Tips on convincing landlord to let us adopt a dog?

[MeadowHay]

I've been after a dog for yeaaarsss people on here might have seen me asking stuff before. I've finally won my partner round and we visited a lovely dog today in a local rescue shelter that we both really like. The rescue are happy with our arrangements and say we sound like a great home for the dog. However our tenancy says we are not allowed pets so we need to ask the landlord first and if he does not given written permission the rescue will not allow us to adopt the dog (understandably btw lol don't get me wrong).

Has anyone persuaded a landlord to allow them to do this? Any tips?? We already have two guinea pigs although I'm not sure if he is aware of that or not tbh. Our flat is managed by the letting agents also so we have no direct contact with the landlord but would it be better to ask to speak to him directly on this matter? I was thinking of writing an email to the letting agents and asking if they could forward it on to the landlord because this way I could mention things that I think would show us to be responsible and unlikely to ruin his flat e.g. the dog is older and therefore not super energetic, the rescue say he is fully toilet trained and he has lived in two previous homes (just got very unlucky bless him), he is friendly with other dogs, he is happy to be left alone for a good few hours and loves to curl up and have a good snooze, he's very quiet etc. Also I'm sure it helps that almost all of the furniture is ours and we are not planning to let him into our bedroom so the only room that will be carpeted that he will be allowed in will be the spare room. The other floors are laminate or tiles so easier to clean.

Should I offer an adjunct of money to the deposit? I don't really want to offer to get the carpet in the spare room professionally cleaned because they were filthy when we moved in here and we had to put a lot of time and effort into cleaning them so that seems very unfair when we are definitely going to keep them clean regardless. In fact the flat in general was dirty in a number of places when we moved in and is now much cleaner.

Anywaysss, any tips/success stories? I should say also that we have only been living here for around 6 weeks and we payed our second month rent about a week late because we forgot to set up a standing order which I know is not a great start. However we already provided impeccable references going back many years of renting before we were allowed to secure this flat.

You say this is a reputable rescue, yet also say they think it acceptable for a dog to be left 7hrs! That goes against all good, well respected dog welfare groups, suchas RSPCA, PDSA, Dogs Trust, etc, who all say a maximum of 4hrs. I would run a mile from a rescue who thinks 7hrs is fine.

Whilst a LL is highly unlikely to go to the expense of evicting you for your dishonesty and contract breach, with regards to the guinea pigs- they will now view you in poor light. Which is so silly, when if you'd have been honest and up front they in all likelihood wouldn't have minded guinea pigs and you wouldn't have given them a negative view of you from the start.

Also it doesn't matter how many years you've rented or paid rent on time, the fact of the matter is you paid this landlord late whilst a new tenant. Which again puts a very negative view of you in place.

Creating two such negative views of you right from the start of the tenancy (dishonest / ignorant of contract and financially unreliable), will not help get a landlord to trust you not to let a dog destroy the place.

Also I would be very surprised if your guinea-pigs really are in no way what-so-ever, worried by being housed indoors with a predator. It would be unusual, they normally need a long adjustment period, dog kept mostly in other rooms and a dog that is small fury friendly - as in ignores them 100%. Is this rescue dog even small furry tested? Will guinea pigs cage be able to be in a room the dog is locked out of, when you are out? Dogs can, and some will, break into small furry cages, whilst owner is out.

If the property is basically a shit hole, as your drip feed says, then you would be somewhat more likely to get a dog agreed, although I really do think you have damaged your chances with the silly dishonesty and contract breach, plus the financial unreliability you have shown this landlord.

I'm also wondering if you are expecting to be in a family owned rental and thus allowed a dog in the next 6-12 months, why on earth you don't just wait? It's not that long in the grand scheme of things.

Also I think it rather sad how you felt so insulted you had to make a ridiculous insult back in suggesting that no-one who has taken the time to answer you could possibly have rented/ know anything about renting, when most of us have actually stated we are in private rented or a landlord! As I said in my other post, I myself have pets in my private rented accommodation.

Dogs shouldn't be kept in flats.

