Rental Properties

[Greenkit]

AIBU to say, if you rent out your property, you shouldn't be able to stipulate 'No Pets, No DSS, No Sharers, No Smokers, and sometimes No Children (Although that may have changed)

If you are worried about damage then have extra deposit costs to cover.

After a marriage break down, I am having to rent and I am unable to take my 3 whippets with me as the landlord, doesn't allow pets. If fact its seems no one allows pets.

The trouble with asking for a higher deposit is it would make it even harder for a lot of people to rent. But that doesn’t mean that those who can afford a higher deposit would be better tenants anyway.

People on a full time wage can struggle to get £1000+ together, so I imagine it could be even harder for those on benefits.

Deposit amounts also rarely stretch far enough to cover the full extent of damage or non-payment of rent (when you take into account how long it takes to evict someone)

I do agree that there should be something to make it easier to rent privately though. I own now, but I have 3 cats (2 with health issues) and I honestly don’t know what I’d do if I needed to go back to renting and couldn’t find a LL to accept them. There are so many pet owners, but only so much space in shelters etc.

With DSS, there should some sort of middle ground, particularly as social housing is like gold dust in many areas. People on benefits need to live somewhere. Where else can they go if there’s no space in social housing and landlords are so strict??

The rules around housing benefit specifically should change, so that it can’t just be stopped at the drop of a hat. There should be a timeframe, whilst they investigate or whatever, that tenants can still claim.

fundamentally it should be a business transaction and I think too many ‘landlords’ don’t get that the tenant is their customer.

Of course it is a business transaction. And the landlord will choose the best deal for them taking into account market forces. They are not there to provide a public service.

A tenant with three dogs and a cat in a normal home will cost the landlord more in repairs etc than a tenant without. Ditto tenants with small children and smokers.

Greenkit, when you rent out a property, even if it's not one you have previously lived in, it is an investment that you have made, usually at great expense, to then go on and hopefully yield a profit for you and your family. Why should a landlord be expexted to drop or change their standards for whoever has access to that investment because it's 'not fair'?

Landlords are demonised as it is, some are bad but many more are exceptional, and because some tenants feel we should be thankful that we are being paid rent, such tenants then feel entitled.

You are RENTING/LEASING the property so that grants you exclusive possession only. Legal title and ownership remains with the landlord and their say is critically important. Perhaps look into buying if renting is proving problematic?

Furthermore, when you leave you can just go and rent somewhere else. If you decide to damage the property before you go, very rarely does the deposit cover the repairs. If you decide to stop paying the rent, in most cases the landlord still has to cover the mortgage. If you don't leave AND stop paying rent, the landlord has to spend £1000's removing you. The risk is entirely the landlord's so yes, he/she absolutely should stipulate.

I rent out a property and I don't allow pets, person must be a working professional and no smoking. I don't use a letting agency so I meet my tenants and respect their wishes and they in turn respect mine. My last lady has been with me for 5 years.

If you rent a hotel room, holiday cottage or Airb&b there are similar conditions like no pets, unsuitable for children, no smoking. Renting a property longer term is no different. I have rented and I've heard some strange things over the years, example I went to view a room in a house where the land lord lived and he said no visitors were allowed to stay over. A friend of mine was charged extra money per night if they had someone stay over night. I moved into a room in a house, then the landlord who lived there said they forgot to charge me for council tax, so rent went up. Money taken off deposit for carpet, even though I had hired a Rug doctor carpet cleaner. The list is endless....I own property now.

Op l am so sorry about your current situation, it is heartbreaking and as l have dogs, l know they can be manged well in a house.

BUT l have been a LL for 20 years, l have had lovely tenants who have become friends over the years, and one property currently has 2 small elderly dogs, as the tenants proved themselves to be excellent, for a year before asking to have rescue pets, so l trusted them.

I have also been nearly bankrupted by one tenant, a very nasty man who stopped paying rent, totally trashed my only rental flat, (he rebuilt motorbikes in there on new carpets...oil and all) and when l challenged him knowing he was employed, he threatened to petrol bomb my elderly parents cottage....

I was 23 and had worked 7 days a week, to buy and do up my first flat on my own, since the age of 18, and then worked half the night in addition, to purchase the derelict flat above, and fix it up myself for another year. This was because l was not in a well paid job, and knew l had to secure a pension whilst l was young enough, to work day and night for some years.......
Getting him out brought me to the very edge of bankruptcy, and took me 3 years to pay off the resulting debt to fix the flat...

