 16:15

user
Please let me know where I can invest and get a 10% return. It would be welcome information.

I've been a landlord for over 20 years - sometimes we say yes to pets, and sometimes no. It depends on the property, how recently it's been re-carpeted and decorated, and also on our relationship with tenants.

I now veer to no as we have indeed had hundreds of pounds worth of damage done on several occasions. It's not just the cost of cleaning or replacing, it's also the time it takes between tenants, meaning no income.

Definitely worth asking, but strongly advise that you don't do it without permission.

Not all landlords are heartless bastards, just as all tenants are not - well, I don't know - whatever insulting epithet you may wish to insert.

Ragwort · 01/01/2017 16:32

You can ask; some years ago we rented a house; being allergic to cats I was pleased to note in the terms and conditions it clearly stated 'no pets'. When I went to view it there was a cat basket in the bedroom and the previous tenant had been allowed to have a cat there Angry. As we needed to rent quickly & there were no other suitable properties we did take it on, the landlord kindly had the carpets professionally cleaned for us (which we then had to do again when we moved out after 8 months).

I am now a Landlord myself and would not permit pets.

Temporaryname137 · 01/01/2017 16:44

Bit misleading to say it's eviction on 2 weeks' notice! In fact it's 2 weeks notice to remedy the breach. Then the landlord applies to court for possession, which will be listed for a hearing 4-8 weeks after the application is made. (Judge may postpone to a later, longer hearing if s/he thinks it needs it.) Then it's a discretionary ground, so it's up to the court whether it makes an order for possession. If an order for possession is made, then it's usually another 28 days before the date for possession.

So don't do it because it's stupid to breach your lease deliberately, could
mean you struggle to find somewhere else or have to mess the cat around if you can't keep it, and you knew no pets were allowed when you signed up for it. But it's not as simple as 2 weeks' notice and you're out. It's notice then court order. Anything else would be harassment and possibly even a criminal offence by the landlord!

wasonthelist · 01/01/2017 16:50

Cats do smell.

CherryChasingDotMuncher · 01/01/2017 16:51

Tenants absolutely cannot be evicted by force in just 2 weeks! You can give notice, but it's not a case of "if you don't shift I'll call the police". When it comes to evicting LLs on their own really have v little power

TinselTwins · 01/01/2017 16:57

Cats do stink, if your own house doesn't stink from your cat (and you've just stopped smelling it) then you're an obnoxious pet owner who doesn't care that you've chosen a pet that is stinking up the neighbours gardens instead of yours.

Cats are probably one of the most antisocial pets you can have IMO in terms of neighbours/landlords. Moving into a place where the previous tennant had cats is no fun!

SisyphusDad · 01/01/2017 17:59

It may also not be the landlord who bans pets. If it's a new-build, managed block of leasehold flats (or similar), the head lease may specify no pets and the landlord must pass that down to the tenant.

Andrewofgg · 01/01/2017 18:32

The keyboard lawyers might like to look at this

www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2010/265.html&query=dog+alfie+drum

where a tenant lost her home for keeping a barking dog which she claimed was essential to her MH because of the rights of the residents of the other flats to the dog-free environment they had signed up to.

The idea that a no-pets clause in the lease of a house - let alone a second-floor flat - would be held to be be "unreasonable" is preposterous.

Temporaryname137 · 01/01/2017 18:49

Um, that case relates to a S21 notice, which any landlord can serve at the end of any assured shorthold lease, and which is NOT dependent upon the discretion of the court. The MH point was taken under the disability discrimination act in that case.

Every case would turn on its own facts. Sure, a judge may well think it a sufficient breach to keep a cat. But s/he may not. A studio flat in Central London might be viewed differently to a cottage in the country, for example. Judges can also be very tenant friendly. So OP might find that she got a suspended possession order, to be enforced if breach not remedied, ie cat rehomed.

But in reality, most landlords using a section 21 won't face a MH defence. It only really becomes relevant for the section 8 procedure, ie the 2 weeks referred to by a Pp.

BMW6 · 01/01/2017 18:58

OP - my house previous owners had 2 cats. Not only did every carpet have to be removed and the floorboards cleaned with dettol (stank of cat piss) but the lounge radiators had to be upgraded and when we removed the old ones there was enough cat hair behind them to stuff a pillow and that stank too

I suggest you are noseblind. We have a dog and he certainly gets stinky sometimes - then we bath him.

Andrewofgg · 01/01/2017 19:15

The DDA is more aggressively anti-contractual in its approach than the Unfair Contract Terms Act. And what the Court said about the common-law rights of others would read over - certainly in the case of a second floor flat where the other tenants are entitled to a pet-free environment.