Renters face higher deposits just for owning a pet. It’s wrong to squeeze more cash out of them

For many people, pets are another member of the family. They can be like another sibling to children or much needed company for an elderly person living on their own. But while homeowners can have the joy of one or many animal companions, many renters are forced to choose between a pet and a home. 

Despite there being as many dogs as private renters in the UK, people looking for a new home to rent hear the same message over and over: no pets. In some regions as few as one in 20 rental homes are advertised as pet-friendly. This has a real human impact. I recently spoke to a pensioner who told me of a “terrifying choice”: to give away the cat she has cared for and loved for five years, or face becoming homeless. 

Landlords can currently refuse our requests to keep a pet, and frequently do, without giving any reason. This is renters being treated as second-class citizens.

Alongside other organisations, Generation Rent has been calling for the right to keep pets, and the government has listened. A new law, the Renters’ Rights Bill, is set to give us the right to make a request to keep a pet, which a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. How this works in practice is yet to be made clear, but it is a very promising new protection.

However, the law was debated by the House of Lords last week and came out the other side with a sting in the tail. Peers voted to amend it to enable landlords to charge an extra three weeks’ deposit for renters with pets. For the average renter, this would amount to a new £1,103 upfront cost, alongside the typical five weeks’ deposit and the eye-watering costs of moving home. Every time rents rise in future, this upfront cost for new tenants would also rise with them.

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Research by Battersea Dogs & Cats Home suggested that landlords’ fears of pet-related costs don’t match reality. On average, the financial gain to landlords outweighs the expense of tenants with pets, producing a net benefit of £3,800 over 12 years because tenants with pets tend to stay longer, meaning lower vacancy rates and lower marketing costs, so higher rental income. Evidence also highlights stronger community ties and improved interactions between landlords and tenants.

I’m hopeful that the government will continue to stand firm against this change. The minister, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, said in the debate this week that the government is content that existing deposits are enough to cover typical pet damages. Research supports that position, so there really is no reason for renters to be plundered for more and more cash based on unfounded landlord fears or whims, especially as one of the aims of the Renters’ Rights Bill is to reduce the upfront costs of renting.

The government can and should resist this amendment, which passed in the Lords by just eight votes. If just four peers had changed their minds to back pet-owning renters, we wouldn’t even need to be talking about it.

Meanwhile, in better news for renters, the government removed its planned requirement for pet-owning renters to purchase pet insurance. This was because the government found that specific insurance products would not be available at the scale needed, which at least means we get to hold on to our money in this respect.

More than half of UK households own a pet. They enrich people’s lives, providing love and companionship. It’s simply wrong that your housing tenure type either prevents you from experiencing this or forces you to pay through the nose for it. I hope this Lords amendment is all bark and no bite. 

Ben Twomey is the chief executive of Generation Rent

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