Renting a house with cats

Re: Renting a house with cats

Rachael_24 — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:32:59 GMT

Hi,

I had the same problem when I moved but found that some of the landlords who say 'no pets' can often be talked around! I lived in Gloucester for a couple of months before moving across to Cheltenham so if you'd like any advice on areas to avoid?

I'm actually likely to be moving out in a few months time so my place will be available if you're at all interested. It's a very small house but it's really nice and the landlady is fab. Also it's a private rental (not through an agency) so there are no agency fees to pay. She's fine with cats as long as you assure her that they won't scratch the woodwork!

Email me if you want to chat about the Gloucester area or houses/flats in general.

rachael_24@btinternet.com

Good luck with the search

Rachael x

Re: Renting a house with cats

BengalcatRVN — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 08:29:39 GMT

I've had issues in the past, shown lovely properties to be told no pets. Ordered the letting people to stop wasting my time and check the pet rule first. Eventially they found a small 2 bed flat, and even said I could fit a cat flap if I wanted. My then partner signed the agreement and we moves in. a month or 2 later, we had an ant problem (3rd floor building, go figure!) And I contacted the landlord. He said he'd drop something off, and I said "make sure its safe for pets" We then discovered he was never told I had 2 cats!! Que slight panicthat he was going to kick us out, but thankfully he decided theywere fine and we could stay, esp after I showed him the list of what we wanted that we gave to the agency which stayed must be cat friendly. He had a go at them tho.

Re: Renting a house with cats

Dippy — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 22:25:28 GMT

I haven't downloaded/read the booklet so have no idea how useful it is but you may like to have a look at this link:

http://www.letswithpets.org.uk/petowners/

Re: Renting a house with cats

emilyjane — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 22:16:13 GMT

We rented for quite a long time and we did live in a house that originally requested 'no pets'... even though we were desperate and already had a cat before-hand. My parents were quite naughty and decided to just hide her every time estate agents or the land lady came over, and it worked for about 3-4 years. One day she did randomly make a visit whilst I was there, and saw our cat on the bed... was quite a tense moment, but much to my relief she walked over and started petting her and saying what a nice cat she was. Nothing more was said.

We have always rented though, and it is really difficult as most landlord/ladies now put down the "no pet" rule. :S

Re: Renting a house with cats

emmadilemma — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:43:50 GMT

Big thanks for all the advice guys my `moving house panic attack` has subsided

Re: Renting a house with cats

Phrin Vernon RVN — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:17:31 GMT

Don't be put off when it says no pets. I have lived in a few rented houses - most of which said no pets on the adverts, but with a bit of grovelling, and more importantly letting them know what I did for a living, the landlords came round. I had one B Collie & one tortie at the time.

I have also always got my deposit back, although I must admit I once had to rent a carpet cleaner to get them looking spick and span again, and another time buy a tin of paint to cover up the muddy waggy tail marks on the walls

Still worked out much much cheaper than loosing out on the deposit

Re: Renting a house with cats

Sally Howe — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:41:41 GMT

Try getting a reference from your former landlord stating how good condition the property was left in with your cats living there etc. It may sway some of the property holders if they have a written statement from someone you rented off stating they never have had a problem with your cats and would welcome them back anytime.

Re: Renting a house with cats

Nikki Graef — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:50:35 GMT

Like everyone said before it totally depends on your landlord, some dont mind at all, usually ive found the landlords with multiple properties who do this for a living are more amenable, private homes where its their pride and joy tend to be less so.

Also if it says no pets on the lease, it doesnt neccessarily mean no pets, sometimes it is just a standard lease and landlords are happy for you to have them, letting agents can also be a total pain when it comes to animals, our current agent told us absolutely no pets the landlord had said no way. We moved in and after about 2 weeks i called the landlord directly and asked him, he said sure no problem, the letting agent hadnt even asked him!!

I also know a hell of alot of people who just dont tell their landlord and have pets anyway! Risky but plenty of people do it.

