Hi I don’t intend to raise the debate about whether or not it’s legal to refuse dogs or cats as that’s clearly been done to death! My question is whether we can legally still charge an additional ‘pet rent’ on a per dog/cat basis and what a reasonable amount to charge would be?
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Neither does the level of risk and damage caused by irresponsible pet owners…
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My dog is part of the family, house trained and doesnt bite anyone or anything but a ll is not to know that. They only have my word therefor i would happily pay the extra rent for him.
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Yes you can charge extra rent for pets. Just dont refer to it as anyyhing other than plain rent in the contract, advert and all correspondence.
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Thanks. I have read on some law sites that it is legal to charge this so wondered why there is the need for not mentioning it?
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This is business sense to compensate for the extra cost almost always incurred by landlords when they allow tenants to have pets, especially dogs.
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So is it ok or not to mention that you charge a pet rent? I was thinking of adding £50/month onto the rent for anyone with pets as that seems to be what some law websites are saying is the norm…
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I would just specify the total rent amount in the AST, no need to reference additional amount. You are removing risk by doing this.
As far as I am aware you can charge extra for pets without issue.
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Thanks so can I advertise the property at a certain rent and then specify that pets will be considered subject to £X/month additional pet rent? And would you say per pet - don’t really want lots of dogs or cats as we’ve just unfortunately had to spend 1000s on new carpets and work to remedy the last tenants dog’s handiwork! Seems most people locally all have dogs so we may have to rent it to someone with dogs if we don’t want it to stay empty!
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When I accepted pets I advertised the property at a normal rent and on the filter leave it as pets accepted
If the tenant enquired I added on depending on the situation
I added between £50-£100
I looked at pets and the condition of the property they are bringing the house into
If it’s a new refurb I charged more , if it’s tired less
Young animals not trained create more damage
Older animals that are trained create less damage
I would not give a fixed price
Read Tessa’s website for detailed info regarding this
She has detailed information on animal types and houses
Last year I charged £75 extra pcm because they did not get permission and I don’t accept them now because of allergies
I charged more because I would not be able to attend the house for regular inspections because of my allergies so I had to cover unidentified risk
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Its a precautionary thing to just charge plain rent so that there is no wiggle room for the tenant to claim its a prohibited cost under the Tenant Fees Act.
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Thanks. Can you point me in the direction of the website you mentioned? Sounds like there is some useful info on there…
Landlord Law
She doesn’t guide regarding price but what to think about regarding species and house
Based on her information I created a charge for how much I would have taken if it was a deposit
If the tenant stayed a second year I adjusted the rent so if there was little / no damage I did not increase the rent as I tend to increase the rents yearly even if it is only slight
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dogs have plenty of bounds and that is the problem . Ever cleaned up a filthy dog house?
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I think we will all be after the King’s speech
It’s looking dismal
Every silver lining has a cloud ….
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Just had a tenant move out who bought a dog without my knowledge. £1450 to replace the carpets. Cheers.
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he is a tenant. he will not care about that … Maybe got a dog ! Set in his view
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You would think that by around CCJ number 4ish he would have learnt that trying to fight his parking tickets is pointless.
22 ccjs?! Yeah right 
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When I stay in a hotel with my dog they charge me £25-£30 per night extra!
Landlords charging an extra £50 a month per pet does not seem so unreasonable in that context.
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You could add a pet clause to the contract whereby the tenant agrees to all carpets being treated by professionals at the end of the rental as well as any damage to be covered in full, without recourse to ‘fair wear and tear.’ This has been successful for us where cats scratched and damaged stair carpet to the tune of £2k.
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