Nation of animal lovers unless you are a landlord it seems 😒

My husband and I are a professional couple who have lived in our current rented home for the last 7 years. Our landlord has only renewed our contract for 6 months instead of 12 and is looking to increase the rent yet again but is not forthcoming in arranging any repairs on the property. I love my home and we have made significant improvements to the property since we moved in (new carpets, marble fireplace, 2 new fires, new light fittings. We have decorated throughout and maintained gardens to a high standard. The agent has not done anything other than send emails in the past 6 years. Not even done an inspection on the place. (this is welcomed as said I love this house and treat it as my own) We have decided to keep our options open and look for alternative accommodation but nowhere it seems will accept pets :sob:I understand that some landlords have had issues but why should everybody with pets be penalised? These are our babies surely the reason for a deposit is to insure against damage however created. I just want to find an understanding landlord looking for reliable tenants for a long term let without worrying about how much the rent will be increased every year. I might be faced with having to rehome my furbabies and its heartbreaking.

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“everybody” is not being penalised as not everybody has a pet. .So your current landlord does not mind pets ? So you will find another landlord who does not mind pets. It sounds as if you are equally bothered about the rent increases , not just pet issues

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How i look at is coming from a tennent point of view. Pets make mess so to stop this from happening some landlords dont want this and its entirely there choice again with rent increases. Why should they suffer paying more on there mortgage whilst your not helping at all? should be lucky to even have a place there are people far worse then yourself who are on the streets…

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Hi. Can you not have a word with your landlord about all these rent increases?
If you are great tenants surely the LL would want to keep you. Why has your AST only been renewed for 6 instead of 12 this time?
Yes it’s heartbreaking to have to give up pets (I know as have just lost one) but would disagree it’s because LL’s are against pets.
What Landlords are against, or up against more to the point, are laws which are automatically biased very heavily and unfairly in the tenants favour - so therefore has virtually zero chance of getting anything back.
There have also been a few heartbreaking posts on here recently whereby benefit/disability claimants can’t get accommodation.
Again for the same reason - there’s no protection from the law for landlords so they are having to protect themselves.
All these laws supposedly aimed to protect tenants (that places like Shelter applaud) have gone so far, they are having the opposite effect.
If a tenant damages a landlords property surely that landlord deserves a fair hearing and a fair judgement and reimbursement.
Deposits are only five weeks rent and go no way towards hefty damage. Remember some areas of the country have low rents and yet building costs the same.

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I have just tried to increase the rent by a small amount after three years as it’s below the amount for similar properties.
I got a letter of abuse back!

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As stated by someone else, the changes in legislation recently are making life difficult for landlords. The tenant fee ban in particular will put a lot of landlords off renting to tenants with pets since there is now a five week cap on the deposit. There is a real danger that any damage caused will not be covered by the deposit, the easiest way to get around this is for landlords to put request higher rents. It’s sad, but were running a business not a charity.

That said, pet owner often make good tenants who do tend to want to stick around longer than some other tenants, often it’s a case of making a compromise for all parties.

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Hi Mr_T

With attitude like that I’d be tempted to send around the A-Team. LOL.
Only problem is that these days you’d probably get arrested for harassment.

Seriously though, it’s not good when you have to worry if you can increase the rent or not without getting abuse. If the rent increase is fair and the rent requested is average for the area then he should have nothing to complain about. If you haven’t made any increase in three years I’m sure that’s the case.

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Lol. If only.
It’s not good, especially when you’ve half killed yourself for these people, just more stress.
Shows different attitudes though.
Poor Cheryl6 appears to have sucked up everything thrown at her with increase after increase but others are so unnecessarily aggressive and unpleasant to deal with.

I understand that landlords have the right to choose. I am disappointed that the contract has been renewed only for 6 months. The property we live in was bought by our 4 landlords and rented out within a month of purchase to us. Rent was relatively cheap at the time. The house needs new windows, has no off road parking and garage is separate from the property. Rent stayed the same for 2 years then landlord via agent asked for £100 per month increase. We refused as similar property in next street with new windows/kitchen/off road parking and attached garage was not as much as they were asking. Every year rent is increased by between £25 and £50 by agreement. Last year I stated we would not agree a further increase without repairs that we’ve been reporting for last 3 years to be completed. (1 inch gap in windows in my sons bedroom and bathroom so don’t seal properly and drafty) I suggested to the Agent when he text me then sent contract renewal via email that we would like landlords to consider freezing the rent for 3 years in exchange for us replacing the kitchen and renewing Hall stairs and landing carpet and front garden fence. This was disregarded and was given 6 month contract (a month late so contract is only until November) with a view to another increase. No mention of the repairs being dealt with yet again. As mentioned before I love this house as its my home. (I grew up in a street round the corner) and it’s close to my son’s school. We are only looking elsewhere to keep our options open in case we are not being told the whole story by the agent as I was upset at only a 6 month contract.