Re: Renting a house with cats

Victoria Nielsen RVN — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 14:54:45 GMT

I live in a village in a new build flat, which is two years old and has carpets. I had to ask the agent to ask the landlord and they said yes to me having my cat, who is indoors only due to living beside a busy road and intitally they said they would have to take extra deposit for the carpet cleaning when I leave, but they never did. We did ask them about having a little dog but they said no. We are going to buy a house in the next couple of years, so it'll be nice not to be restricted but I was lucky that I was able to keep my cat, Lister :-) You just have to ask. Some landlords will say no, some will say yes. It stands in your favour being a Veterinary Nurse though!

Good luck!

Re: Renting a house with cats

emmadilemma — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:27:30 GMT

Yeah it`s a tough one i can sort of understand why landlords are funny about animals but at the end of the day i think kids or party`ers can cause as much damage to homes as cats and it`s a shame that there seems to be such a blanket ban on `pets`. Personally speaking i`ve always got my deposit back in full despite having cats and because i like gardening and stuff the houses i`ve lived in have always looked better when i left than when i arrived!

I`m looking for somewhere more rural so hopefully as someone mentioned there won`t be so strict a policy as maybe there would be in a fancy townhouse.......am sill getting stressed though is especially hard house hunting from a different country!

Re: Renting a house with cats

Caro Laithwaite VN — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:33:12 GMT

Am renting mums house am afraid it is a strictly no pets policy. the company that was going to rent it said they couldn't possibly stipulate that!.

The b/f of the person renting mums house is a landlord himself but no houses in this area and he drew up the agreement for me and although l said nothing in there is paragraph whatever was "no pets". I also didn't charge a deposit l decided to trust the lass her folks are special friends and l figure if it is destroyed her dad would kill her himself. Anyhow it is less hassle no need to lodge deposits etc.

Re: Renting a house with cats

Louise B — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:47:46 GMT

[quote user="Steph Worsley"]

I did find a few people who were more than happy to let dogs and small furries but no cats! go figure lol

[/quote]

Like me. As a landlord I have had my fingers expensively burnt by cats spraying indoors and ruining the carpets.

Re: Renting a house with cats

Dippy — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:32:28 GMT

I've looked at renting in my current area (rural) and The Midlands (built up) in the past couple of years - I found that the latter were all definitely no pets but the more rural areas had more flexibility. I don't know what your circumstances are re whether you have your own furniture etc but I found that the unfurnished ones, particularly those with predominantly laminate flooring, were more amenable to being persuaded whereas those with more things for your pets to potentially damage wouldn't budge. I would have thought that if you are able to look somewhere more villagey/doggy type areas, they may perhaps be less strict than city places which they like to keep immaculate for businessy types. I did also find that several of the agents advertised no pets as a standard statement on their websites but once I actually spoke to them in person, they tended to say it was up to the individual house owner to decide whether they were willing to be flexible. I'm sure if you were happy to have a clause written in saying that you'd pay for/replace anything they damaged, they might be ok. Mine said that I would pay to have the carpets professionally cleaned if my dog affected the state of them but they never even bothered to mention it when I moved out. That's just my own experience anyway. Good luck!

Re: Renting a house with cats

Steph Worsley — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:01:58 GMT

I have this problem as well. When i was looking for my current place I found a couple of letting agents that said definately no pets in any of their places, another few said i had to pay horrendous admin fees before they would even ask the landlords,, the agents who deal with me now knew which landlords would be ok with cats and only let me view those places.

I did find a few people who were more than happy to let dogs and small furries but no cats! go figure lol

You may find you need to leave a bigger deposit like susan said, i didn't but i think i was lucky, i was warned i may need to but in the end i paid a smaller deposit...£400 instead of £650 (and i knocked the monthly rent from 425 to 400 and i've been paying that for the past 3 1/2 years)

Re: Renting a house with cats

Susan Jackson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:48:41 GMT

I always see this problem, I always ask the agent to explain I'm a VN so I'm not likely to allow the cats to mess on the floors, click the carpets and leave fleas everywhere.

Some say ok and others say no. They are likely to take a bigger deposit for the cats.