Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the changes outlined in the recently revised Model Tenancy Agreement, what constitutes a good reason for landlords to decline a pet ownership request from a tenant.

The latest revision to the Model Tenancy Agreement is based on making it easier for tenants with pets to find private landlords who will accept them. The key change is to remove restrictions on responsible tenants with pets, encouraging landlords who use the Model Tenancy Agreement to offer greater flexibility in their approach to pet ownership. The revision aims to strike the balance between protecting private landlords from situations where their properties are damaged by badly behaved pets whilst ensuring responsible pet owning tenants are not unfairly penalised.

The revised Model Tenancy Agreement provides that a private landlord who chooses to use the agreement should accept a request from a tenant to keep pets where they are satisfied the tenant is a responsible pet owner and the pet is of a kind that is suitable in relation to the nature of the premises at which it will be kept. As such, a good reason for a landlord to decline a pet ownership request would be where a pet is demonstrably poorly behaved, or unsuited for the premises in question, for example, a large dog in a small flat, or where other tenants have allergies to animals.

We will continue to keep the Model Tenancy Agreement under review.