Asking Your Landlord About A Pet: How To Get A Yes

The conversation used to be a favour you were asking. Since 1 May 2026 it's a request your landlord has to properly consider, respond to in writing within 28 days, and give a fair reason for refusing.

That's a real shift. It doesn't mean automatic yes, and how you ask still makes most of the difference.

The short version

• Ask in writing. A verbal chat doesn't start the clock.
• 28 days to respond in writing, extendable by 7 if they ask you for more detail.
• They can't refuse without a fair reason.
• No pet deposit and no compulsory pet insurance. Both were dropped before the Act became law.

What the law now says

Section 11 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 gives you the right to request permission to keep a pet, and requires your landlord not to refuse unreasonably.

The mechanics:

• You ask in writing, describing the pet.
• They respond in writing within 28 days.
• If they ask for more information, about the size of the dog or whether it's house trained, you have to provide it or they don't have to consider the request. Once you do, they have the remainder of the 28 days or an extra 7, whichever is later.
• If they don't respond at all, you can go to court.
• Once granted, it's granted. GOV.UK is explicit that a landlord "cannot change their mind or change your tenancy agreement" afterwards.

A blanket "no pets" clause in an existing agreement doesn't override this.

What counts as a fair refusal

GOV.UK gives examples of reasons that can be reasonable:

• Someone you live with has an allergy
• The property is too small for a large pet or several pets
• A freeholder owns the property and doesn't allow pets
• The pet is illegal to own

And reasons that usually aren't:

• They simply don't like pets
• A previous tenant's pet caused problems
• Hypothetical worry about damage that hasn't happened
• Refusing when they know you need an assistance animal such as a guide dog

The freeholder point is the one that catches most flats. If the head lease prohibits animals, your landlord genuinely cannot grant permission, and that isn't obstruction. Ask to see the clause.

Assistance dogs sit differently again. Refusing one is likely to be disability discrimination under the Equality Act, quite apart from the pet rules. Your rights as a disabled renter.

How to write the request

Email, so it's dated and saved. Do the landlord's work for them: the more specific you are, the fewer reasons there are to say no, and the less likely they are to come back asking for more detail and buy themselves another week.

Include:

• What the animal is. Breed, age, size, weight, neutered or not.
• House training and behaviour. Say plainly if the dog is crate trained and doesn't chew, or the cat is indoor only.
• Your routine. Who's home in the day, whether there's a dog walker, so the "left alone all day howling" worry never forms.
• Practicalities. Where the litter tray or crate goes, whether there's a garden, and what you'll do about the carpet.
• Your record as a tenant. How long you've been there, rent always on time, no complaints.
• What you'll do about damage. You can offer to have carpets professionally cleaned at the end, and that offer is voluntary and does you credit. It can't be imposed as a condition, because required professional cleaning is a prohibited payment.

If you have one, a reference from a previous landlord confirming the animal caused no problems is unusually persuasive and costs nothing to ask for.

Money: what they can and can't ask for

This is where a lot of out-of-date advice is still circulating.

No pet deposit. The deposit cap is five weeks' rent where annual rent is under £50,000, and there is no pet top-up. Anything above the cap is a prohibited payment.

No compulsory pet insurance. Earlier drafts of the Bill let landlords require it. That was removed, and it didn't make it into the Act. A landlord requiring you to buy pet damage insurance as a condition of permission is asking for a prohibited payment.

No "pet rent" as a separate charge. Rent is rent, and any additional recurring charge for the animal is a prohibited payment.

Damage still comes out of the deposit. If the animal wrecks the skirting boards, that's a legitimate deduction like any other, subject to fair wear and tear. They can't recover the same damage twice, from insurance and the deposit both.

What the Tenant Fees Act bans.

If they say no

Read the reason first, and take it at face value if it's a real one.

If the refusal looks unreasonable, or there's no reason at all:

1. Reply in writing, addressing the specific concern. A refusal on "the flat's too small for a dog" is answerable if the dog is a six-kilo whippet cross who sleeps eighteen hours a day.
2. Offer to solve the actual worry. A trial period, a reference, hard flooring protection.
3. Complain formally through their complaints process, or the agent's redress scheme if there's an agent. What the Property Ombudsman does.
4. Go to court if they simply never responded within the deadline.

One thing that has changed the balance: Section 21 no-fault eviction is gone. Pushing back on a pet refusal no longer carries the risk of a two-month notice arriving in reply. What the Act changed.

Don't just move the pet in

Tempting, and a bad idea.

Keeping an animal in breach of the agreement is a breach of tenancy, which is a ground for possession. The request process exists and it's weighted your way, so use it. Getting a written yes takes a month and settles it permanently.

The honest summary

Ask in writing, with detail. Cover size, training, routine and what happens about the floors before they have to ask. Expect an answer within 28 days, and a fair reason if it's no.

Don't accept a pet deposit, pet rent or compulsory insurance, because none of those survived into the Act. And don't skip the process and hope.

And whichever way it goes, review your landlord. Whether somebody handles a reasonable request reasonably is exactly what the next tenant with a cat would like to know.

---

This guide covers England and reflects the Renters' Rights Act 2025 as in force from 1 May 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. General information rather than legal advice. Sources: GOV.UK, if you want a pet to live with you, Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 11, Shelter Legal, pets in private rented accommodation.