To lie about having pets to potential Landlord

[RottieMum80]

So we’ve been stuck on the renting wheel for years and have been in our current home, which we love very much, for 2 1/2 yrs. We took this property under the understanding of a ‘long term’ let but we’ve just found out our Landlord wants to take advantage of the current RIDICULOUS house prices and are selling it from under us. We’re gutted, especially our 9yr old daughter who has friends all along our road that she plays with daily and her school is just a 10 minute walk away. Now we are looking around for an alternative property in our town (where we have family, friends, childcare, daughter’s school etc) and there’s literally NOTHING around. Not even anything unsuitable, just nothing. Started to panic obviously, then low and behold our neighbours 3 doors down told us they’re handing their notice in for their place as they’ve bought a house! It’s identical to our current home and means barely anything has to change. However, we have a large dog and a cat. This Landlady doesn’t allow pets. Now I’ve always left rental properties in perfect (often better!) condition, I’m very clean, tidy and house proud and our pets are completely house trained and never cause any damage.
So bearing in mind we are pretty screwed here with impending homelessness......AIBU to lie about having any pets?

@user1471538283 how much more rent do you pay for your pets?

@3Britnee

Isn't there a law now that means landlords can't stop you from having pets?

Rubbish

@vivainsomnia

I'm landlord with a no pet requirement, but I tick YANBU. You need a place, you know you are very clean, you need to think of you and your family.

The reason why landlords don't want pet is because of the mess, smell and damage. If you are confident you dog won't do any, then you never know, they might done around the idea.

I would move in, say nothing and a few months later call them, come clean, explain the situation but assure them you will look after the property well. Offer that they come and do checks monthly if that would reassure them.

In the end, they won't be able to make you go until the end of the term.

It's no great, but you have nothing to lose and hope they fine around once they get to know you. Good luck.

How would you feel if your tenants did that? @vivainsomnia

No it's not, it's a new tenancy agreement. I hope you're not a LL.

@Barbarianmum Google it. They need a good reason and the default position is that pets are allowed.

You need to put your children before your pets

As far as the breed of dog - hopefully you are on good terms with your neighbours who will still be your neighbours when you move within the same street - so as well as the landlord visiting YOU, I'd invite them to speak to your neighbours re the dog...

I did kick a tenant out due to them lying about the dog - because they had done so to AVOID me finding out that their pitbull type dog (yes it was, I have worked with enough type'd exemption reg. dogs to know!) not insured, not trained and absolutely a flaming liability... They left my garden genuinely ankle deep in dog shit, dog shit so old it had gone mouldy and furry! It was a big garden too!

Lying might work in the short term but long term it WILL catch up with you and even if they can't evict you for lying, they can still evict you purely because they want to do so, once the fixed term contract is up - do the decent thing be up front and honest.

I'd just point out to all those posters saying the landlord can't refuse to take pets, that the OP says there is LITERALLY nothing around to rent.

The landlord will have a choice of tenants in that case. They aren't going to be short of possible renters.

Insisting they take you and your pets just doesn't work. LLs are perfectly at liberty to choose the tenant they prefer on whatever grounds they prefer it.

Let's leave aside the fact that it is obvious you should not lie in taking on a tenancy.

It's your inclination to feel lying is justified that is of concern- what else would you be quite happy to lie about?

Something to gain your child an advantage in education?
Something to gain a loan from your bank?
Something to the police after a car crash where you injured a passer by?

You are in a moral vacuum once you start justifying your lies.

@3Britnee

Absolute rubbish. Please link to the relevant legislation if you're so sure.

Fuck me, the pedants are out in force today.

YABU and she will find out pretty quickly. This is part and parcel of getting a pet unfortunately.

@3Britnee the reality us that lzbdlirds dont have to accept pets, and certainly not cats or dogs. I accept fish, insect and small reptile pets in one of my properties on demonstration of suitable housing being provided, the other property is strictly no pets. And that's it.

And every single pet owner I know has a smelly house. No matter how clean etc there is always a smell that is just there.

landlords ...no idea where the other came from

@3Britnee

Isn't there a law now that means landlords can't stop you from having pets?

You are not obligated to rent your property to anyone you choose not to. Op is deluded if she imagines her large dog and cat will go unnoticed.

I'd say offer a higher rent eg £25 a month extra to cover the pets. We had 8 viewings on our property last month all done in an afternoon, the landlord put forward 3 and they all were offering the rent we had asked. If someone was offering more and had pets and also came with a neighbour's recommendation we'd have gone with them.

And any pet owner claiming they've got the only pets on the planet that don't smell is a liar 😂

I work for a big landlord and the government actually changed the law this year to make it harder for landlords to discriminate against people with pets. I’ll be honest… I was raging as a good chunk of people with pets in rented leave it in a mess and it just felt a bit odd to me that the govt had time to push this of all things through whilst in the midst of a COViD pandemic whilst closing the courts and not allowing landlords to serve notice on tenants save for in the most extreme circumstances… anyway I’m ranting!!
What I mean to say is, if I were you I wouldn’t mention the pets in your application but once you are in you are now protected from being evicted because of the pets… so play your hand wisely and you should be fine, the landlord might be a bit miffed that you weren’t 100% honest but if they can the house being looked after will probably get over it

I have a rental property, OP, and I'm a dog lover.

I'd be fine with you having a dog.

People can leave houses in far more disrepair than animals, and value good tenants who want to stay long term.

@LaLaLand888

And every single pet owner I know has a smelly house. No matter how clean etc there is always a smell that is just there.

You're probably right - thankfully I'm immune to it and love our dog as much as the rest of the family!

What a shit position.
I don't think you could get away with a large dog or even a cat necessarily.

Please don’t lie. My tenants have destroyed my house by allowing their pets to defecate, vomit, urinate and shred the carpets. Had they asked for pets, I would have said yes but renewed the contract to cover pet damage.
I have dogs and cats. I know how important they are. I have put tiled floors in my latest house to make it pet friendly for tenants.

People can leave houses in far more disrepair than animals

Well they can but dont underestimate the amount of damage animals can cause, even if generally well behaved. My friends beagle has just caused £3k of damage to her house last week. Normally she's good as gold, that day she disembowelled the sofa, pulled down the curtains and chewed the table legs when friend was out for hour and a half!

To be honest, I have lied about pets in every rented home I've had. I've always had cats. I had nine at one point. I've had various other animals. At the end of every tenancy I got my full deposit back. No landlord has ever seen any nor questioned me about pets.