dogs in blocks of flats

[SuePine69]

Do you live in a block of flats where pets aren't allowed? Did you choose to live in a block of flats where there are no dogs? Well, you might be in for a big surprise.

I've just had a man with a dog move in next door to me. I never thought that could happen. I was always told no pets. I don't mind any pet except for dogs. My sister has a dog lives in a block where many other residents also have dogs. It's noisy with all the yapping and barking. If they're happy that's OK with me but I wouldn't want to live there.

I complained about it. They haven't consulted the residents. They didn't tell anyone about the change in policy. I was actually offered another flat in a different area earlier this year and I turned it down. If I had known there were going to be dogs in the block I would not have done.

What makes me really angry is that I have been told something that is false - as far as I can tell. I was told that there is a government directive now that says landlords can't refuse dogs. She said 'our hands are tied'.

Whatever the new rules are, as far as I can see it only applies to people who are already tenants. It doesn't apply to prospective tenants. Someone who requests a flat in my block and says they want to keep a dog can be refused. Even a tenant can be refused if there's good reason.

If someone's front door opens onto a path or road they can have a pet. If their front door opens onto a shared corridor then they can't. This is an established principle and I see no reason for it to change.

They should have given this man a flat with a front door that doesn't open onto a shared corridor, like all the flats in the block where my sister lives - or a bungalow. I don't want to stop anyone from doing what they want.

I was told that they would never let our block get like my sister's. But I have no confidence that they can solve problems. That flat was empty because my former neighbour left, partly because they moved an alcoholic in below him. This man shouted at the top of his voice for hours on end. I could hear it in my flat. He said that he was getting woken up too. So he took me with him to complain. They completely dismissed his complaints. This alcoholic has since died of an alcohol related condition.

Exactly. I unfortunately to my surprise found I had two dogs on my floor when I moved into my flat a few months ago. One of them was out of control, off leash and jumped all over me until I reported it and the other one is actually ok as the owner keeps it under control. The well behaved one lives next door and I can’t hear it due to great sound proofing but it does yap at me if I see it in the communal area.

There is another dog in my building which peed in the lift and the owner didn’t clean it up - she was identified by cctv and had a letter issued to her about it.

Only a handful of dogs but I feel some are already potentially a problem. I don’t think dogs are well suited for flats unless maybe you’re a ground floor flat.

You’re totally correct having read more of your posts it clearly entirely unsuitable for a dog to be in what is a very communal space. It’s such selfishness but many dog owners are selfish tbh!

They may not place anyone with a dog new after reviewing it but they're not gonna force those already there out- that's set now

Anyone they try to will simply get it registered as an emotional support animal and crack on

WTF?

Being ridiculously dramatic about a problem that doesn’t even exist yet, sounds like you’re just annoyed that you weren’t consulted. You are making sweeping assumptions about the owner being irresponsible. If you don’t like it then move. He won’t be evicted because you don’t like dogs

@Deathbyfluffy see this is what I don’t understand about this proposal of not refusing dogs surely landlords should have some say over what is in their house? As you say how can you know if the dog is well behaved or will trash your house? Especially with dog owners now post covid etc

What?!

If you are so intolerant and prejudiced about the lifestyle choices of strangers perhaps living in a block of flats isn’t the right choice for you.

Greekdogrescue I agree

I'm not trying to evict him. Even if that was possible I wouldn't want to do that. What I want is for there to be no more dogs in our block of flats. Any other pet I don't care about.

Often people struggle to understand why some people think some things are important when they don't. If you are on Team Boris then you will think that an elite in society living by different rules to the rest of us is a non-issue. You will think that people are being ridiculously dramatic about it and may even think they are insane.

Someone on this thread wrote that if I don't want to abide by my landlord's pet policy then I should move. The pet policy doesn't say that if someone wants to move into my block of flats with a dog then they have a right to do so. It says that the landlord will take a number of things into account, such as individual or shared gardens. I don't believe they have done that.

It also says that dogs must be kept on leads in the corridors. He hasn't done that. So, do you think I should say to him "If you don't want to abide by the landlord's pet policy you should move". I wouldn't do that. I'm not that rude. Yet this has been said to me on this thread. And yet in some peoples' eyes I am the villain.

