Renting a Property with Pets

Renting a Property with Pets

by Michael

Renting a property with pets is a lot more difficult than renting without a pet. I know about renting with a cat in London and England.

Renting a property with pets in London

As a rough estimate I would say that about 20% of properties for rental also allow the tenant to keep a cat or dog at the property. This is genuinely a gut feel figure based on my personal search. The figure could be lower at about 10%. In short most landlords don't want you as a tenant if you have a cat or dog. They are not prepared to negotiate either.

This is very odd. Firstly, a landlord in England can retain part or all of the deposit monies to cover repairs caused for whatever reason during the course of the tenancy. He can fix the problem. In addition the landlord can put whatever he or she likes into the tenancy agreement and most potential tenants would agree the terms provided they are not too onerous because the tenant has a hard time finding a suitable property to rent as they are scarce. Once again the landlord is full protected. Also the landlord can let unfurnished. That would remove the possibility of scratched furniture.

In any event cats do not cause damage except under certain rare circumstances. Clearly landlords have a very narrow, you could argue ignorant approach to letting to tenants who have a cat. Dogs are slightly different proposition.

In England most blocks of flats (apartments and condominiums) allow the landlord (the owner of the apartment) to decide for himself if he wants to let to a person with a pet. However, all leases will have clauses in them which governs how pets are to be managed and a lease can even ban certain pets like large dogs on the basis that they make too much noise. Cats are quiet and discreet and are almost always allowed at an apartment. In other words the landlord (the flat's owner) can keep a cat there but he may decide to not allow tenants to keep a cat at his apartment if he wishes to let it.

Some leases put constrains on keeping cat's, however. For instance the buyer of an apartment in say London may have to ask the the freeholder if he can keep a cat at the property. This can cause complications.

To sum up: in London renting a property with pets is considerably more difficult that renting without pets. This is because the choice is much reduced. Buying leasehold also brings potential complications and barriers.

Renting a property with pets in America

I don't know what percentage of apartments are "pet friendly" but I do know that some landlords (what is the percentage?) insist on declawed cats. This is monstrous and unnecessary. In fact it is a bit bizarre as it is well documented that declawed cats can have litter box problems. They are inclined to go to the toilet on the carpet, just what the landlord does not want. In fact if a potential tenant declawed their cat to be able to rent an apartment there would be a good likelihood that the cat would demonstrate inappropriate elimination so soon after the operation. This is just an example of how poorly thought through the argument is for declawing cats living with apartment tenants.

There has been debate about stopping landlords only renting to people who keep declawed cats but it appears that in general it is still allowed across much of the United States.

Some articles on this:

AB 2743 - the landlord-renter declawing and debarking bill

Bill to Stop Californian Landlords Demanding Declawing of Cats

California Declawing Veto-Another Viewpoint

Renting a property with pets in Australia

It was an news article from Australia that got me thinking about this post. The article that was published on the news.com.au website says that a "pet friendly" flat in South Australia can add to the flat's resale value. This is probably true. But the reason is a negative one. The pet friendly flat is scarce. There are more buyers with pets than flats that allow pets. This forces the price upwards under usual market forces.

Once again, I conclude that flats or apartments that are pet friendly (that allow the tenant to keep a pet at the flat) are relatively scarce in Australia. This is supported by a women, Katie Hannan, who has experience in the rental sector. She has a cat companion and has found it difficult to find nice property to rent. She has been forced to rent properties that are less good than she would ideally like. Landlords of the better properties don't allow cats!

Conclusion: there is a prejudice against cat keepers who wish to rent rather than buy property. And even when you buy a flat under leasehold (the only way in England) you still face obstacles.

It is time to remove these obstacles. The declawing condition applied to cat owners in the US is ridiculous and should be tackled afresh nationwide.