OpenRent Tenancy Agreement - Pet Damage Insurance

Landlord Discussion
1

OpenRent’s sample tenancy agreement includes the following clause:

“9.30. Not to keep a pet unless requested in accordance with Section 16A of the Housing Act 1988 and the Landlord has provided their consent in accordance with that section. Where the Landlord consents to the Tenant keeping a pet, the Tenant may be required to obtain and maintain pet damage insurance if reasonably requested by the Landlord. The Tenant remains responsible for any damage caused by a pet to the Premises, fixtures, fittings or contents (fair wear and tear excepted).”

My understanding is that the pet-insurance provisions were removed from the RRA 2025 before it became law.

Does anyone know the legal basis for this clause remaining in the agreement? Is there a legal distinction I’m missing, or is it an oversight by OpenRent?

Interested to hear others’ thoughts, particularly from anyone with legal knowledge or who’s contacted OpenRent about this.

Thanks.

2

@amanda1026

Think this has been discussed before. @David122 may recall

‘Think’ the key be was that the wording

 'may' be required '

doesn’t itself constitution a requirement as part of the tenancy agreement. It does feel like an oversight as RRA say (if I’ve understood right) that LLs can’t actually require pet insurance at least as part of permission for having a pet and the clause maybe wrongly suggests to LLs that they could

@Dan4 or @mod_emma may be able to comment for OR

Best