I’ve never reported a post but there’s a first time for everything. I don’t know if this is some bad attempt at humour or if they’re genuinely comparing discrimination ethnic minority PEOPLE have faced to someone questioning DOGS in communal living areas. Very grim either way.

I am renting but was considering buying my flat next year. After reading this thread and thinking more on my situation I am now Having second thoughts because it annoys me the shared garden can have dogs in it and I’ve already been injured by one of them (it scratched me when it jumped up on me) I also know when dogs poo and owners clean it up there is often residue left so its still pretty gross . In my last block of flats I stayed it was even worse - some owners didn’t even pick up at all so there was often dog crap in the rooftop garden. Disgusting. I didn’t even visit there myself but would get regular emails from managements asking everyone to clean up after their dogs 🤢it was private rent but btw just because someone is in social housing doesn’t mean they should have to tolerate what is a anti-social behaviour by some pet owners. Forget that elitist crap. a friend of mine who loves dogs was shaken up after she seen an off lead pitbull (she lives in America) next to the laundry room. Too many irresponsible dog owners means it’s not a good idea to have them in flats. And most responsible dog owners wouldn’t want a dog living in somewhere they don’t have a garden tbh

I live in a block of flats - at a rough guess I'd say about 50% have a dog. I can say, hand on heart, that I have never lost sleep or been awakened by a dog. They do bark - I can hear two right now as I drink my tea in the kitchen. But it's not loud or disturbing. And I would not say that this block has great soundproofing or that all the dog owners have trained their dogs well (or at all). I'm a pretty light sleeper.

I do like dogs, so there may be a big mental element here. But I doubt liking dogs would stop loud barking from waking me? So, I would say noise has not been an issue.

Loud television (a nightly problem) or loud music (frequent) has woken me. Loud conversation late at night has kept me from getting to sleep. Not dogs.

Point being: I sympatise with you, OP. Every dog and owner combo, and every individual block, will be different, and my block is maybe nothing like yours. But the biggest issue I anticipated was noise - and that's not been the case. The humans are far noisier, far later, in a far more intrusive way.

I think you have a very good point about the neighbour needing to stick to block rules about the dog - on a lead in shared areas, not in garden, etc.

You live in social housing, yet are complaining about certain people being housed who are exactly the kind of people who need social housing (alcoholics, ex prisoners etc).

People have different views on things and different ways of living. By all means report the people for not sticking by the rules, but you do sound very judgemental. I would suggest that communal/flat living probably isn't for you. You can always rent your own space privately.

I haven't complained about alcoholics and ex-prisoners being housed in social housing or in my particular block of flats. I mentioned the alcoholic living below my former neighbour as an example of how landlords don't even attempt to solve noise problems. I said that I didn't believe a Housing Officer who told me that they would never let our block of flats become like my sister's block of flats, where there is a lot of dog barking.

Are you suggesting that my former neighbour and I should not have complained about the alcoholic living below him who was shouting at the top of his voice for hours on end? Are you saying he should have put up with being woken up at night? You think we were being judgemental?

People can do what they like in their flats, it's when it begins to affect others that it becomes a problem.

Let me tell you about a neighbour of mine. He's in his 80s. He's got a woman living below him who told me that in her previous block of flats she had set fire to her kitchen twice. Her neighbours there wanted her out because it wasn't fair on them. How is that fair on us? She has set fire to her kitchen here too.

He befriended the ex-prisoner who moved in. Then there was a falling out between them and the ex-prisoner told me that if he hadn't been in his 80s he would have thumped him. I'm not in my 80s yet, is he going to thump me if there's a falling out with him? I'm always extra polite with him. You can say why don't I keep away from him but he sits and talks to me when I am watching the TV in the common room.

There's a difference between a tenant who develops an alcohol problem or gets in trouble with the police and someone who has been evicted or leaves prison then gets allocated a flat without having to provide a reference. Everybody has a right to affordable housing and they have a right to be safe.

We're in a semi and have dogs either side. The barking is still annoying, especially when they're outside because having windows open in the summer means constant noise.
Unfortunately, unless you live in a detached with large spaces between houses, there's not getting away from other people's dogs.

It could be true that most people in Britain today can't avoid dog barking but if someone has been living in a block of flats with no dogs for years then they're not going to welcome a change of policy.

