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?

@goddessofmischief

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.

You had nine cats in someone else's property, and lied about it... 🙄

They didn't cause any damage. Two adult cats, seven kittens. The reason I left was that the property was damp and mouldy and I'd just discovered I was pregnant. Landlord was absolutely vile and refused to fix the issues. Mushrooms were growing in the bathroom.

Doesn't matter if you lie, she'll find out pretty soon and then what will you do?

You can't hide a big dog and the stress would be mad, she's only got to bump into a neighbour who says oh yes, very nice family lovely dog etc

Lying isn't the way here.

We have a cat in a “no pets” rented house. After living here for two years, and being model tenants, we asked permission to adopt, and offered to pay for deep cleaning/make good any damage. Our landlord was happy with that, we found a lovely adult female cat, and four years down the line she has (fortunately) caused no damage to the property. She is very shed-y so deep cleaning when we eventually move on will definitely be necessary!

From our LL’s point of view we are pretty much ideal tenants, our rent is always paid early (1st instead of the 5th per the lease), any issues reported immediately, and long-term, so I guess it was in their interest to oblige us and have us remain the property.

@PaperHalo

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

Thank you. This is exactly what my partner is proposing. It’s all well and good telling us to be honest but it’s not anyone else at risk of having absolutely no option other than to rehome our pets, or have no home - at least not anywhere near my child’s school and our childcare. Yes she’s a big dog, but doesn’t slobber, pee/poo etc. inside. No pets allowed upstairs/in bedrooms. I hoover daily and clean the carpets regularly just incase. She comes to work during the day with either one of us so rarely left alone in the house and when she is, she’s crated and sleeps soundly. All our neighbours love her (especially the kids) and we’ve put a lot of work in training her. I work in the animal care sector so my pets have the gold standard in care and upkeep so no risk of fleas etc.

@MadMadMadamMim

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.

This is exactly the case. I’m not exaggerating - there isn’t even a poxy 1 bed flat, there’s absolutely nothing to rent in our area, all the Landlords are selling and there’s a huge glut of desperate tenants - told this by my letting agent AND the council ☹️

My tenant had cats without my permission and there was fuck all I could do about it.

@DontDrinkDontSmokeWhatDoIDo

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.

Thank you. Yes they do and we’ve always been good tenants with great relationships with our Landlords/letting agents.

@Taliskerskye

My god people on here genuinely think the lazy slacker could have bought a house if she hadn’t wasted her hard earned money on butchers

FML IVE HEARD IT ALL NOW

PEAK MUMSNET

Haha thank you - exactly!

Landlords who listen to snitch neighbours get no respect from me. Its the tenant who has a business relationship with the LL and is paying the mortgage, not the bloody neighbours.

@memberofthewedding

Landlords who listen to snitch neighbours get no respect from me. Its the tenant who has a business relationship with the LL and is paying the mortgage, not the bloody neighbours.

They don't particularly need your respect... 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wouldnt lie if shes local and nows the neighbours too risky

even if she cant kick you out you find yourself looking for yet another house god knows ehrer in a years time

*where

YABU. The landlord has the right to not rent their property to pet owners. You don't have the right to ignore that and lie because it doesn't suit you. If it's that big an issue in terms of finding a place more generally, rehome the pets and don't get any more until you are in a position to buy your own place.

Im going to go against the grain here OP. I am currently a tenant but I'm also a landlord. As a tenant in an area where houses are "let agreed" with hours of going on, I felt we had no choice but to lie about our dog. We wouldn't have got anywhere to live if we hadn't lied. Now we're in, I will wait a month or two and then tell the landlord we've got a dog and will pay extra deposit etc. I will also make sure that when we leave the house it's in the same state as when we arrived. I doubt that the landlord will kick us out; we're good payers, keep it clean, no anti social behaviour...

We are also landlords (in a different area) and although our tenancy states no pets, most of our tenants have them. We don't mind too much; pets are important to families. Those saying just rehome the pets are being horrible and have no understanding of the bond between humans and their pets. The way I see it, as a landlord, these people are paying our mortgagesand the least we can do is allow them to have a pet in their home.

So OP, I would lie (and have done) about your pets. You need this house and if you don't lie then you won't get it.

If the lease is a yearly lease you run the risk of having a ruined reference and no place to live in a year when the landlord refuses to renew the lease....I wouldn't play this game. It would be different if it was a large complex you were renting from but it's not. If you deceive the landlord you're really setting yourself up for the possibility that you're forced to give the dog up and move out of area because a ruined reference will mean no landlord with a good property will touch you.