I had a similar situation 3 years ago, bad tenants left me with 9K ( yes 9K) of damages.... you may think, what has this to do with not allowing my pets, well, would you really add on the risk of people like l have just described, having animals in the property too?

Some pet owners are wholy sensible and responsible as l am, and l am sure you are.......but the LL doesn't know that until it is too late.

the law protects tenants hugely, and offers littleprotection for the landlord, which make LL's much more cautious.

So much needs to change, LL's need to be able to remove problem tenants within a month. I want to see Independent inspectors appointed to assess properties and rent arrears, to prevent unfairness from rogue LL's, and revenge evictions.
UC needs to be paid to the LL, so we are not afraid of the rent( ie the mortgage) not being paid. Sadly UC beneficiaries are twice as likely to default, hence mortgage companies not allowing them as tenants.Paying their rent direct means many more LL will let to people on UC and may encourage more mortgage companies to allow this too.
I would try and find a property where you can approach the LL direct and discuss your pets...not easy l know but l wish you luck.

If you rent out your house, you are doing to make money, renters pay that money, so no you shouldn't be able to say no to pets etc...

Not everyone does. We ended up with a rental as I had my house & DP had his when we met. I don't want to sell my house as I may need it in the future. I rent it out at cost & less than what I could get for it as I understand people don't haemorrhage money out of their arse. They've also got kids and a cat.

So don't tar everyone with the same brush.

Nicotine stains and the smell is awful. I’ve known of houses needing to be replastered following being lived in my heavy smokers.

I love dogs but sorry, they stink.

HB is often paid in arrears which is why mortgage companies won’t allow it.

Oysterbabe, I knew at least one poster would come up with the "it's your house you don't smell it". Absolute rubbish.

As I said my mother in law would not have hesitated to tell me if my house smelt of dog. She would have loved to have been able to say it.

Some dogs have different types of coat so that makes a difference. Plus what they are fed makes a difference. Plus how often they are bathed. Show dogs are bathed every week. I know many people with show dogs and can assure you their houses do not smell. Nor do owners of the same breed of dog as I have.

Some breeds do smell and I can smell it as soon as I enter a house. Still not as bad as walking into a smokers house though. They smell even if the person does not smoke indoors.

barkingroyalty.com/dogs-that-dont-smell/

We have rental properties and we are happy to have people on benefit. Non-smokers but people still do, and weed. We ask for no pets but frequently people do anyway. We have an agreement with two very responsible tenants for one dog each and have a pet agreement. We have in the past had to do a lot of wood repairs and several times replace carpets as no amount of shampooing has removed the smell. I am a pet lover but would say no to three dogs. One house cost us £5000 in repairs. Happy to have children. Get a bit brassed off with unofficial men being moved in. We have some lovely tenants but the few bad ones really make up for it. I have read somewhere that technically a landlord cannot say no pets, which is strange to me. What they can do is choose a pet free tenant over you. Experience teaches that statistically, some tenants are a better bet.

We have 3 properties we rent out.

Demand for housing in our area (south east) far outstrips supply. This means we as landlords have the ability to pick and choose out tenants. When our tenant in my flat gave notice last year we put up an advert to rent it out. Within a few hours we had 40+ emails asking to view it, after 1 day we took down the advert as we had loads of great applicants. Some of the enquiries were from people on DSS, others had small pets, etc. We ended up choosing a single guy with a full time job, non smoker, no kids, great references and passed his credit check... it makes more business sense for us to pick him over others. This is why loads of adverts specify no pets/DSS/smokers - because the landlords know they can find someone who ticks none of these boxes and it's a waste of time for the potential tenant (and landlord) to fill in the enquiry form, have a viewing, etc when we know the flat with go to a better applicant.

We no longer allow pets as they do cause more damage plus the flat isn't really suitable for dogs/cats.

With DSS there are increased chances of rent not being paid. I'm not saying that everyone on DSS is likely to have rent arrears, or that everyone in full time work necessarily can be guaranteed to pay their rent on time - however after a decade of managing the properties and the availability of plenty of applicants who can prove they can easily pay their rent on time we no longer list our places as suitable for DSS.

Smokers - no. There are increased fire risks. The nicotine can stain the walls. The smell.....

