Our tenants have been with us for several years now. They have been great tenants, always paid on time and looked after the house. We gave them permission for one cat when they moved in, and we overlooked a second cat (they don’t know that we know about that) that they adopted this year.
The last time we visited, there was a dog staying which we were told was a friends dog that they were just looking after a few days, which again we decided to just ignore on the assumption that it was a one off.
But recently our neighbours have told us there has been a steady stream of different dogs in the garden and that they suspected our tenants were running a pet sitting business from our house. We’ve since found their profile on Rover, and it’s confirmed that that is exactly what they are doing. There are photos of numerous different dogs and cats all over the house on their profile.
The difficulty we have is that we have already served them a Section 21 notice as we are selling the house in the spring (we gave them 4 months notice rather than the 2 required under the terms of their lease). So they are leaving fairly soon anyway.
What do we do? Do we ignore it and just take screenshots of the adverts so that we can make a bigger claim against the deposit for any pet damage? Do we casually inform them we know and ask them to stop, even though they only have another two months left? Or do we need to serve some kind of legal notice to formally ask them to cease and desist? Our major concern is that our landlord insurance is invalidated by any non clerical business being run from the house.
Any advice would be much appreciated, this is our first AST and we’re not sure what the right thing to do would be. Many thanks in advice for any help.
You have to address it. You know about it. You know that your insurance will be invalidated by it. So you have to address it.
I would send them a firm letter laying out what you believe they are doing and making it very clear that it is a breach of the tenancy agreement, that it could invalidate your insurance and they must reply to you immediately to confirm that they have stopped that business.
2 months to go Let them leave and say nothing for now . Keep a record of all you find out Esp. from Rover. Just in case they get funny., if they do, then explain you are as a landlord required to inform the tax man
@Lucy28 if you have good comms and relationships with tenants then the first thing is to check when they actually plan to leave. That is your priority. If they don’t leave on the due date you have evidence they breached the AST, but more importantly you will have a problem that could impact your plans to sell in the spring.
And organise an inspection visit asap and take photos/document any damage now.
Not sure you have any actual proof of the business happening just suspicions based neighbours’reports and a website (which could be fake use by a third party of photos they’ve posted elsewhere - a neighbour who wants to get them in trouble say). So I don’t think you have enough to go to insurance co with - and before then you’d want to have warned the tenants to desist (say you will withhold part of deposit for breach and any pet damage otherwise). It might be you hold off confirming/investigating further till the 2 months are up and they have left, that would be up to your discretion.
And yes keep documentation inc screenshots and dated notes of info from neighbours in case needed re deposit claim in due course
Thank you. They’re saying they intend to leave before the date we’ve given them but I know they haven’t found anywhere else to go to yet. The listing advertising pet sitting services with tons of photos of at least 10 different dogs in our home is surely proof enough, and it has reviews from people who’ve used their service, all since July so during our tenancy.
I don’t think we can withhold any of the deposit for the breach can we? Only for any damage incurred as a result of it.
You’re right breaches in themselves can’t give you a reason to withhold part of deposit unless they cause you to lose £. So cost of any damages, any extra the insurance co may charge you to cover the extra risk, cost of your time dealing. So long as it’s reasonable. But ask your deposit scheme.
Ps would be good to get them to have given notice in writing and/or a doc agreeing to surrender the tenancy for the date you set, if you can, just so their ‘intentions’ are more legally binding.
Hmm…that old complete bare faced lie. Had that one once. Be aware they may not leave and you may need to go the court route to evict and gain possession. Arrange an inspection to assess the house and discuss how preparations for vacating are going .
You have a good file of evidence, they declared a pet, I would try to claim damage on insurance. I have read what you have written! Can you ask them to get pet insurance now ? Your priority is making sure they get out so be careful.
If they are leaving anyway, which would be the case had you reached out to breech of contract anyway.
My advice is don’t rock the boat, let them leave and check the house condition afterwards. Take copies of the pet sitting details in case of a dispute later on. However keep quiet about what you know, there’s no need to alert anyone else. You are already taking action anyway with section 21.
If your tenants are boarding cats or dogs overnight in your rental property, they might need a licence from the council to do so. Just something else to be aware of.
For everyone who’s suggesting just to ignore this, as they are leaving anyway….this is a risky option….if the house burns down, your insurance may well find out, and they will likely decline your claim.
