Finding a pet-friendly place?

Hi guys. My husband and I are hoping to be able to move out of our current place soon. Our lease ends in June, and I'm hoping I can find a job quickly as I've just got my national insurance number yesterday and can now work.

My mother in law has a pregnant dog. The plan has always been that my husband and I will be taking one of the puppies when the dog becomes pregnant. But I'm hearing from my in laws that finding properties to rent in the UK that allow dogs is nearly impossible nowadays. Do you guys know much about this? We are trying to plan whether we should bother planning on taking one of the puppies from this litter, or if we should wait until we have a mortgaged place that will give us more freedom, pet-wise.

The thing is, my in laws have a habit of talking out of their you-know-whats. I find that they consistently speak in absolutes and make sweeping generalizations on a number of topics, and I'm wondering if this is one of those instances. When I step outside and walk down the high street, I see TONS of people with their dogs. Is it possible that all of those people own their properties? I find that hard to believe. I'm willing to bet that at least some of them rent, and if that's the case, then finding dog-friendly properties to rent can't be THAT impossible.

Can someone shed some light on the subject?

We rented in Brighton, and in London.

We have two cats.

We did find places, but the cats made it very hard.

About 80% of the places available 'Did not allow pets' at all.
The places that did allow pets usually wanted an extra pet deposit, which could be anything from 200 quid to an additional months rent, ON TOP of the regular deposit. 

Also, all of the nicer places did not allow pets, so a lot of the places were dumps.

Like, half of them were dumps.

So, then we were left looking at 10% of places left... and half of those wanted really, really high pet deposits, so we were down to 5% of the available flats as possible homes.

And, that was with two cats. Not a dog.

At least in Brighton and London, having pets DOES make renting very hard.

I see. Well, we'll just have to see how it all goes, I guess. I've written emails to two different letting agents to ask their opinions on the matter. I can see why some places wouldn't want to allow pets, but I guess I don't understand why it's so common here. In Salt Lake, where I'm from, there was never a problem finding pet-friendly places to live. When I was looking for a place to move, I visited maybe fifteen properties. Of those fifteen or so, only about three didn't allow dogs. I guess I just don't get it.

And it makes it a bit annoying as well, because I'd be fine with staying where we're at now. The landlord is nice, the location is great, dogs are allowed (any kind of critter is, really). We're right on the high street, live within a ten minute walk to various shops and family...down the street from the city center. My husband hates it here, though, and that's why we're looking to move in the first place.

The property itself isn't that great. It's not a particularly nice flat, but it's cheap. And since I'll be working soon, we'll have quite a bit of money. We won't be living month to month anymore. I'd like to convince the husband to just stay here so we can relax financially, even with the added cost of having a dog and cat. I'm not kidding, this place we're at is dirt cheap. But oh well.

So, just get the dog.

Then you will be 'STUCK' there!

HA HA!!!!

I know, right? That's what I want to do. I'm kind of hoping one of the dogs turns out to be butt-ugly, so I can say to my husband, "Nobody is going to adopt this dog! Either we adopt him, or he ends up in a shelter!" I'd be happy with an ugly dog haha. An ugly dog is better than no dog.

It might be that more homes opinion the UK have carpet, rather than hardwood floors, and carpet is easily ruined by pet excrement.

I have rental property and do not allow pets, mainly because of a very expensive mistake a few years back. The pet deposit dod not cover the damage done by crazy dog owners - I'm not going to say crazy dog because pets can be trained to respect property.

I've only rented in London, with 1 dog and 1 cat (though we've gotten a second cat since moving into our current place).

I'd say it's taken an average of 6 weeks of looking for places each time we've looked (3x so far). Like LaraMascara, I've found a lot of the nicer places won't allow pets (plus they tend to get snapped up pretty quickly anyway). The place we're in is fine, and in a decent neighbourhood, but it's above a William Hill so we get to listen to the (muffled) race calls. Previously I've lived on the top floor of a block of flats, and the bottom floor of a block of flats (both fine, but a bit noisy with all the other flats around).

When asking around about pets, I've also found that cats are viewed in a better light than dogs, and small dogs in a better light than big dogs (though that might be because we live in a 1-bedroom flat, so a lot of people assume that our dog needs a palatial place to live). So many places told me that if I just had the cat(s), it'd be no problem, but with the dog... and then I'd get "oh, a big dog? the flat is too small" (which is stupid, if you know my dog).

FWIW, I've never had to pay a pet deposit. I've offered one, but have been told that it's fine, provided I pay for any damage(s) my pets have done when I move out (which, thus far, has consisted of £50 to one landlord for my cat scratching the arm of a couch).

We own a two bedroom flat in Worthing, with a garden, and we TOTALLY allow pets.

We do not take an extra deposit.

We have not had any serious issues. No damage really. The dog of one couple did dig some holes in the garden, but we charged them out of their one month deposit to get it sorted, we got a gardener in, and they were fine with us doing that.

Dogs sometimes do that. So what? You just get it sorted out of the regular deposit.

I'm a pet friendly landlord.

Because we are pet friendly, we have never had an issue finding good tenants, quickly! We get so many people wanting the flat that it becomes hard to make a decision, because you have to let so many people down. 

We have all hard wood floors, but even if we had carpets, we would be pet friendly!

Some toddlers can sometimes do just as much 'damage' as a dog or a cat, and they can make a lot of noise, and we allow THEM too! HA HA! If people allow kids, how is a dog any different?

I love animals, and the flat has a HUGE garden. It is perfect for a dog.

So, as an owner, I was pretty sad to see how many landlords were anti-animal.

Anyway, it is the same in NYC. If you have a dog and you are renting in NYC, you are going to have a VERY hard time finding a place! So, it is not just a UK thing.

Hi,

All the points have already been made, but just wanted to add that being in the same boat as LaraMascara above, I have a rental property and am pet friendly in that respect. It's just that I look after my flat so well, that my tenants stay long term, so it doesn't come up for availability often at all - this year marks the 4th year my current tenants have been here and they're very happy to stay on longer term!

So get the dog, stay in your super cheap place and save up the money - I'm sure your better half will like a fatter savings balance !

Good luck whichever way you do go !

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

I've also wanted to care for a pet.  Our current and previous (SW London) tenancy agreements didn't allow pets.  Our flat isn't a ground floor one and we leave it around 7am and aren't home until 6:30pm on weekdays.  We'd prefer to be in a ground floor flat with a communal garden before getting a pet.  Most likely a cat since it's more autonomous than a dog.