Kids, we actually have a family living in one of our houses. They had kids, it's a family home. Our tenants have been there for 7+ years. It's their family home and they are lovely and they really look after the house. I hope they stay there forever.

What's the solution for people on DSS, smokers, those with pets? Well in an ideal world far far far more housing needs to be built and a large chunk of that should be designated council owned housing IMO. The extra housing would stop private rents being so crazy ridiculously high as supply would match demand. House prices in general would also drop thus making it more affordable for people to own their house if they wish - and when you own your own house it's fine to have whatever pets you wish, no one can tell you not to smoke inside, etc. However, the reality of this building boom happening is sadly not on the horizon .

I've done an admin job in Lettings at an estate agents, afew years back now and the manager always used to say to landlords, it's your house so whatever you say goes. Ultimately it's their investment.

We had 1 lady who tried to rent from us time and time again - she had about 6 or 7 kids and a couple of cats and no landlord who had the size house she needed wanted pets or lots of children as it causes lots of extra wear and tear. I questioned it as I felt sorry for her initially but while she accused the manager of discrimination the landlords can refuse anyone they don't like the look of basically.
I have to admit if I was a landlord I'd rather take a family with 3 children not 6 or 7!!!!

Once I'd met her in person I stopped feeling sorry for her as she was extremely aggressive and when she saw property advertised would go on the land registry to track down the owners, as she reckoned us and other agents were discriminating her, proceed to stalk them on Facebook and ended up with a police warning for harassment!!!!

It is difficult but landlords can stipulate exactly what they want anything from Pets, smoking, not using hair dye incase it wrecked bathroom suites, no benefits, or limit the number of children.

If it was me I'd contact your local
Council as with children you may be high priority for social housing and they definitely allow you to have pets.

I hope you find something soon

I think it’s more than fair to stipulate no pets. I am desperate for a cat. I grew up with cats. I adore them and have always felt weird living without one. But I’m not adopting one until I buy my own place for precisely this reason, it’s impossible in my experience to find a let that will allow animals and even if I found one I wouldn’t risk that next time I moved I wouldn’t find another pet allowed let and have to end up rehoming them.

So I’m waiting. When I own the place I live, I can make decisions that’ll lead to more wear and tear. When it’s not mine I don’t expect to!

I will add, landlords can’t control what you do outside of the home. So they say no smokers but really they mean no smoking indoors. Smokers can still rent and only smoke outside (far enough away of course). When I smoked I rented a nonsmoking flat and just never smoked inside, only went away from the house. If someone can’t restrict their smoking enough to do it outdoors it’s not really on the landlord to put up with the damage it does on their property.

We have just rented a property - it was initially no pets. The property manager was rather taken with us, and our two kids, and I smiled regretfully and said that unfortunately a cat was a deal breaker for us. Property manager was on the phone within half an hour, they'd talked to the owner, and yes, to a cat, he'd have to think hard about a dog.

We paid an extra 350 deposit for having a cat. A dog, according to the contract, would be another 550. We have to clean all the carpets, all the curtains, make good any damage, and do a flea treatment.

Those deposits would not cover the potential quantum of damage either a cat or dog could potentially do.

We are inspected within four weeks of taking on the lease, and then three monthly thereafter.

The landlord is entrusting their property with us, that is worth several hundred thousand dollars. It may be going to be our home, but it is their house, their extremely hard earned investment. There is a lot of trust being placed in us, to keep the property in good order, not needlessly cause damage, and to actually pay the rent.

They're not running a charity. They're running a business. Generally, like most business owners, they'd like to make a profit. When you get a bad tenant, far from making a profit, it can cost you a fortune.

When we let out our house, we had tenants who wanted to paint the decor to their taste. Um, no. Especially when I found out that what their taste was! Sure, they said they'd switch it back - I had strong doubts that when push came to shove this would eventuate. If it didn't I was going to be left with pink, purple, yellow and green bedrooms. And an orange lounge. I kid you not.

Some breeds do smell and I can smell it as soon as I enter a house. Still not as bad as walking into a smokers house though. They smell even if the person does not smoke indoors.

You don’t speak for everyone! I would rather smell stale smoke than the smell of dog. My friend’s house with two large dogs smells so bad I feel physically sick and have to wear a lot of perfume to try mask it. The smell of smoke is nothing compared to that.

Private renting in the UK can really suck! Sympathies. I think the issue is that so many are just amateurs when it comes to renting, it's also not very well regulated.

