Renters’ Rights Bill changes will result in tenants bringing one million more pets into their rental homes, says big insurance broker.

An extra million pets are to flood England’s rental market as two in five tenants report a desire to have either a cat (56%) or a dog (52%) when the Renters’ Rights Bill goes live.

So says insurance giant Go.Compare after it conducted a major survey. It claims the Renters’ Rights Bill will make it easier for renters to keep pets in their properties because if landlords want to deny a tenant’s request for a pet, they will have to provide a fair reason why.

The rule change has proved controversial with landlords, who are concerned about potential property damage from pets, particularly as the Government has dropped plans to let landlords require pet damage insurance after Lords claimed the industry would not be ready in time.

Also, an amendment seeking to enable landlords and agents to ask for up to three weeks’ rent as a pet deposit is also opposed by Labour and unlikelly to make it into the Bill.

Housing minister Matthew Pennycook has made it clear he is satisfied that five weeks’ rent is a sufficient level of deposit to cover pet damage and that if he’s wrong, amending the Tenant Fees Act at a later date is an option.

Risk
But Property Litigation Partner David Smith of Spector Constant & Williams warns that “the existing five-week cap on deposits was never designed to account for the additional risks pets can introduce”.

And Go.Compare‘s survey is unlikely to alleviate landlords’ concerns. It reveals that among those tenants planning to get a pet, eight per cent say they will not take out insurance, while 18 per cent remain unsure – or approximately 269,000 households that will have no proper protection for pets.

Rhys Jones, Pet Insurance Expert at Go.Compare (pictured) is therefore urging renters who plan to get a pet to consider all the costs involved carefully before making the decision, and is advising them to take out proper pet insurance.

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