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!

I'm a LL and I allow pets but I can see why others don't. I have pets myself and there is no way around it, they can cause damage. So if there are two or more sets of tenants applying, one has pets the other doesn't, why would you choose the pet one? In most areas there is competition so LLs do have a choice of tenant.

Same thing if one couple applies, and one family of ten, you'd choose the couple wouldn't you. No judgement against the family but the couple is going to pay the same and cost you less. It's a no brainer.

@DioneTheDiabolist

My sis has two dogs and found it difficult to find a rental that would allow them. She got round it by offering a double deposit.

I did a similar thing years ago. I rented a property for six months and paid the whole of the rent upfront if the landlord agreed to accept my two dogs. He bit my hand off :)

The children/pets issue is a false one - plenty of rental places won't allow children either (though I suspect they are on dodgy legal ground). I've been round large three-bed houses where they said they wanted a 'professional couple' rather than a couple with children. My previous LL didn't want to let to anyone with children and was most displeased when we procreated.

We moved into a house that had cats. Cat wee stains everywhere on carpets - can’t get them out. Disgusting. All carpets scratched too including stairs. Completely understand why a landlord doesn’t allow it.

i allow cats in property with cat flap. However if cat is indor cat i would not allow it. cats are very clean animals providing they can get outside to toilet.I only allowed a dog once. Yhe tenants had lived in property for 7 years and asked me if they could get their dd a puppy for her birthday. I agreed and they signed pet agreement to pay for professional deep clean and pay any damage caused by pet upon leaving property. When they left dog had xaused no damage and they paidvfor deep clean. Everyone happy.

@SarahAndQuack

The children/pets issue is a false one - plenty of rental places won't allow children either (though I suspect they are on dodgy legal ground). I've been round large three-bed houses where they said they wanted a 'professional couple' rather than a couple with children. My previous LL didn't want to let to anyone with children and was most displeased when we procreated.

Children do make a lot of mess/ smells!

lol but it is their house.
So what? LLs need to accept that when they rent it out, they’re going to lose some control over it.

Feel free to buy your own
Nice attitude to have when there are so many priced out in part because of amateurs looking for a place to park their cash.

What’s wrong with guinea pigs if they are kept in the garden/ outdoor shed/ greenhouse??

Pet deposits are no longer legal, following the tenants fee act (ban)

Tons of landlords shouted very loudly that this would make it much harder to rent a property of you owned pets, and tons of tenants shouted back that we were just talking sour grapes. The irony is, the majority of landlords who didn't use letting agents only used to charge for minor stuff, like referencing and a mostly refundable deposit, it was letting agents who were taking the piss and needed their wings clipping)

I've since seen ways round the ban on a deposit increase to cover pet damage by adding a pet rent, but of course this penalises good pet owners who previously wouldn't have paid anything if their pet didn't cause damage.

Do pets cause damage, yes, but not so much if they have responsible considerate owners. I've allowed all my tenants to keep pets and 50% of the time they've repaid me by allowing the pets to soil, scratch and ruin carpets and woodwork. If you think the 5 week deposit would even come close to covering the cost to replace you're having s laugh - plus the deposit service nearly always sides with tenants even if you have concrete evidence of them causing damage.

That's why it's.now harder to rent with pets.

I'm not in the UK but it's not always the landlords decision (although obviously often it is).

I own in an apartment block and I'm allowed a pet as an owner occupier but it's in the building agreement that if I were to rent out my tenant wouldn't be allowed pets, no matter if I agreed or not.

Never said they didn't, @WitchesGlove, just responding to people saying why do LLs object to pets but not children. Obviously, some only object to one or the other, but some certainly object to both.

Because landlords can’t possibly know if you’re a good tenant who will stop your animal from pissing or shitting all over the place and destroying the floor.

When I was growing up friends of mine moved into a house where they had previously had multiple cats. The floorboards had to be ripped up in some rooms because the piss had saturated through.

We rent out our basement which is separate from our house in that it has its own front door, but the back door opens onto a little patio and then our garden - no separation that an animal would understand.

We own 3 cats. This is their territory. That's why we don't allow pets.

@LastTrainEast do you enjoy being wrong?

My son doesnb't allow pets. It is partly because you never know which ones will cause damage (and plenty of them do) and not having pets avoids any arguments over what the animal damaged and what it didn't - including wee stains on carpets and that kind of thing. Also people are allergic to cat hairs so if the next tenant has the allergy it is disastrous.