Against my gut feeling I rented my property to a family with two dogs. They introduced the dogs, said they were very well behaved and showed total understsnding with my concerns, promised they would be no trouble...

I wish I'd never believed them. They caused a lot of damage to the house, carpets ruined, they cut a dog flap in an original wooden door, garden a total mess. They too had ask to paint the walls another and I agreed on the basis that they would paint it back. In the end they just disappear one day having not pay the rent for 6 weeks so the 'extra' deposit was just absorbed in rent owed and there was nothing more to claim for the damage. The walls were a purple colour and left that way.

After a huge refurbishment that cost £20k, I was harden as a Landlord and applied all the above nos. I had no problem renting to a professional family who didn't smoke and had no pets, much less risky.

I'm sorry you are struggling but blame rotten tenants who couldn't give a care for the property that isn't theirs not the landlords.

I had young sharers as tenants and they ended up running some unofficial AirBnB style arrangement with more than one 'lodger' regularly staying over and getting post at the address. Neighbours were not happy. They were at risk of invalidating my insurance also.

Sharers also don't look after the property as well - it cost about £2,000 just to make good the damage their caused and something was always breaking and needing small repairs while they lived there - door handles, toilet seats, window hinges...

I would be ok about cats and small pets, probably no dogs due to the noise as it's a flat - but the master lease stipulates no pets at all so my hands are tied. It would also make things difficult when you need to find new tenants - deep cleaning to get the smell and any allergens out. Same with smokers.

One of the lettings agents I've used warned me off tenants with children - he said it's almost impossible to evict them if they stop paying rent as if it goes to court, they will not want children evicted - I can't afford months and months of no rent coming in if a bad tenant decides they can stop paying.

If you worried about carpets, then add extra onto the deposit to cover it.

To put flooring in my new build it cost me almost 2 grand, would you be willing to pay a deposit of £3000? Dogs scratch walls, skirting boards cupboards, floors! I understand you may have 3 well behaved dogs but most people living in rented accommodation would happily let there dog crap on the carpet

YABVU. It’s their property, of course they should have a say in who they rent it to.

No pets is reasonable as at the very minimum they smell and at the worst they can cause a lot of damage.

No DSS is reasonable as payment can’t always be guaranteed.

No smokers is reasonable as smoking ruins the property. There’s no point in an ‘only smoke outside’ rule as smoke travels, it sticks on people’s clothes and smokers themselves smell.

*Some breeds do smell and I can smell it as soon as I enter a house. Still not as bad as walking into a smokers house though. They smell even if the person does not smoke indoors.

You don’t speak for everyone! I would rather smell stale smoke than the smell of dog. My friend’s house with two large dogs smells so bad I feel physically sick and have to wear a lot of perfume to try mask it. The smell of smoke is nothing compared to that.*

Not only dogs and smokers. Many houses have a distinct smell. I notice this particulary in homes with young children. This may not be noticeable to the occupants, but it might well be to other people.

They are not dogs, they are Whippets
Try posting on the Facebook page Whippet appreciation society, really helpful page.

We have a rental property and agreed the tenant could have a dog as it's a really robust property with no carpets.

A major plus is the tenant has been there almost 10 years and looks after it better than we did.

We rent out properties and the standard blurb says no dogs but our agents showed one property to a lady with a huge dog, she had references and the agent asked if we would let her move in with the dog. We said yes, we are both animal lovers. Always worth asking and as others have suggested, perhaps offer a little higher deposit in case carpets need cleaning. Hope you and your lovely dog find somewhere soon.

YANBU. I'm disabled and survive on benefits. I appreciate all the landlords want to protect their properties, but the unintended consequence is that it's very difficult to rent if you're disabled.

So, I wind up with landlords who really don't care about their tenants. It's been 5 years since the penetrating damp hasn't been fixed - even the letting agent is hacked off about it now, because it makes them look bad.

Landlord did replace the boiler when that died, and then tried to make out like they were doing me a favour and I should be grateful. I certainly was, but from my point of view, that's what I pay the rent for!

Your dogs may be well behaved, quiet and clean, but other than your word the landlord has no evidence of this. Nobody with pets looking for a rental is going to admit if their dogs stink and scratch the carpet; everyone will claim their dogs are great.

And then after a year if the carpet is destroyed and the whole place stinks of dog, its too late and they have to pay out thousands for new soft furnishings.

I totally understand not wanting dogs or smokers in a rented property.