What is the legal position on dogs in rented property?

Landlord Discussion Legal
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Hi it has been several years since we last rented out our property (3 bed family home). We allowed our previous tenants to have a dog after they had been with us a while but there was so much damage and mess left when they moved out that we are really not keen to allow dogs when we re-let it. Can someone advise what our legal position is with regard to saying “no dogs, but other pets considered” in the advert? Thanks

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Don’t outright refuse anything.
That is considered unreasonable in law and would breach consumer trading laws.

My contracts permits pets with permission ( I have used Tessa’s wording) but I do refuse them due to allergies.

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U oh . Here we go again. Any potential tenants ask what pets they have , make no comments and then choose those who only have a budgie or goldfish

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Hiya, what’s “Tessa’s wording”? Sorry if I’m being daft!!

Often the freehold must give permission first if it’s a leasehold. Big animals and even cats who spray or pee at doorstep etc are antisocial. Even the best owners can not avoid this unless kept entirely in flat. But main argument against is “allergies”. I had a tenant who had bad allergies & moved into a flat that previously had a cat. Even though it was thoroughly cleaned, he became ill. I had ti remove all the rugs & carpets for him!!!

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I wrote to the landlord association regarding this matter that allergies do kill with the intention they could raise it a government meeting when they posted in a weekly billeting regarding the Tory bent on this

I got a wishy washy response back saying

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I don’t think I can paste it on here
Copyright etc

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Ok. What’s Tessa’s wording? Oh and I’m not sure if my tenant was making it up just to get new carpet and rugs removed!! But this is what happens when animals have been in the flat. He was well aware cats lived there prior but accepted it.

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Tessa Shepperson runs landlord law
I don’t think I can write the clause on here because of copyright issues …

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Ah!! Ok. Will try to google

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Your contract just has to say no pets without the landlords written consent which will not be unreasonably withheld.

Reasonable excuses would include landlord allergies, unsuitability of property, eg upper story flat, lack of freeholder consent and similar.

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