Pet campaigners and supporters within the private rented sector are working against the clock to convince ministers to reverse their decision on pet damage insurance and plan to write to ministers 'very soon'.
Pet charity AdvoCATS has relaunched its Heads for Tails! campaign and has less than a month before the Renters’ Rights Bill returns for its consultation process between the House of Commons and the House of Lords on 8th September.
“That’s 28 days of building on our already impressive support base and delivering a message to the government stressing that the House of Lords got it badly wrong when they voted against a landlord’s right to require pet damage insurance and then voted for a separate pet deposit of three weeks’ worth of rent,” says founder Jen Berezai.
“We intend to submit an open letter to the Secretary of State for Housing Angela Rayner and the Minister of State for Housing Matthew Pennycook on 1st September,” adds Berezai. “It will accompany a briefing paper explaining why pet damage insurance is the common-sense solution to the lack of pet friendly rentals and is the favoured option of both tenants and landlords.”
The House of Lords voted against the pet damage insurance provision for landlords, citing the likely cost of such insurance, “potentially £150 a year” and the readiness of the insurance industry for “enquiries at scale.” However, both these reasons are completely at odds with reality, claims Berezai.
Politicians didn’t consult insurance specialists within the PRS, several of whom have been working on new products since the original Renters’ Reform white paper was published in 2022, while introducing a separate pet deposit of three weeks’ worth of rent is geographically disproportionate, argues Berezai.
“Landlords already have on average over 10 applications per property to consider” she adds. “They’re far more likely to choose the perceived easy option - applicants without pets - if they can’t mitigate the potential financial risk of pet damage.”
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