Renting- no pets?

[Doodledumdums]

DH and I are having a few financial issues, so we are considering selling our house and renting somewhere smaller where the rent and bills will hopefully be less than our current mortgage and bills. However, I have been looking at affordable rental properties in and around our area, but ALL of the ones I have found specifically state in capital letters 'NO PETS'. Is this normal? DH and I have a dog and a cat, who are both very well behaved, totally toilet trained, and absolutely do not cause any issues in our current house. It is not an option to not bring them with us if we do decide to go down this avenue, they are our family, but I am surprised that so many properties have such a blanket rule. Am I being totally naïve to have even considered renting?

Does anyone rent and have pets? Is anyone a landlord who refuses pets? I'm not really sure where we go from here, I hadn't realised that our pets would be a problem!

some landlords will accept them. You will need to offer a bigger deposit and be prepared to pay for any damage in full.

your pets are well behaved. Now. No animal is guaranteed not to excrete, scratch, bring in fleas or make a noise. And there is an issue if the next tenant has allergies.

look for properties with as few carpets as possible.

ignore anyone here who says 'lie to the landlord'. Apart from the fact that you wouldn't want it done to you, it is grounds for eviction and then you could whistle for future rentals.

Hmmm, bigger deposit might be tricky to get hold of at the moment, but I guess it makes sense.

I guess I am just surprised that in a supposedly 'pet loving' country, that so many landlords seem to refuse pets! Their perogative, i'm not blaming them, but I am just surprised. My parents have been landlords for years, and have always allowed multiple pets if the tenants have wanted, which I guess is why I hadn't realised that this isn't the norm.

Yes it has already been suggested to me in RL that I lie to the landlord, but we could never risk doing this. We have a young baby and if we got evicted, it wouldn't just be us who would suffer.

also if you do lie and the carpets get chewed and the woodwork clawed, are you going to say that the baby did it? I hope the person who suggested it to you won't whinge if they get defrauded by someone.

the reasons for not wanting pets in rented property are nothing to do with not liking cute fluffy animals. It is because there is a limit to the control that can be exerted, and the damage caused is expensive.

in a rental you don't have to pay for fixes and maintenance, and you can move on at short notice. The downside is that you don't get to make all the rules.

I allowed cats in my last let property. Never again - so much wreckage not covered by the deposit, and the tenant legged it. As always, the bad guys wreck it for those that follow.

I ve lived in several rentals, and viewed alot of rental properties.

What i tend to find is, the landlords that have a nice refurbished property, nice decoration etc dont want any pets at all.

And the landlords that allow pets tend to have worn looking decoration, carpets been down a good 5 plus years etc.

We paid £100 for our fog as deposit and had to have the carpets cleaned when we left. Ring agents and ask about properties as well as checking online. There are places out there

Dog!

This is exactly the situation we are in - our house is on the market and we are moving into rented. The rental house we have signed for did say no pets, but we looked round and took the chance then to speak to the landlord about our cat, he agreed for the cat and we said we would pay to have carpets cleaned when we leave. So - they might be flexible. Hope you find something.

When we were looking at renting out our house we told the agents that we did not mind pets as we already had two, they said that it was always better to put no pets on the agreements and if someone was interested they would then mention it. Saying that we were also turned down for a few properties because of the dogs even though they are outdoor kennelled and not allowed in the house.....

We rent and we have two dogs and a cat.
We offered to pay double the deposit and signed to say we would repair any damage and have the carpets steam cleaned when we leave.

We have been here four years and our pets have caused no damage whatsoever, the cat has scratched nothing and the only damage the dogs have done is where they have played on the back lawn and scuffed it.

It might be worth looking at rentals have have been empty for a few months and the landlord is getting a bit desperate to get tenants.
Also look for ones that have paved over back gardens because your dog can't ruin that like they could ruin a lawn (I spend a lot of time reseeding and repairing scuff marks in our back lawn)

Part of it may be to do with complaints from other tenants. When we lived in a maisonette a few years ago the landlord next door allowed dogs and had so many complaints from neighbours about the dog poohing all over the communal lawn, without the owners clearing it up, he never allowed pets again.

I think there must be plenty of landlords out there who do though as I know lots of people who rent with pets. Less likely to find a flat that will allow pets than a house with a garden though.

Well that is good to know that there are ways around it, perhaps I should speak to some estate agents.

We wouldn't rent somewhere with a communal area as I don't think it would be fair on our dog on the neighbours, as he is a massive dog!

I know that my cat and dog wouldn't be a problem, we have had them for four years and they have never caused any issues in our house, so I can't see why they would cause problems anywhere else. If they did cause issues though then we would absolutely pay for any damage.

I have been looking for rentals with my 2 cats and have found it really hard to find somewhere that would take them. So many landlords say no pets it really limits your choice.

I have eventually found somewhere which has a cat flap and where the landlord is happy to take them but its been amazingly hard.

It is worth ringing up the agents though even if it says no pets and asking nicely, as some landlords will consider on an individual basis.

I am a landlord and we have always allowed tenants pets though I can see why some don't, we have solid oak flooring and if urine gets down the joints that then we would never be able to get rid of the smell and it cost thousands.
Also , the lawn dies off and the back door gets badly scratched, the last tenants completely ruined a carpet with dog wee and cleaning products and scrubbing, so I can see why some don't but we still do .