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Renters Reform Bill: the pet law would cause a rent increase

Three-quarters of landlords want to raise rents in the face of the new Renter’s Reform Bill, which is set to change landlords’ abilities to refuse pets.

Three in five (60%) landlords would take out insurance to cover pet damage — the price of which would also need to be paid for with higher rents, a poll from buy-to-let broker Mortgages for Business has found.

Meanwhile, a sixth (17%) of landlords said they would not change their business model due to the reform but would increase rents.

Jeni Browne, director of Mortgages for Business, said: “Government statistics suggest only 7% of landlords currently market their properties as ‘pet-friendly’.

“This is not an accident. It’s expensive to be a landlord to tenants with pets: they can damage properties and lower the market value of a property, too.

“It’s reasonable to refuse tenants with pets — it keeps costs down.”

“An important unintended consequence of the ill-conceived Renters Reform Bill is that three-quarters of landlords will be forced to jack up rents for all tenants if some have a pet.”

“No wonder Michael Gove is backtracking over half of it already.”

“This legislation will be fabulous for the minority of tenants who are actually pet owners — but it’s not a great look for a government that’s supposed to be helping tenants in the face of a cost of living crisis.”

When asked about deposit sizes, half of the landlords (50%) said they would increase the size of tenants’ deposits to help to cover the costs of any potential damage caused.

A 2022 report found that 85% of landlords and letting agents have incurred pet damage to their properties — with 57% unable to recoup the costs of damage caused by pets.

Under the new bill, landlords cannot ‘unreasonably’ refuse requests for keeping pets.

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