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Hi.
You sound lovely tenants who have an unfair landlord and bad agents.
It does sound strange that the tenancy has suddenly gone down from being 12 months to six.
Rent increases sound quite a lot too which are meant to be fair and in line with the local area.
Could you contact the landlords directly? It’s possible the agent isn’t bothering to liaise with them.
Report the lack of repairs to the council.
If you do end up having to move, invite any prospective landlord, if possible, to your home so they can see how well you keep the property.
Just as horrible to read about unfair landlords as it is about unfair tenants.

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I have spoke to numerous agents that have properties listed and encouraged them to Invite prospective landlords to contact me. I have suggested that we pay a greater security deposit but have been told that this has been capped at 6 weeks. The problem is that the property in this area is sought after and its easier to accept tenants without pets who are applying for the same property. I will try to contact the landlords directly in November depending on what the agent comes back with. Thanks for your kind words.

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I let out a property, and personally I have allowed my tenants to keep pets. They’ve got chickens, guinea pigs, and from last week a puppy. How I see it is that they would repair any damage, and it makes it a real home for them, so they are likely to stay long term, and thus I won’t have gaps in rental income

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Just hope you can get something sorted out.
Yes it’s capped but could offer a slightly higher rent or don’t know if signing a separate agreement to say you would put right any pet related damage separately.
Sadly, most landlords know it wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on but one might accept. And you only need one!

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Hi most landlords have no recourse to damage. It’s a challenge also at the end when tenants with pets disregard the cleanliness that is required. Tenants become argumentative at the end as they have nothing to loose. Personally I charge more for tenants with dogs or pets as I left with damage. We charge an extra 20-30 pounds, it means we can cover our costs. Also do you have a gaurantor it may help.

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It’s ok agreeing to a tenant having pets. The problem starts with the tenants reluctance to pay fir any damage the pets have caused plus the mess they cause that appears to be left for the landlord to clean up when they move on. Annoyance to neighbours with a barking dog , and having the need to replace carpets and deep clean the house To irradiate they odours etc etc … allowing pets is simply hassle that ends up being a Landlords nightmare.

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My female goldfinny just got pregnant after eating other eggs. With the human emotions, she’s like a daughter. Clean the tank in the bath more often…

Not always the landlord’s choice of course. In our case our freehold prohibits pets

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You sound like good tenants to me. Wish you was looking in my area. :grinning:

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Most Landlords are only thinking about themselves I’ve noticed, it’s rare to find one that is at all sympathetic to your cause, our experience with them has not been good, they are happy to take your money each month but don’t actually take much action to fix their property when it get’s damaged (leaky roof, broken windows etc. not usually caused by a pet) maybe both you and I have just been unlucky?

Our current landlord wants to give this house to his daughter so we are having to move because legally he is allowed to do that even though we’ve done nothing wrong, we really liked our house too. As a tenant I don’t really feel like the laws protect us at all, so I find it surprising the landlords on here think we are better off than them. We too have a pet and are struggling to find a landlord who will accept her, even though she’s generally well behaved and doesn’t make a mess and never has. (most pets don’t actually make a mess and are far less dangerous to have in a property than a small child is, but landlords don’t discriminate against children)

My partner and I are not rich, our income isn’t great right now and our current rent takes half of our income each month and it’s cheaper than other similar properties :frowning: Landlords are lucky enough to own property, they no longer realise what it’s like to not be in that position, to be young and struggling, wanting somewhere safe and stable to live while you try and save up for a future, a wedding, a deposit on a house etc. It doesn’t matter if you are a good tenant, if your fur baby doesn’t cause a mess, if you pay your rent on time even though it cripples you financially it’s rare to find a landlord who cares about any of that. Like I said, maybe we’ve just been unlucky, but reading some of the comments here make me think this is the norm :frowning:

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What area are you in Linda?