It’s a dog’s life at times…letting to tenants with pets

http://www.ispeech.org

I have written in the past about the potential benefits and pitfalls of letting to tenants with pets

This article today goes a stage further as it is a website resource called Lets with Pets pulled together by the Dogs Trust and it is fair and balanced I am happy to report. The tip off came in a roundabout way from Andy Norman, a member of The Property Hub forum, so thank you Andy (Twitter: @AndyN180).

The idea of the site is to improve relations and provide a better communication between landlords / agents and tenants. It also helps to de-risk the whole process of letting to tenants with pets and given that according to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association (PFMA), some 45% of households have a pet of some description, then it is a very sizable part of the housing market.

I must admit that presentation of a pet request by a prospective tenant with a Pet CV and Pet Reference would make me far more likely to consider taking in a pet myself.

The site seems to suggest a higher deposit as one means of providing some additional protection to the landlord, however this would be another up-front cost for the tenant to find and so my personal take is to add a nominal amount of money to the monthly rent instead. I have found this to be an effective way to meet both party's expectations.

The article does touch on unauthorised pets and this is possibly one of the most annoying things that a tenant could do with a landlord. We will find out, as we undertake regular inspections, so the tenants risk being asked to leave and jeopardizing a reference request by breaking the terms of their lease...so why do that? On the other hand, I do appreciate that many landlords are against the idea of accepting pets into their properties as their perception is one of dirt and damage to their properties. The pet reference, professional cleaning and additional terms into the tenancy agreement should help to ease such concerns therefore.

Finally, some properties, particularly leasehold, may have restrictions that prevent pets or at least certain pet types and so careful reading of the lease is required if nothing else to avoid getting into trouble here. As a by-the-way, I noted that again as per PFMA, over 2% of households have lizards, snakes, tortoises, turtles, frogs, toads, newts, mice & rats…I guess there might be a line to be drawn somewhere at least…

Overall, the majority of pets are conventional domestic animals, such as dogs, cats, fish, birds and small caged animals. So, I am happy to consider such pets in most of my properties, as long as they are well-behaved, disclosed in advance (or permission sought if mid-way through a tenancy) and there are suitable protections in place like deposits / rent premium and cleaning provisions.

A good resource from the Dogs Trust therefore.

Source & credits: Lets with Pets