Fur flies as social media vilifies landlord over cat sitting request

A landlord has been lambasted for offering a room to rent with the condition that the tenant must look after two cats.

The advert on the SpareRoom website for a one-bed property in London’s Surrey Quays with all bills included, describes the bright, modern flat – available for £2,200 a month - as “stylish and comfortable”.

However, the landlord added a note, reading: “The flat comes with the lovely responsibility of caring for two well-behaved cats during your stay.”

After a Reddit group user posted the ad under the headline, ‘Pay me £2,200 a month to cat sit MY CATS’, others expressed incredulity. One wrote: “Sounds like Airbnb wouldn’t let them list ‘cat sitting’ as a condition for guests, so they’re trying their luck on SpareRoom.”

Daylight robbery

Another said: “Con artist doing daylight robbery framed as a bargain/‘lovely responsibility’”, while one user said it was not the first time they’d come across a ‘cat sitting’ service, writing: “I actually saw an ad like this recently on SpareRoom that was written from the perspective of the cats. It was psychotic.”

The advert has since been removed, which reports that London room rents fell 0.4% to £980 per month in the second quarter of the year.

However, after peaking at a record high of £1,014 per month in Q4 2023, it doesn’t mean falling rents in the capital are affordable, says the firm. “Compare London average rents today to five years ago, and they’re 26% more expensive.”

New data from its rental index reveals UK room rents rose by less than one percentage point year-on-year to £748 per month.

Of the UK top 50 largest towns and cities, renters in Wolverhampton (6%), Southend-on-Sea (5%) and York (5%) have seen the steepest increases, but it’s a different story in Bradford (-3%), Manchester (-3%) and Stoke-on-Trent (-3%) – the three biggest fallers in Q2.