Will it be impossible to rent a house because we have a dog?

[movamum]

We are moving to a small town in Wiltshire, and know that there are school places available for DS and 2DDs if we can just get an address and apply in time. Our house is still on the market so we want to rent until it sells. Problem is, when we ask about possible houses to rent, once we mention the fact that we have a labrador, we can get no further. Our dog never comes into the house, and sleeps in a shed when she is not outside. She is quiet and middle aged. Is this the usual response for rental properties?

Some people don't mind dogs, especially if you offer to have the place 'professionally cleaned' after you leave. Some renters are very keen to move somewhere thats had 'no smokers, no pets' due to allergies.

As long as you are upfront and don't sneak in a dog who wees alllllll over a cream carpet, leaving a large yellow stain that will never ever come out.

You will find somewhere. I used to rent my house out and had a 'no pets' rule when advertising. I had two tenants - the first had two cats and the second had a dog. I just made it a condition of tenancy that they had carpets professionally cleaned when they left. I suppose I actually meant 'pets with permission'.

Could you offer agents / landlords an additional pet deposit? If she is an outside dog then there will be no problem with damage to the house or getting this back.

We are LL and would have no objection, would take higher deposit and have clause in contract that any damage was paid/repaired at your expense.
Our tenants at present have two cats and a newborn baby.
The neighbour complained to us and enviromental health as the cats were using the peashingle on the front garden for a loo! I told the tenant to make sure they regularly poopicked and told the neighbour as long as it wasnt in her garden it was none of her business.
sorted now!

the reason is that dogs excrete inside, stink the place out and bark incessantly when left alone. Labradors are lovable but incredibly smelly.

so...if yours never goes inside and you promise that you will take action at the first complaint about barking, that should be acceptable. Plus all faeces to be wrapped and placed in your dustbin, or dug into a corner of the garden.

try that.

Our renting neighbours have FOUR dogs. I hate the way the dog shit all over their garden smells in OUR garden, and the way they BARK all fucking day. A The landlord lived in the house before and was a very good neighbour - he still lives very close. All of us neighbours have moaned to him about these issues and some nasty attacks on humans and pets - I don't think they will allow dogs for any future renters.

We allow dogs in our rental properties so long as the tenants clean up afterwards. We are in the country though where dogs are the norm. You may have more luck with a more rural property in the area. You could try some of the land agencies in the town as well as the normal lettings agents.

We are very rural - we are the only 6 houses in miles. The gardens are all huge. I can still smell their dogshit and hear the barking though - they must have LOADS of it. I hate to think what it must smell like inside with 4 dogs. No wonder their kids never play in the garden

When we were trying to rent we found that 80% of places had a no pet rule. We have two cats. In the end we were lucky enough to rent from a friend of the family and it wasn't an issue. Good luck in your search & hope you like Wiltshire as much as we do.

Thank you so much for all your encouragement. I was beginning to think we would have to give our dog away, which would make moving even more traumatic for our DCs. We have offered to sign something to say that we would undertake to stop the dog from causing damage or annoying neighbours, but I never thought of the deposit idea. I would be horrified at the idea of the dog annoying anyone, but as we live in a totally isolated area now, I cannot be sure how the dog will react in a new neighbourhood.