Renting with a dog

When my  husband & I move to Glasgow in August, we're planning to leave our dog with friends for a few weeks, then they will ship him to us once we've found a place to live.  We will have followed all the PETS requirements, so he won't be going into quarantine.  This means we need to find a place to rent that will allow our pampered and spoiled pup to be with us.

Has anyone here had any experience finding a place that will allow dogs?  I've been told it's not that hard, but any adverts I've seen say "no pets", and rental agencies I've called say they same.  However, I emailed a couple dog training clubs and they said, "Oh, everyone SAYS no pets, but they don't really mean it.  You'll have no problem."

I'm a little nervous...if anyone has some advice on how to find a place to rent with a dog, please let me know!

Thanks!

We didn't have a dog when we moved into our current house, but we made it clear that we were planning to get one.  As a result, they just added a clause into our lease allowing one small dog and added the stipulation that we get the carpets cleaned before we leave.  No sweat!

Maybe just call around to some of the letting agents in the area where you'll be living -- they'll know which of their properties allow pets and which don't.

I've found letting agents useless until you are there in front of them. They have blanket statements and won't deviate from that until they have you in their office. Many landlords will say not pets, but can be convinced otherwise. We offered a 'pet deposit' a couple times to get them to the negotiating table. You may also have more luck with private landlords (who advertise in the paper) than the agencies.

As Balmerhon said, offering the pet deposit is helpful and a lot of agencies have that built in now for landlords who are "open" to the idea of a dog, but not upfront about it.

The problem arises when they think of "large dogs" (even though anyone who knows anything about dogs at all knows that smaller dogs have a propensity to be noisier (and it's noise/cleanliness the landlords are concerned about)

When I desperately needed to move, I designed a flyer with my dogs photo (with a ruler at the side to show her height), a brief description about her and her age and more about how important to us she was and how seriously we took her care and her wellbeing. At the time, she was 11 and her emotional welfare and comfort was of utmost importance in our lives and we made this very clear. She was also a "barkless" breed (still relatively rare in this country) and known for a short, odourless coat and we offered a non-returnable security deposit of £200 plus a clause to say that any damage/odour or pest control problems would be undertaken by us if necessary. So we managed to turn a completely anti-dog landlord around and got our 2 bed victorian garden flat (newly renovated, brand new kitchen, carpets etc)   He also knew how often she would be walked (3 times per day) and how long she would ever be left alone in the apartment (never more than 4 hrs at the very maximum).

I also offered to have the landlord round to the flat we were in at the time (all cream thick carpets!) to see for himself (he declined) - long story short- he never heard my dog, nor did my upstairs neighbours and I lost my dog in the time we lived there and I moved out immediately after she was put to rest there and I received all of our deposit back and a note from our landlords thanking us for being wonderful tenants and for leaving the flat as immaculate as we left there.

It can be done.....just ask the agents to only consider landlords who might be open to pets and a reference from your previous landlord if you have one might help.

Good Luck - I totally understand how worrying this can be.

This site used to come up with a lot of private landlord hits for me
http://www.rentamatic.co.uk/

Thanks for this post and information. I will be in the same boat in a few months and good to know it is not as hopeless as it appears to find a place for me and my pooch!