Renting a house and estate agent has queried our new pet goldfish

[Fuckmeitsagerbil]

Hi
We rent a property, managed by an estate agent.

Just FYI, the previous tenant had 2 dogs

We have kept the property in perfect condition. We pay our rent on time every single month. We don't even put pictures on the wall. You could move our furniture out and you'd never know we had been there. Luckily we only need to rent for a year

Today was the first inspection (6 months in). The estate agent noticed my daughter has a pet goldfish and has emailed to say we are in breach of our tenancy and the landlord will be very upset that she was not asked if we could have a fish.
It is a goldfish, in a tank. She kept quoting section 8 etc at me - you'd think I was keeping a large family hidden under the floor boards. I honestly didn't even think to ask if we could keep a goldfish. It didn't even cross my mind.

I asked her what would realistically happen if the landlord disagreed with the goldfish and she said that we would be in breach of our tenancy. I pressed her and she basically agreed that nothing could be done but we would be in 'breach'.

It ended up quite nasty and I said that I will not respond to anything else from the estate agent until we leave the property. Thankfully we only have to rent for a year. She said she will report back to the landlord that we will refuse anymore contact with the estate agent.

I'm not really sure what the point of this post is. I guess to convey my absolute horror that people are apparently not entitled to live a peaceful life. And the fact that an estate agent can be this petty and potentially make a good tenant leave a property due to the way they are. If I rented out a house, and had good tenants who were then bollocked over having a goldfish, I'd be beyond angry!!!

Am I correct in saying I don't have to speak to them anymore? I don't want anything to do with them. I will continue to pay the rent of course until we leave

Don’t ask for retrospective permission. Not worth it. Nothing will happen

Do you have a bath OP with taps? Isn’t that a flood risk 🤷🏼‍♀️

Absolute craziness.

What does your tenancy agreement say about having pets/domestic animals/goldfish?

It’s just a fucking goldfish. Ask them if the house spider is not allowed, because it’s just as ridiculous.

What an absolute jobsworth

Yes, this really. Unless it doesn’t actually specify ‘no pets’ in your tenancy agreement?

I agree it would be horrendously petty to say no to a goldfish, but I don’t understand why you thought you didn’t have to abide by that part of your agreement?

We've had a goldfish. To keep them properly means a massive tank that needs several buckets worth of water changed every week. It was a big, messy job and over time the skirting boards did suffer. I certainly wouldn't want a fishtank on a wooden or laminate floor.

(If you don't have a big enough tank then you need to change that from an animal cruelty pov.)

I think your best bet if you're in breach of your contract is to keep your head down and hope nothing comes of it.

Email and ask for permission. They would need a very good reason to refuse after allowing dogs previously.

It’s a goldfish. This is hilarious. Like a pp said, I’d send them a picture and ask what threat it poses.

Yup this is totally normal I've rented most of my life and lettings agents are always ridiculous about pets. I've had many viewings refused when I answered honestly that I had a fish tank when they asked about pets. I no longer mention it. Apologise, tell them you've rehomed them, and then next inspection temporarily switch off lights and filter and stick a blanket/cardboard box/decorative item over the tank.

Goldfish are absolutely disgusting thing. The days of keeping them in a little bowl are over, that's known to be cruel now. We had a 135L tank for two goldfish, and the amount of poo we would clean out every week was unbelievable.

And this is why people hate EA's and LL's.

Presumably you signed a contract? If you agreed on that to no pets, then yabu. What does it say?

We once rented a place where we had it in writing that we could have rabbits. We only rented it on the condition we could have rabbits as we had really wanted a rabbit for years and we asked at the viewing, when we signed the tenancy, and we asked for them to put it in writing which they did. We then adopted one single rabbit. First landlord inspection a year later: "You can't have that rabbit. My son is allergic." (His middle-aged son who... wasn't living in the house we were renting??)
FFS. Then they acted all surprised that we didn't renew the tenancy and moved out ASAP.

Also I don't think it's passed yet but this is coming: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/renting-with-pets-renters-reform-bill

Neither if spilled will have fecal waste in the water