You need to tell the tenants in no uncertain terms that any business is not approved, and get them to reply to confirm that no business is being conducted from the property.
Giving four months and showing you care backfired when I did this. A seemingly friendly daughter (tenant) and separated family parents living nearby took every opportunity to steal and cause damage. Even the rear garden rockery was stolen. Vigilance is required. Photograph before and after as evidence. Income streams are important. Immediately a single mum had huge carpet the length of the garage arrived and said it belonged to a friend. Several years later a dog appeared and I was told it belonged to a friend. Later found out that the friend was her Mum and Mum told me the small dog died when daughter moved out. Nothing is what it seems. Compensation may be possible if hard evidence is available of damage like grass being killed off, claw marks, underlay heavily stained. On the flip side, how long did they stay. Damage versus gross income. My personal views about Landlords being taken advantage of by tenants is that tenants should be “rated” and “coded” like other websites for their individual traits and offenses. Easy to do if a Landlord Association had a centralised database which is needed after recent ominous government legal changes to protect the tenant. Landlords need significant protection from abusers, repeat offenders, those using laws to make financial gains.
@Karl11 is correct if insurance finds out and if the pet sitting business materially contributed [to causing the fire or whatever incident claimed for under the insurance] and therefore invalidated the insurance cover, the claim could fail.
@lucy28 you could ask insurance co what to do explaining there is a balance of risks involved (and asking them to confirm that the cover continues while awaiting their advice) - if you raise this issue with the tenants there is a greater risk that they will leave damage, cease paying rent or refuse to leave, any of which could cost the insurance company [depending on what exactly the landlord insurance covers]. So long as you have raised it with the insurance company, the cover should continue while you sort out. It wouldnt surprise me if the insurance co takes a little while [allowing for some back and forth with clarification questions] to give definitive advice on what to do, by which time the tenants would have hopefully firmed up their leaving date and are less likely to be awkward because you raised the issue of the pet sitting business.
Another thing you could do would be to try to book [or use friends to book] the pet sitting service through the rover website to confirm the address it is operating from, as evidence. As part of asking about the service before booking, it’s reasonable to ask the address and maybe ask if you can visit to see the conditions your pet would be kep in so you can see how much space they have to run around in etc and to meet the dog sitters….so you have to have the actual address. Keep a screenshot of the message showing it.
@Karen43 is correct if tenants are pet sitting at the property, they need a licence from the council too, and can face fixed penalty notices of up to £5,000, conviction and even imprisonment [think that would be unlikely for not having a licence tbh]. So if raising with tenants directly you can tell them both that the activity must cease for the remaining 2 months and that you wont report them to the council if they do so, and you wont tell a future LL [seems likely they would continue their activities from a future address].
Or simply advise the council and leave them to deal with it - so that if queried by the insurance co, you can say you took action to deal, in which case your cover ought therefore to continue. - personally I’d give them the chance to stop first before reporting them to the council
[info on penalties
Fines: Authorities can issue significant fines. Local authorities are empowered by the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act 2022 to issue fixed penalty notices of up to £5,000 for animal welfare offences, including failure to be licensed. Conviction in court can result in an unlimited fine.
Imprisonment: Offenders can face imprisonment for a term up to six months.
Prohibition: The individual may be banned from owning, keeping, or working with animals in the future.
Local councils actively enforce these regulations and pet owners are advised to verify a sitter’s licensing status to ensure the safety and welfare of their pets. You can contact your local council’s animal warden to check if a business is licensed or to report an unlicensed operator.”
]
Another option would be to report tenant’s account to Rover indicating you suspect it is illegal because they are breaching tenancy agreement and (supposing they did have a license) they are not meeting standard licence conditions such as displaying the licence. Rover will investigate and may suspend or shut down the account. Again I’d probably leave this as an option after first giving them the opportunity to desist voluntarily.
Thanks for the advice all. Quick update - we spoke to the tenants and asked them to stop with immediate effect. The neighbours have confirmed they seem to have done so, although they’re going to keep an eye on it for us just in case.
And they’ve found another property to move to, which we’ve given a reference for (luckily didn’t have to lie on the form as it was very generic!), and they’re leaving on time as planned. So we’ve got evidence they had lots of animals in the house if we need it when they move out, if we do end up having to replace the carpets etc (I think we will).
