To want to just break stuff in anger?

[OrangeIsMyNewBlack]

Posting here partly for rage, partly for quick responses.

Household got served notice for our rental property, has knocked us sideways because we thought this was our "forever" home whilst I have my studies and we sort everything out. I've been scrabbling to find a place for 4 weeks, and we have until the end of the month in order to get a place, finalize it, pack up and bog off. What I'm supremely fucking pissed about is the standards to which we are being held as tenants. Namely, we have cats.

2 cats, both male, that don't spray, don't fight and are treated for fleas regularly. We have an extra £250 in our current bond to cover any pet issues, and we've got a glowing reference because we've never had an issue. But tell a rental agency you have cats and they shrink away like a vampire being presented with garlic...!

I'm sorry, but what the actual fuck is wrong with private landlords?! I saw one property the other day that was a four-bed property. 4 bedrooms. No students, no sharers, no pets, no smokers, no benefits, no children. So... a FOUR. BEDROOMED. PROPERTY. For a single or professional working couple?!?!?! What the fucking fuck is wrong with people?!?!

Anyway, sorry. Crux of my point is: is there anything I can do to circumvent the whole "no pets" thing, because there aren't new properties being listed regularly in my area, and every single property within a 5-mile radius of the town I need to be near is treating me like a leper who's sneezed in their face. Anybody, anywhere, know anything about how to get around this other than getting rid of my two cats?!

Thank you BettySwollocks! I think I need all the luck I can get...

If you have cats, you can't smell them because you're used to them. But anyone walking into your house will smell it straight away.

By saying they smell, I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad smell (that's usually when litter boxes need changing etc.), but that they do have an odour.

Nope. Cats don't smell. I've got many friends with cats and have never smelled anything at their houses. Their houses smell the same as my pet free friends.

It's absolutely untrue that cats smell. Ill-trained cats that wee in the house stink. But you can't smell clean cats in a well-cleaned house.

Have you thought about asking on local sites, making it clear that you are a really tidy and clean family? There might be a sympathetic private landlord who takes pity! Or someone who just doesn't give a damn? My cat is actually one that I inherited from a flat - he was abandoned by a previous tenant of a flat I then moved into. The landlord kind of knew he was there, but couldn't be arsed with the whole animal welfare thing, so he nearly died in there. He didn't give a flying monkeys whether I kept him or not.

Sorry if this has been suggested already, but have you tried gumtree? When I was a private landlord I advertised there.

Maybe try getting creative e.g. asking on local cat lover Facebook pages if anyone knows of any cat-friendly landlords.

For God's sake What To Do. Give it a rest.you are seriously winding me up.

You are not the fucking oracle on whether cats smell or not. Wind your neck in will you!

Maybe @WhatToDoAboutThis2017 is a dog?

Cats generally smell fine if you sniff them, but the keeping of them smells awful - you keep their shit in a box indoors, for example!

It does seem a bit unfair but I think you would be seen as making yourself intentionally homeless if you refused accommodation suitable for your family based on the needs of your cats - after all the council are there to ensure homes for people, not pets.

I've known people who have just omitted to mention pets in rental properties. Unless the landlord lives next door, it's unlikely they'd know provided you cleared everything up before inspections. This would leave you vulnerable to eviction for breach of tenancy if the landlord found out though.

@mackerel you dont keep their shit in a box indoors, you pick up their poo with a poo bag after they use litter tray and chuck it in the outside bin.

OP I really feel for you.

I went through a very similar situation at the start of the year. Was served notice by my landlord along with a sob story about how they didn't want to inconvenience me but they wanted their DC to go to a school near the house so were moving back in to be in the catchment. I naively started house-hunting with a healthy-ish budget but thinking I'd find somewhere but also for the first time as a single parent and a dog owner and I had no idea how undesirable those two things made me as a potential renter despite offering double deposit/dog reference and all the other things suggested on this thread.

In the end and as I was frighteningly close to an actual nervous breakdown my parents stepped in and provided me with the deposit to buy a house. I know this isn't an option for you but if I had had to keep looking for a rental property I would have stopped being honest and declaring that I had a dog. As someone said upthread the system is 100% stacked against you as a renting pet owner.

Oh yeah and the kicker? Two weeks after I moved out of my old house it was back on the market to rent for £250 more a month than I was paying. The LL's prerogative of course (and I'm infinitely better off now with a place of my own and a tiny mortgage) butit just shows how grasping and selfish some landlords are.

I really hope you can find somewhere soon

@Suntrapped, people need homes though. Younger people have had a tough time getting on the ladder. It's all very well "wanting" quiet (childless, petless) tenants but that's not what the rental market is all about now. Home ownership is at a 30 year low. Many tenants DO have children and pets. They're not being perverse by refusing to buy a home and insisting on renting instead. They CANNOT buy. I worry that my children will struggle to buy

Yes people need homes but they don't 'need' pets! Pets are nice to have if you're an animal lover and have the time and money to care for them. If you're renting you might have to move. Keep that in mind when deciding to get a pet! A rental house is a temporary home, it still belongs to someone else. I don't want to risk my house being infested with fleas or have to rip up the wood floors because cat pee has soaked into them. Or have neighbours complaining about barking dogs or cats pooing on their lawns.