There seem to be four different reasons that my landlord uses to justify the change. When I was talking to a man from Magenta he told me that there had been a court case in the south of England where someone challenged a blanket pet ban. I have tried to find out about this on Google but have found nothing.

In the pet policy it says the review has brought it into alignment with the white paper. They don't give the name of the white paper which is not surprising because it is called 'The Fairer Private Rented Sector'. The name itself tells you that it need not apply to social housing. The idea that their 'hands are tied' on this issue is not true.

There is something called the 'model agreement for a shorthold assured tenancy'. Something to do with the white paper. Not only does it not need to apply to social housing, it does not need to apply to applicants (only to existing tenants).

Then there is the issue of the consultation. Nobody told me about a consultation or the resulting new policy. Apparently people were asked if Magenta should lift the blanket ban on pets. If you ask a stupid question then you get a stupid answer.

You would need to explain to people before asking the question that tenants in bungalows and some blocks of flats already have a right to have a pet. It is only in certain blocks, those that for certain reasons have been deemed unsuitable, that there was a 'blanket ban'.

A block was deemed unsuitable if there were lots of corridors, communal rooms and garden. So the question should have been should Magenta lift the ban on pets in blocks of flats where it has been decided pets are unsuitable because of narrow corridors etc. Considering that tenants have often chosen a block because there were no dogs. And considering that someone who wants to have a pet can ask to be moved to a different block - this does happen.

The question should not have been about pets in general. There should have been a separate question for dogs and other pets. In fact, three questions would have been good. There are some pets such as budgies and hamsters that don't leave a flat and will never be seen in communal areas. Then you have cats which may be. Then you have dogs which cause problems around noise, smell and potential injury.

That would have been a proper consultation. I would have told them that if they had let it be more widely known that a consultation was to take place. They do reviews of policies, so we shouldn't give up. The policy does not state that tenants have a right to a dog. So if they tell you they now do, you can say they are incorrect.

I think the problem is that one way of interpreting the new policy would be to say that a landlord can turn down a request if the block is unsuitable. They just have to respond within 28 days of the request. Then the situation would be similar to what it has always been. However, they are interpreting it to say that no block of flats can be deemed unsuitable, because that would mean a 'blanket ban'.

As someone having DAILY noise issues with a neighbours dog, after over 10 years of living in a block with no issues, they need to start putting restrictions on the types of dogs you can have in a block. I am on the verge of going through his front door I'm so sick of hearing it, I literally have daily noise written down, up to HOURS daily of just non stop barking, it's disgusting and dog owners that allow their mutt to do this should be evicted, their names should be put on a register and they should never be allowed to rent or buy another property ever again. Why should you be allowed to move on, into a house, when you couldn't even maintain a minimum level of respect for other human beings? There's other people that deserve the houses more than someone with zero respect for other human beings.

This is not acceptable, you do not understand how bad the noise gets. I have 2 weeks of daily reports of HOURS of barking, EVERY SINGLE DAY! Anyone that has a dog and allows this to happen, shouldn't be allowed to live in a block with other people, as they're not living up to basic human standards.

@GBWiz This thread is a year old!

8 months* And it doesn't change that dogs in blocks is an ongoing issue.

You must have a very sensitive nose OP. Dogs in general do not stink. I've owned two and it was only when they reached very old age did they begin to get whiffy. I agree with the pp who stated how beneficial dogs are as companions to both mentally ill and older people. Just because you don't like the change in rules, perhaps you should consider moving to another sheltered accommodation flat.

Your attitude to this is actually disgusting, people who were living there first should have priority. Personally I have lived in this block for over 10 years without problems till my dog owning problem neighbour moved in, and YOU as an owner will not notice the smell... No owner ever does, but the hallway of this block smells of a combination of wet dog and dog urine most of the time since he got that dog, you owners are just totally oblivious to how you impact on the lives of others.

Also as someone with multiple disabilities, I'd appreciate if you don't USE them to try and validate your arguments as someone who would actually REQUIRE a dog would not be assigned this block to live in (it is a council block, thus it is assigned to the people it is appropriate for, that guy didn't have a dog till months after he moved in)

You sound delightful! Not all dogs stink !