To try to renew damaged passport

[60MA]

My puppy has chewed the corner of my passport. It’s pretty obvious but the damaged bits are not over any information. It has about 5 years left before it expires.

I had to travel with it twice in April as there wasn’t time to change it. In one of the countries I went to the border guard on entry was really annoyed and I thought when she called her supervisor I might be denied entry.

However due to ongoing passport office chaos I haven’t renewed it. I want to travel in September but am worried I won’t get it back in time. On the other hand if I don’t replace it I could be turned away at the border if I travel with it.

YAbu- Replace passport you have plenty of time
Yanbu- having a dog eared passport is better than risking sending it off

Replace it - I just got a passport back 15 days after submission (DD child to adult renewal)

I applied April 1st for a simple renewal. Still not back. Now my MP is involved. They've lost documents, lied and asked for marriage certificates for the wrong person. I am resigned to the fact that I will end up queueing 48 hours before my flight.

On the other hand passports recently applied for are flying through to manipulate statistics so you would probably be ok.

How bad is the damage to it? Dont passports contain microchips/ data nowadays? Surely its that information that is needex rather than the physical passport IYSWIM.
I know that the left hand corner missing voids a passport, if thats where the damage is I would send it off. I dont think renewals are taking as long x

Over 10 weeks since I applied for a simple renewal - still not back.

I got my renewal back in less than 3 weeks. DD's first passport came through in less than 4.

I know there are lots of horror stories at the moment but lots of passports are coming through quickly.

Late or early September?
DH replaced his earlier this year and it came within 4 weeks.
I saw a sign on a photo place saying you should leave 10 weeks so if it's late September you should be ok.
If it's very badly damaged you shouldn't be travelling on it.

DS and I had to renew our passports, started the application on 5/6, got both of them this week.

Planning to travel mid-September. My gut is beginning to say to renew as the dread I’ll be feeling when I go through passport control with it puts me off.
A real mix of stories here, quite a few positive!