But that aside, I can't imagine you'll convince the landlord on this one.

Holy crap. It's hard to see how a dog could make it much worse than it was when you moved in, it sounds grim. I'm glad you know you're moving out.

As you know you'll be moving out, could your Dad adopt the dog? You could look after it 24/7 occasionally.

I have a no pets clause in my contracts - its there for a reason. Going on what you've said about your tenancy so far, then no i wouldn't agree to a dog (or even guinea pigs being snuck in).

One of my properties is let to a family who have lived there for 5 years, they have always paid their rent on time (except for 3 occasions where they contacted me beforehand to ask for a few days grace), they look after the house really well and if they wanted a dog then id say yes to them. But only because the trust has had time to build up, i know its their family home that they look after and i want to keep them as tenants.

If you're moving in the next few months anyway then id hold off on getting the dog till you're somewhere that has agreed from the outset to allowing a dog.

I do think it's kinda sad that people have jumped on here and made massive incorrect assumptions about me and my pets though, as well as the very good, reputable rescue who know our circumstances in far more detail than you guys and deemed us to be an 'ideal' home for this dog.

I think you are extremely naive to assume how a dog will behave in a different environment tbh.

No rescue would guarantee anything. They can say they think you would be ideal. There is no way they would guarantee it.

We pay the rent on time

Yet you say you haven't.

You say this is a reputable rescue, yet also say they think it acceptable for a dog to be left 7hrs! That goes against all good, well respected dog welfare groups, suchas RSPCA, PDSA, Dogs Trust, etc, who all say a maximum of 4hrs. I would run a mile from a rescue who thinks 7hrs is fine.

^ this

Just want to reassure people there is no way we would get a dog without landlord's consent. Not worth the hassle at all, for anyone involved

But you happily have guinea pigs without your landlords permission each and every time you've ever rented anywhere.

You've never told any of your landlords upfront about you having pets, so why would it be different for a dog?

Guinea Pigs are still pets, you know. They are included in a no pets clause.

I can also guarantee we are not going to be evicted because of our guinea pigs lol. Have any of you people ever rented a house before?!

Nope; you can't guarantee that. The majority of people I know rent and I can name at least four who have been evicted when landlords have found rabbits/guinea pigs/hamsters after stating no pets.

They smell, make noise and mess, have potential to chew wires if you let them run loose (no point saying you wouldn't do that as landlord doesn't know that) and it is a huge breach of trust between you and the landlord.

YABVU. You are not a responsible guinea pig owner so you are definitely not even ready to start thinking about a dog just yet.

(I'm also pretty convinced, given your past behaviour, that had the rescue not required proof of your permission to have a dog, that you'd have just gone straight ahead and got one.)

All of the above.

There's an arrogance about you that would wind me up if I was a landlord. No pet clause and yet you bring Guinea pigs anyway.

Also, Guinea pigs are prey animals, so they don't show their fear. How could you possibly know they wouldn't be frightened?

I can also guarantee we are not going to be evicted because of our guinea pigs lol. Have any of you people ever rented a house before?!

You cannot guarantee that at all. Perhaps you have been lucky in the past and perhaps some landlords do turn a blind eye to small pets. But there is no guarantee! A friend of mine was asked to leave when the L.L. discovered she was keeping a budgie. She had a no pet clause too.

If your only there a few months then Id hold off until after moving again.

Agree with Rheged. I'm a landlord. I have a no pets clause for a very good reason. If I found a tenant had breached it I would not go to the hassle of a court eviction, but I would issue a section 21 in time so that the contract was not renewed at the end of the year.

You sound like a nightmare tenant. You have rented a no pets property, and immediately brought in guinea pigs. You have not paid the rent on time, and within weeks of arrival want to get a dog

If you were my tenant, I'd already be considering issuing the section 21 due to late rent and lying. The request for a dog would push me to issue it.

Just a point to consider that even if this Landlord allows you to have a dog, you are limiting your choice of future rentals by having one as many Landlords do not allow them. We have had property very badly damaged in the past by tenants with animals and therefore no longer accept tenants with pets.

