Renting To Tenants With Pets In Wales

Thinking about renting to tenants with pets in Wales? Here's what the law says and how to manage the risk.

As you are probably aware, in December 2022 renting in Wales underwent far-reaching changes with the introduction of the Renting Homes (Wales) Act. This impacts all aspects of renting, from tenancy contracts to eviction processes and processes for the repossession of abandoned properties. One interesting development concerns the issue of pets in rental properties. It’s often a contentious issue, with landlords wary of additional wear and tear, damage, or even an infestation of fleas or mites leading to expensive end-of-contract clean ups.

One of the effects of the Covid outbreak was the so-called 'Pandemic Puppy Boom': the number of dogs being bought or adopted soared during lockdown. The UK is home to approximately 12 million dogs. As of March 2020, according to the Welsh Government Dwelling Stock Estimate, one third of all people in Wales live in rented accommodation. However, up to this point only 7% of landlords advertised 'pet friendly' properties (Gov.uk). With proper property management services, handling pet-related policies and compliance becomes more straightforward.

Landlords are currently able to place a blanket ban on renting to tenants with pets, and many take advantage of it. This can lead to pet owners experiencing difficulty when trying to find a suitable rental property and even being left in the heart-breaking situation of having to give up their well-loved pets in order to move into their chosen property. As well as the emotional trauma, this can place undue and unnecessary pressure on animal welfare charities such as the RSPCA.

Understand the pros and cons of pets in rental properties.

The 'model occupation contract' is the contract template recommended for landlords to use. Tenancy agreements have been replaced by occupation contracts.

At present the statutory terms from the act do not include anything about the keeping of pets in a property, but this could be included as ‘additional terms’.

At present there is no legislation in place in Wales to cap the security deposit, so this could be used as a way to mitigate the risk of costly damage caused by pets. In contrast, in England, the security deposit is typically capped at the equivalent of 5 weeks’ rent. Don’t forget that any security deposit will need to be protected under a recognised deposit protection scheme.

Need help?

At Morgan Jones we’ll handle any tricky situations with pets in properties for you. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you.