To ask why unfurnished rental properties still don't allow pets?

[Coffeebiscuitsrepeat]

My sister is having terrible trouble trying to find a place to rent with her two cats. I can understand furnished properties due to scratching sofa etc., but why do so many unfurnished places not allow pets? The one she was viewing didn't even have carpet, just laminate flooring!

My first student place had a flea infestation from the people who had been there before us. It was horrific!

That says a lot more about the tenants than the pets.

According to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, blanket bans on pets aren’t enforceable. The act says that tenants should have the right to ask permission to keep a pet – a request which a landlord can’t refuse without a good reason. Good reasons could include allergies, conditions in the building’s lease, or the landlord’s insurance policy.
In addition, the government has recently announced moves to make it easier for tenants to have pets in their rental homes, by amending the national model tenancy agreement for England. This is the government’s recommended contract for landlords to use when signing up new tenants. The revision removes restrictions on well-behaved pets, with the recommendation that total pet bans should only be implemented for good reason.

Not all pets and pet owners are bad news

You're right, of course they're not - but the point is that LLs have no way of telling the difference (or of insuring themselves with a suitably large deposit any more)

And someone who knows the Fluffy or Fido chews, scratches or wees is hardly going to say so

The revision removes restrictions on well-behaved pets

And who's going to determine in advance whether the pets are well behaved or not?
You can't exactly interview them ...

Because animals scratch and damage doors, flooring, skirting boards etc.

They also pee and it stinks.

Then there’s flees.....

Then there’s shit in the garden.

And then you can’t rent to someone who has allergies without going to the expense of a deep clean.

If you want a pet, buy your own house and don’t inflict it on someone else.

Pets stink. HTH.

How would removing the restrictions on well-behaved pets work when someone decides to get a new pet? Puppies and kittens tend to do a lot of damage due to youth and exuberance. What I can see happening is the emergence of variable rents x amount for no pets, x+y for pets.

Pets stink. HTH.

Some do, some don't. HTH.

Is she looking at houses or flats? A lot of leases prevent pets in a building so the landlord has no say in the matter.

@ZaraW

Pets stink. HTH.

Some do, some don't. HTH.

All pets have a smell, so all pets make your flat/house smell.

Whether you like that smell, or whether you’re now nose blind to that smell (as pet owners tend to get, hence they don’t think their pet smells), that smell is still there and it’s still very pervasive.

As a feckless student I inherited a cat from an even more feckless housemate. He'd not been snipped or de-flead, clawed furniture (plus walls, doors, carpet) and pissed EVERYWHERE. It was impossible to get the stench out and the flea infestation was biblical. Funnily enough I didn't get our deposit back.

I'm a landlord now and absolutely wouldn't have pets.

And I forgot to mention holiday lets. There's no way I will stay in a holiday property that allows pets

Me neither. I saw someone advertising a lovely holiday let on a local FB group because someone had cancelled at the last minute and there were so many snide remarks about them not allowing pets. Why should they? There are plenty of people wanting a pet-free environment, and in the early days of ebay items coming from a pet and smoke-free home was a selling point. Not sure if that's still the case.

According to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, blanket bans on pets aren’t enforceable. The act says that tenants should have the right to ask permission to keep a pet – a request which a landlord can’t refuse without a good reason. Good reasons could include allergies, conditions in the building’s lease, or the landlord’s insurance policy

This is a load of nonsense. The CRA says no such thing.

@ZaraW

Pets stink. HTH.

Some do, some don't. HTH.

Yes they do. Owners don't notice the smell but everyone else does, even if they're too polite to say so.

I'm a cat owner.