What is it with landlords and pets that causes so many probelms and how can you, as a novice landlord, avoid them? With nearly half the UK population owning pets is letting to tenants with pets an opportunity or not?
If you are only letting one property – and it’s you home, your own view is likely to be based on whether you own pets yourself or not.
Letting agents you use will take your cue from you and may offer some general advice along the lines of letting with pets may be helpful if
your home could be otherwise hard to let.
As experienced landlords and mad pet lovers, we find tenants’ care of pets is disappointing to say the least which is why we introduced a pet policy. Letting a gents appear to lag behind experienced landlords in this regard. You best pet is for the pet clause in any lease to include reference to a document akin to a pet policy where you can state clearly what you require of tenants in relation to their pets.
The most common problems landlords face in relation to pets are dogs not properly controlled, damage to property and unneutered pets.
Most landlords accepting pets require an increased deposit to be set aside specifically to cover pet damage or a non refundable budget to cover the cost of
freshen up the property when the tenants leave.
It’s not possible to generalise about how responsibly tenants care for their pets and manage them. However you’ll get some clues when you pet the pets in question. We’d always suggest you interview the pets (sort of) as well as the tenants themselves.
You’ll get a feel for the condition of the animals and how they behave around their owner. You can also ask for a vet reference and details of whether the animals be neutered.
You are best avoiding people who don’t booster their pets or get them neutered. There is a slice of the UK population in particular who think cats and rabbits in particular are “easy” to keep – nothing could be further from the truth, particularly in relation to rabbits.
So gradually you’ll build up a picture of how well any pets are looked after and you should also get a landlord reference for any pets.
What about tenants who ask for pets mid tenancy? Our approach on this is to allow pets when the tenancy agreement comes up for renewal. Then the deposit can be adjusted and any other requirements put in place.
One thing to consider is that a landlord becomes responsible for any animals abandoned in their property. To date we’ve only had to deal with a rabbit we didn’t know about. But by the time a rescue space became available the rabbit had cost us the best part of £300!!
You can’t generalise about how tenants will look after their pets, but you can take steps to insure any pets in your property are well looked after and that you’re properly compensated for any damage.
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