Tenants are now much less likely to search for pet-friendly rental properties suggesting that they are more confident about their rights - or plan to seek consent for their pet after the move, according to agents.

New analysis from Rightmove reveals that searches by potential tenants looking for a rental property which allows pets was down by 54% in May compared with the same month last year and 52% in June.

The trend indicates that fewer tenants are having to proactively seek out pet-friendly properties due to the Renters’ Rights Act changes which took effect on 1^st May, says Rightmove. This removes blanket bans on pets by landlords, and states that tenants have the right to request a pet and landlords must not unreasonably refuse permission.

Behaviour

This is less about a drop in demand for pets, and more about what appears to be a change in renter behaviour due to the Renters’ Rights Act, according to Colleen Babcock, Rightmove’s property expert. “When tenants feel more confident that they can request a pet in a wider range of homes, they’re less reliant on filtering specifically for ‘pet-friendly’ listings at the early stages of searching for a home,” she says.

Benham and Reeves letting agency is seeing far fewer tenants raise the issue during their property search, suggesting they are increasingly confident that pet ownership is a discussion to be had with the landlord later in the process, rather than a factor that determines where they apply, reports director Marc von Grundherr.

“In fact, we’ve seen recent cases where tenants only disclosed a pet after signing their tenancy agreement, while others have only come to light during routine property inspections,” he adds. “This demonstrates just how significantly attitudes have changed following the legislation. The reality is that tenants now understand the balance of power has shifted. As a result, landlords can no longer rely on a blanket ‘no pets’ policy to deter applications and should instead expect conversations around pet ownership to arise much later in the letting process."

AdvoCATS

Pet advocacy charity AdvoCATS is exasperated by the "woeful" lack of information in the mainstream media about the Act and has seen very little from the government explaining the new law and how it works.

“There’s so much misinformation about the RRA, it's a constant thing for us to try and explain,” founder Jen Berezai tells LandlordZONE. “I have lettings agencies and landlords sending me rental agreements stating ‘professional cleans required’, and that was banned in 2019, so who knows how long this new legislation will take to be understood.”

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