What I would add is that the landlord is going to be unable to get you out for months.
Even without Covid restrictions it takes months to move a tenant who won't leave.

No one will buy a house with a sitting tenant, unless they plan to become a landlord themselves.

You could negotiate to with your current landlord to stay until you have accommodation to move to because it will take months and cost them thousands to get you to out of their house.

@OldWivesTale

Im going to go against the grain here OP. I am currently a tenant but I'm also a landlord. As a tenant in an area where houses are "let agreed" with hours of going on, I felt we had no choice but to lie about our dog. We wouldn't have got anywhere to live if we hadn't lied. Now we're in, I will wait a month or two and then tell the landlord we've got a dog and will pay extra deposit etc. I will also make sure that when we leave the house it's in the same state as when we arrived. I doubt that the landlord will kick us out; we're good payers, keep it clean, no anti social behaviour...

We are also landlords (in a different area) and although our tenancy states no pets, most of our tenants have them. We don't mind too much; pets are important to families. Those saying just rehome the pets are being horrible and have no understanding of the bond between humans and their pets. The way I see it, as a landlord, these people are paying our mortgagesand the least we can do is allow them to have a pet in their home.

So OP, I would lie (and have done) about your pets. You need this house and if you don't lie then you won't get it.

Thank you for this, really appreciate hearing your experience and opinion. We were of the understanding that we’d be in our current house until we bought our own, had we envisaged this situation then of course we wouldn’t have got the dog. But here we are, she’s a wonderful part of our family and it’s not such an easy thing to simply “rehome her” - we would all be heartbroken x

@pollypersephone

If the lease is a yearly lease you run the risk of having a ruined reference and no place to live in a year when the landlord refuses to renew the lease....I wouldn't play this game. It would be different if it was a large complex you were renting from but it's not. If you deceive the landlord you're really setting yourself up for the possibility that you're forced to give the dog up and move out of area because a ruined reference will mean no landlord with a good property will touch you.

That may be, but we’d be a year down the line having had a roof over our head for that time and nearer to possibly buying our own.

You say you've always got on well with your landlord. That won't be the case once they know you've lied to them.

I have a large breed dog in a ground floor apartment. I rent through a letting agency. I'm not sure if the landlord knows, I've had inspections with one of the agents but I send the dog out with a friend on a walk during this. She has never said anything. My neighbours are all aware of the dog they see me walking him, he is well liked, I don't think any of them would say anything but if they did at this point my landlord might just overlook it. I've been here over 2 years.

she’s a wonderful part of our family and it’s not such an easy thing to simply “rehome her” - we would all be heartbroken

No one said it would be easy, but surely it would be easier than having to live in temporary accomodation (which would mean that the dog would have to be rehomed anyway). How heartbroken would you be to living in one room with your kids which could be miles and miles away from the street you want to stay in?

@PyongyangKipperbang

she’s a wonderful part of our family and it’s not such an easy thing to simply “rehome her” - we would all be heartbroken

No one said it would be easy, but surely it would be easier than having to live in temporary accomodation (which would mean that the dog would have to be rehomed anyway). How heartbroken would you be to living in one room with your kids which could be miles and miles away from the street you want to stay in?

OP is a long way away from temporary accommodation. If her current house is sold she could still refuse to leave and as somebody else said. It will take months to move her especially with covid restrictions. She won't have to worry about a reference here they will giving her a glowing one if it helps her move out. If OP was to move to another rental and they somehow found out about the dog and then decided to challenge OP on the issue, provided a good reason, and let the whole thing drag out which again would take months if the new landlord could even do anything about it. I can't see that happening but for the sake of argument say it did, she would have gotten in to no more difficult a position than she is now but with roof over her head in the interim.

OP I really don't think it's all that bad to lie. Lots of people do so without consequence.

My solicitor always puts no pets on the lease but we always give a written waiver to pet owners because we find they generally make good tenants and if you are good to your tenants they stay so long that the house should be painted and carpeted when they leave anyway. I would be honest and offer references and deposits and anything else she wants. Good luck, please check back in and update us.

@memberofthewedding

Landlords who listen to snitch neighbours get no respect from me. Its the tenant who has a business relationship with the LL and is paying the mortgage, not the bloody neighbours.

Get off your high horse. The tenants aren’t ‘paying the mortgage’, they’re paying the Landlord to rent their property.