We have a dog in a rented flat. We initially had a no pets clause but we asked and our landlord was luckily really good about it. We paid an extra two weeks deposit (£600) and we are also paying for two extra flat inspections per year by the letting agent to make sure there is no damage. I'd definitely offer more money as a deposit and agree to get the flat professionally cleaned before you leave.

You need to be able to tell him the dog won't be left alone at all unless you're planning on crating him (which won't be a good idea unless you know a lot about his background as he's a rescue). Our dog goes to day care 3 times a week and we work from home the other two days. It's a huge expense but we wouldn't have gotten a dog if he was going to be left more than the extremely occasional hour at most as he's so young.

Quite aside from the points everyone else has made you say you have been in 6 rentals in 5 years .
Even if the LL gave permission what will happen if you have to move again? I've seen plenty of posts on here from people struggling to find somewhere that will allow them to take their dog and they are facing having to rehoming it

Can't help but feel that you've asked for advice OP and then ignored everything anyone has said about how to approach the LL and defensively responded to all the points people have made about this maybe being an unwise decision! (Just an observation). And as others including myself have pointed out, a heck of a lot of us have been renters for a long time or landlords!

You've said further down-thread that you're planning to move into a property owned by your family in 6 months so you know having a dog won't be an issue.... so why, oh, why not wait until then? Other than anything (as I suspect you'll still go ahead with this regardless of the caveats) it would at least be fairer on a dog- especially a rescue dog that's already had its fair share of upheaval- to wait until you have a stable environment for them to live in.

Ask before. Agree a deposit for additional cleaning. Say the dog will be housetrained and not left alone for long periods. Tell them you are a responsible pet owned and he dog will have all its shots-deflead/deformed etc.

We had a sneaky dog kept by renters and it peed all over the white carpets!

Why do you keep saying "lol" you sound about twelve.

Where are you going in six months when the lease expires ? Surely if you have a dog it will narrow down where you can go if you are renting again .

Sorry disregard my last post I misread your update , all in all it would probably just be best to wait until you move .

Sorry the way I write and my tone is bad because I'm on the autistic spectrum. A lot of what I wrote was sort of directed at specific posts not at everyone, I did say thank you for the comments right at the beginning of my first post and I appreciate a lot of the replies I've gotten have been very helpful especially ones from landlords. Sorry if that didn't come across, I'm not very good at conveying tone and how I feel or structuring my responses so apologies for miscommunication. I do genuinely appreciate lots of the responses on here, it's just a few people have clearly not read my posts properly or have just decided to read stuff into them that was not there.

I didn't realise I was drip feeding about the condition of the flat when i moved in - I did say in my initial post that the carpets were filthy and that we spent ages cleaning them. I've lived in lots of rentals and it's only been maybe one or two max that were properly clean before we moved in. It is the norm for me to move in to properties that are not cleaned to my standards so I guess I didn't see how other people could assume otherwise (again I guess I'm not great at understanding how other people will read my posts because of being autistic so I can't see the gaps and things).

Have thought a lot and I think we are going to leave it and reassess when we are in our own property in the spring. Tbh there's a good chance that same dog will still be in rescue by that point as he's older.

Since when do only 12 years old say lol? Yes I am clearly a lot younger than many posters but in my circles it is normal to say lol. Plus I laugh when I am anxious and this thread has been making me very anxious (not posters fault).

I guess I will leave it there but thank you to people who read my posts and were not rude (which is most people).

Good luck to you MeadowHay fwiw I think you have made the right decision for now. And I am sure that if that particular dog is not available in the spring, there will be plenty more suitable candidates!

Trust me Meadow your guinea-pigs are NOT happy with the dogs shoving their faces at them .
They are prey animals and very vunerable to shock they can quite literally die from heart failure.
They will hide illness very well to protect themselves from being someones lunch.

When you move you can have secure accomodation that the potential dog cannot pester them in or knock it over.

The guineas were there first.
You need to think of their needs unless your over riding need for a dog means they'll be a Gumtree Giveaway

Sounds like a smart decision to wait OP 😊