Help. No one to look after dog!!

[JustForADay]

We had a flood in our house, it needs major restoration work which we were luckily insured for.
We've been told that work will take 3-4 months and we can't stay in the house so need to find alternative accommodation, again we're covered for the costs - insurance are paying for a 6 month lease for us. However, no landlord will take a dog, he's well behaved but fairly large (schnauzer) .
No one in the family is prepared to look after him for that length of time, which I understand.
Really stuck as we don't want to put him in kennels as he's nervous around other dogs anyway. Home boarding won't take him for that length of time.
Does anyone have any ideas?

[LinemanForTheCounty]

@DonaldJTrumpet tbh even if the OP is in breach of the terms, if she's only needing it for three or four months it makes little practical difference as it takes time to evict so she'll be gone before it would affect her.

Re potential costs to landlord, she'll probably have to sign a six month lease anyway or pay over the odds per month for a shorter one which amounts to the same thing, so probably no one's losing out.

So on the basis that neither her nor the landlord are likely to be adversely affected long term I'd say just don't tell them.

[DonaldJTrumpet]

Hmmm we were young at the time but we weren't allowed to have the dog there until we moved out. I think they said we could avoid paying the rest of the contract if we moved out ASAP.

[LinemanForTheCounty]

Well you weren't allowed to have the dog at all and neither will OP be in most places. However, to enforce that a landlord needs to evict, which is not an immediate process. And frankly not in their interest for someone who is only staying a few months anyway, unless the dog is actually eating the house or something. And also makes no difference to the OP given that she isn't looking for a forever home anyway but just a place to stay.

So yeah legally you can't do it. And mostly tenants would be ill advised to do so. But the practicalities of this particular arrangement generally will mean no one loses money and no one gets made homeless just because there's a dog around. And making other arrangements for Op's dog is going to be an arseache, comparatively, barring exceptional events.

[LinemanForTheCounty]

I mean, if you had another house you owned and were able to move back into in a short space of time, you'd probably have viewed the situation as different also. And so would your landlord. It's just that neither of you could have carried on with your opposed needs indefinitely.

[Eckhart]

Keep looking. You only need one to say yes.

Spareroom.com sometimes have self contained short term accommodation available, and have a really handy 'pets allowed' filter on their search criteria.

[copperoliver]

Some landlords take dogs if you look hard enough and explain very well behaved ect or go and live on a caravan site for that time, They except dogs x

[Eckhart]

Ooh. Has your dog got a CV?

Put together a document of your dog's vaccinations, vet details, good habits (house trained, mature, non-chewer etc), any special training/classes, and references.

It might seem a bit silly, but from the landlord's point of view, it demonstrates that you are responsible owners, and that you think properly about how others might feel about the dog.

[ChubbyPigeon]

Please dont be a dick and not tell the landlord. Thats really not fair, just find a landlord willing to accept more money for a temporary situation. If its only a 6 month contract work out how much kennels would cost and then offer the landlord that as extra rent

Had a situation where a house we rented had fleas as the previous tennants had obviously kept pets. Landlord then got pissy and tried to charge us for the defleaing on the basis that it must have been us that bought the pet in. Was a whole palava. Landlords need to now if theres been a pet in their property.

[Horseshoe5]

Register with borrowmydoggie l think it's called. You may find someone local to you that may look after your dog.

[SimonJT]

No pets is an unfair rental clause, I never declared my cat when I rented, if landlords found out it didn’t really matter as they are unable to do anything about unfair clauses they put in contracts.

[ButOneMistressHere]

Holiday property? Many are empty right now and take pets - you might be able to negotiate a reasonable price per week because of it.

Ditto airbnb.

[DidgeDoolittle]

This happened to us three years ago. The insurance company found us a house where we could take dog and cat. No problems at all.

[stairgates]

If you post on your local facebook group and explain the situation there may be an animal lover who can point you in the direction of a private rental happy with dogs.

[Fallulah]

It’s not really what Cinnamon Trust is set up for but I bet they would try and help you find a foster. I’m a CT volunteer and I’d jump at the chance to have him.

Or there’s a lot of holiday lets currently vacant. Lots of them take dogs and I bet would appreciate a booking at the moment, particularly as with insurance paying the bill is guaranteed.