I know people who just don't mention their cat, hide her when due an inspection and have impeccable housekeeping standards.

I have offered 8 weeks deposit instead of 6 and promised to have the carpets cleaned professionally, it worked everytime.

@SunTrapped, I just feel very, very sorry for adults who have been left with no choice but to rent long term by insane economic conditions not of their making. As if the uncertainty weren't enough, it now seems they are expected to live a quasi-adolescent half-life and put simple dreams like cat ownership and even starting a family on hold indefinitely. Would you like that life? I wouldn't.

Suntrapped, what you're saying is that long term renters should have to compromise quality of life so that you as a landlord can be assured or no inconvenience whatsoever.

I think it absolutely sucks that the law upholds that.

they are expected to live a quasi-adolescent half-life and put simple dreams like cat ownership and even starting a family on hold indefinitely. Would you like that life? I wouldn't

Does owning a cat really make such a difference to your life? Life isn't fair I agree. But there are lots of things people want and can't have. I'd love a horse but can't afford to buy land or rent a field. I'm sure many people living in flats dream of owning a dog but it's not practical due to space. I know lots of people who love animals but can't own one due to working hours or location. If you crave contact with animals you can always volunteer at a local sanctuary or take a friend's dog for walks.

We rented for years before buying. I did sometimes think wistfully about getting a cat but it's just not practical when renting. Unless you have a very long term contract or family who can keep the cat if you have to move. Yes it's sad to have to give up a pet but foolish to assume you'll find a landlord who accepts them. They just want to protect their property from damage.

Kids are a bit different. Very few landlords say no kids, and usually because of a safety issue e.g. unfenced balcony, or because the house is pristine or decorated to a high standard, or a flat in a very quiet block where kids would upset the neighbours.

My sympathies a little. Our landlord has decided to sell quite abruptly. The first house we viewed (four bed, average price for that, poor condition) the agent refused to give is an application form as he refused to believe we had enough money to rent the property.
We were rather bemused by this as surely the point of the application (that you pay for) is to check that out. We do, not that really matters when they are weird like that. Fortunately there are so many properties now after the banks went crazy on buy to lets that we just told him to jog on.
Unsurprisingly it's still on the market. Perhaps they really should have advertised better (no one not leaking £50's when they walk).

chickenowner

You are a lovely person!

Suntrapped, your horse point isn't comparable. More than a quarter of the population owns a cat. It's very culturally normal to do so. Horse ownership is infinitesimal in comparison.

If you are forbidden from doing something so culturally normal as own a cat ONLY because you have the bad luck to be a long term renter, then the system stinks.

And pets are hugely important to some people. They're not referred to as 'babies' for nothing.

Does owning a cat really make such a difference to your life? Life isn't fair I agree. But there are lots of things people want and can't have. I'd love a horse but can't afford to buy land or rent a field. I'm sure many people living in flats dream of owning a dog but it's not practical due to space. I know lots of people who love animals but can't own one due to working hours or location. If you crave contact with animals you can always volunteer at a local sanctuary or take a friend's dog for walks.

You're being colossally patronising @SunTrapped.

I'm not a massive cat person myself. I've always had dogs. If I'd got to middle age without being able to have dogs, or indulge in proper gardening or have a family that would be a huge and very real loss. I'm 45 and there are quite a few people of my nearly my age about who haven't been able to buy. There's a lot of luck involved.

Can you not hear what any of the people (frequently) posting these types of stories are saying?

I let a house and have a no pets policy. Last tenants brought a car without notifying me. It tore the stair carpet to absolute shreds as well as wallpaper in one room and a door frame. Stair carpet had to be replaced, one room re wallpapered and a door frame repaired. I really lost out as their deposit didn't even come close to how much it cost to replace everything. The stair carpet was for a really awkward size and shape staircase so it cost loads to replace. What really irked is that one a only letting it for a few years until house prices wENT back up as otherwise I'd have been in negative equity. It had been my home until I met my partner and moved into his house. It had been done up absolutely beautifully and then the repairs not only made it look scruffy but we replaced with not such nice stuff as a) I couldn't afford it and b) I didn't want it wrecked again.
It still upsets me now.
Tenants didn't give a flying whatsit and just shrugged when the letting agent and I chdllenged them about it.

Cat not car!

Sparkly, perhaps comfort yourself with the thought that your tenants paid your mortgage so you didn't have to sell at a loss, hmm?

Ensuring that you held on to a valuable asset while they depleted their reserves holding you up.

I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for you.

Last tenants brought a car without notifying me. It tore the stair carpet to absolute shreds as well as wallpaper in one room and a door frame

I'll bet it fucking did. Here kitty, kitty...

😂