What do you want to know?
The London estate agent says the rental market is really busy. Properties are going in hours. As a tenant you think, a normal ‘pushy’ agent call. Yet this a big decision, which you need to think about, yet you don’t have the time too. Offer or lose out. These are unfortunately the challenges you face when looking to rent in the UK with or without a dog or a cat.
Finding a UK rental property for you and your dog is not easy in a competitive market where landlords still [do not have to accept pets]( https://metro.co.uk/2021/10/11/do-landlords- have-to-accept-pets-15382980/). This is sadly despite the proposed Pet Protection Bill. At Pets Lets, we specialise in finding pet friendly properties in London, The Home Counties as well as other parts of the UK for clients with pets as part of our Pet Friendly Relocation Service. When you are up against other tenants without pets, you are not as appealing to a landlord. In an ideal world, you need an estate agent who is a sympathetic dog owner, who will put a string case forward for you. That is what we do for our clients.
In January 2021, The UK Government released figures of only 7% of Landlords accepting pets. An incredible statistic considering there was a 120% increase in the number of UK pet owners over lockdown.
You don’t have to be good at maths to realise that the figures do not work with 7% of landlords saying yes to pets versus 50% of the population owning a pet. Over 3.2m pets were bought over lockdown according to an article from the BBC. That is a sharp increase in UK pet ownership, with little change in the pet friendly rental sector.
The UK and London rental market is very competitive. Finding a property that does not go within a few hours is not easy. That is no exaggeration. You miss a phone call, can’t see the property that day or in the evening due to work or some other commitment and it is gone. Or you rush to see a property that the agent has said is great and has just come on the market, only to find it does not ‘tick the box’ at all.
Post lockdown, renting with a dog in the UK is far more complicated. The rental market is very competitive and there are so many more breeds of dogs. At Pets Lets, we regularly come across clients with a different breed of dog. Imagine an estate agent or landlord who does not own a pet; they would not have a clue as to the weight or size of the tenant’s dog(s). That is why the pet cv is such a powerful tool as it enables the property professional to visualise your ‘four legged friend’. Click here on Relocation Services to see example pet cv’s.
Dog friendly rentals is a highly searched google term in the UK. Pets are part of the family, and it is too big a market for landlords to ignore. That is why more property owners are considering letting to people with pets.