Some people are disgusting. They let their dogs poop indoors and throw the feces in the garbage instead of taking their dogs for walks, and then the whole building smells like dog feces.

We bought a house where the previous owner had a cat, until recently had two cats.
As we bought the house, it obviously came unfurnished so it was just carpets although they kindly left the curtains as well.
My stepson is allergic to cats and it was about six months before he stopped reacting when he visited. If he lived with us and we rented we wouldn’t be able to rent a house where a cat lived so it limits potential tenants too.

In our last rental we asked if it was ok to have our cat and they said it was fine,they had animals themselves. He never touched a thing, he wasn't one to scratch at all. Then when the owners sold that property and we had to move, the first place we looked at said absolutely no pets under any circumstances, then we found a farm cottage and we're allowed pets here - we've lived here for 5 years and have never met the landlord, never had an inspection, nothing. All very relaxed. I know a lot of farm cottages are fine with pets, that may be the way to go. I hope she finds somewhere soon.

It's a bit petty to not allow pets in an unfurnished rented place, but some landlords are always thinking about other renters who might come in later,and make complaints about pet smells and mess etc, so its an ongoing thing with them,so they adopt a no pets policy.

I rent a small terrace cottage and have three cats, but I rent it off my son,so that makes a difference, but my cats have never made any toilet mess in my place. I obviously have the cat hair problems, and a few areas of cat scratch up places on the stair carpet.

I had more of a pet problem with a neighbour who lived next door years ago. She owned her own house. She had two dogs. One was an old poodle who constantly yapped all day,and was very snappy if approached, the other was a labrapoodle whatever they are called, but both dogs use to use my lawn and gravel areas as their toilet places all the time, so dog crap on gravel.and pee on the grass,which killed parts of my lawn.

@HarrietOh

It's strange reading the responses. My cat doesn't pee everywhere, doesn't scratch doors/sideboards etc (had cats all my life and never had a cat scratch away at wood) - I would say cat hair everywhere yes. So maybe needing to replace carpets or pay for professional clean to rid of all cat fur?

Yes to this! The carpets are ancient in my place so landlord wasn’t too fussed, they’ll need replacement anyway when I leave - and I’ve been there a decade.

I hate landlords as they're leaches on society, but animals stink,.You need to realise that.

@EntertainingSatan

lol but it is their house. So what? LLs need to accept that when they rent it out, they’re going to lose some control over it.

Feel free to buy your own
Nice attitude to have when there are so many priced out in part because of amateurs looking for a place to park their cash.

LL can choose based on who applies. It is still their assets and investment. Why do you assume LL are cash buyers rather than having a mortgage? Why do you assume the majority are amateurs? Any LL renting out as a hobby independent from any income will be few and far between. Instead the vast majority make small yields (3%) for a hefty upfront investment, a mortgage and a shed load of tax. Most LL will be willing to bargain for good tenants but when faced with an attitude that suggests they have no control is only going to put them off renting to you.

Because out tenant who had a dog (despite the contract saying they werent allowed) let it cover the garden in poo, dig up all the flower boarders and dig up the landing carpet. Our flat lease stipulates that pets arent allowed - so it would contravene our legal duties - i think this is pretty common for flats

I apologise if someone has said this, but it is illegal to refuse to take pets, with the exception of properties where the deeds state no pets, and some Buy to let mortgages, It is illegal to refuse pets:
www.propertyinvestmentproject.co.uk/blog/quick-guide-on-landlords-and-pets/#pets-refuse

Friends of mine bought a doer-upper that had been owned by a cat lady. They assumed a quick clean up and removal of all floor coverings etc would would get rid of the cat pee smell but nothing would eliminate the pong for more than a few days. They used bicarb and specialist odour elimination products and nothing worked.

In the end they had a specialist cleaner round. He showed them that the urine had soaked into the floorboards and that tom cats had sprayed the walls and there was urine in the plaster. The cats had been everywhere in the house, up and downstairs. Urine had dripped between the floorboards upstairs and soaked into the plaster ceiling below.

He said that the smell would eventually go as the chemicals in the urine eventually broke down but in some cases this can take months, even years. They basically had to strip the place out — floorboards, ceiling, plaster to a metre high — and spend thousands they hadn't bargained for to get rid of the smell.