Big pet charity warns Ministers off rental property pet deposits

The UK’s most high-profile pet charity has warned the Government not to allow landlords to demand that tenants pay pet deposits, saying such a move would put an unnecessary barrier in the way of renters wanting to live with their dog or cat.

These comments have been made by Battersea Dogs & Cats Home within an article published in The House, the official magazine for MPs.

They follow an amendment last month to the Renters’ Rights Bill in the Lords, which will now be considered next week in the Commons as the Bill takes its final steps towards becoming law.

Amendment 11 would allow landlords to ask tenants before they move into a property for a ‘pet damage deposit’ of up to three weeks’ rent.

But Battersea Dogs & Cats Home has urged that the government “must commit to opposing this amendment so that the bill can fulfil its potential for pets and renters, and not risk excluding large groups of the population from the joy of pets”.

But the charity’s position will require landlords within the rules of the new Bill to accept pets without having ‘good cause’ while at the same time having no way to protect themselves against future pet damage.

Insurance

The charity is however behind the Government’s original plan to allow landlords to ask tenants take out pet damage insurance policies before moving in, something Labour included within early drafts of the Bill and then, somewhat curiously, U-turned on recently.

Although the charity did not put its name to campaigner Jen Berezai’s open letter to Angela Rayner this week urging her to reconsider this U-turn, it’s own recent report backed the policy.

It said: “Allowing landlords to insist that tenants take out insurance against damage caused by their pets would enable more landlords to accept pets.

“Landlords want this, it has political and public support including amongst dog- and cat-owning renters22 and could be achieved relatively easily by amending the list of permitted payments in the Tenant Fees Act 2019.”

Landlords will now have to wait until September 8th when the Bill is next debated in parliament.