This is a question to the blog clinic from Sian who is a tenant.
I have a three year old German Shepherd who is fully trained and one of the most docile and lovable dogs there is. We knew there would be issues finding a house that would accept pets and we have been nothing but open with all agencies when looking for rental properties.
A couple of weeks ago we found a place, huge garden, allowed pets and the rooms were exactly what we needed. We queried if dogs were allowed and I advised the breed, age and weight of my dog over the phone.
They advised pets were accepted. We paid holding deposit and after a couple of weeks, with a few drama’s relating to someone else putting a holding deposit down on the property with another agency, we were told we could rent.
Before signing the agreement, the landlord asked the agency who manage the property for him, if we could look after his cat that lives there, I said no as I have my dog and I am allergic to cats. We were told the cat would be re-homed.
When we did our references I again advised my dogs breed and age. Was advised no extra deposit was needed I just needed to ensure the carpets were treated when our tenancy was up.
We are one week moved into the property and the LL has contacted the management agency to say he no longer wants to accept our dog into the house and wants him to leave. There has been no altercation, no incident, my dog is not the only dog on the street but is the quietest, he is in the house before 10pm never later and only barks if someone knocks on the door but he’s a dog. They all do this.
What are my rights here? I haven’t even lived here long enough to sign up to my local doctors or get internet here! What can I do? Please help me, any advice will do.
Answer
The first thing you need to do is to check your tenancy agreement. Has it been amended to confirm that you may keep the dog?
If it has, then there is nothing the landlord can do. He cannot unilaterally change the tenancy agreement without your consent.
If the tenancy agreement has a clause forbidding pets (most tenancy agreements do by default), then the next thing is – do you have evidence to show that you advised the agents of the dog in advance and that they confirmed that the dog was permitted?
Evidence would be emails or letters. A dated telephone attendance note might do but is obviously less satisfactory than a letter or email.
If you are able to prove disclosure about the dog and agreement by the agents in advance of you signing your tenancy agreement, then again I do not think the landlord can do anything. This confirmation is almost certainly going to be treated as a variation of the contract, even if the contract itself states no pets.
There is also a legal rule, known as an estoppel, saying that a party to a contract cannot stand by knowingly allow someone to ‘act to their detriment’ and then seek to end the contract on that basis. They will be ‘estopped’ from doing this.
Finally, under the consumer legislation, if you are induced to enter into a contract due to a misrepresentation (ie that you could keep a dog) this will entitle you to end the tenancy and reclaim all payments made by you provided you give notice within 30 days. This is under the Consumer Protection (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
These new consumer rules are not well known however and I am not aware of any cases where tenants have successfully unwound their tenancy. The other points though should suffice.
Your right to stay in the property
When you sign a contract for a tenancy, you acquire a legal right or interest in the property. This means that you are entitled to live there until such time as you are evicted by the courts.
I think it most unlikely that in these circumstances your landlord could succeed in a claim to evict you because of your dog, for the reasons given above. You would have a good defence to such a claim. For this reason, I think it is unlikely that your landlord would start any proceedings, particularly if you have made all rent and any other payments promptly.
The problem is after the fixed term has ended. Your landlord can serve a section 21 notice on you which, if you do not vacate during the notice period, will entitle him to bring a claim for possession through the courts, based on that notice.
Section 21 proceedings do not have to give a reason, other than the fact that a valid section 21 notice has been served and the tenant has not moved out. So if your landlord did this, you would have to move out or face eviction.
However hopefully, during your fixed term, you can convince your landlord to re-consider his decision. If he sees that you are good tenants, the dog is not destructive, and that if he requires you to get rid of the dog, you will move out leaving him with all the expenses of finding a new tenant, he may change his mind.
Ben Reeve-Lewis says
September 5, 2017 at 8:23 AMThere is an elephant in the room there Tessa, or this case, a cat. What on earth possessed the landlord to think that it would be acceptable for his tenants to take on his cat?
Like Sian I am also badly allergic to cats and would end up in hospital with asthma if forced to be around one for more than a few hours, even if they arent in the room.
But as you say. Sian can protest all she likes but at the end of the day there is still the s21 available to the landlord, provided they have put in place all the protections.
I’d unwind the tenancy if I was Sian, why wait until the landlord oiks her out anyway? And I would advise the agent to let prospective new tenants know that the property comes with a house cat
Bob says
September 5, 2017 at 2:10 PMWere I the tenant, I’d drag my feet in the event of a Section 21, just because I could. As most here will know (though it should be pointed out every time S21s are mentioned), a Section 21 doesn’t end your tenancy (but yes, any reasonable, able person would treat it as if it does)
Can a Section 21 be served during the fixed term?
Tessa Shepperson says
September 5, 2017 at 2:14 PMYou can serve a s21 notice during the fixed term so long as it is not served during the first four months, but you cannot start proceedings based on a section 21 notice until the fixed term has ended. So there is not much point in serving it before the last two months of the fixed term.
Peter Jackson says
September 6, 2017 at 9:11 PMI thought you could serve one after 4 months to take effect at the end of the fixed term. Am I wrong?
Tessa Shepperson says
September 6, 2017 at 10:03 PMNo, you are quite right. A tenants security is as long as the fixed term and then the end of the notice period of any (valid) section 21 notice served.
The landlord can certainly serve the s21 notice after the first four months and if the fixed term is six months the notice period will expire a few days after the fixed term does (depending on when exactly it was served).
We are not told how long the fixed term here is for. It could be a year.
Bob says
September 7, 2017 at 12:39 PMYou said a Section 21 can’t be served before the six month point, didn’t you?
And should it work out that the tenant’s 2 months’ notice are during the fixed term or from the day the day after it ends?
Tessa Shepperson says
September 7, 2017 at 12:48 PMUnder the Deregulation Act 2015, no s21 notice can be served during the first four months of any tenancy which starts or is renewed on or after 1 October 2015.
You can serve your notice any time after that, but it must give a notice period of at least two months and the notice period should not expire before the end of the fixed term.
If a landlord gives the expiry date of the notice as being before the end of the fixed term this will probably invalidate the notice.
The notice period has not GOT to be 2 months. In fact, if the notice is served more than 2 months before the end of the fixed term it will have to be more than two months. The main point is that it can’t be LESS than two months. It’s OK to give a slightly longer notice period.
But this post is not specifically about section 21 (and I can’t see that it gives any advice on dates of service) – you will find more guidance on this elsewhere on the site. Although when reading posts please note the day that they were written. If they were written a long time ago the law may have changed since. See the disclaimer about this above.
Bob says
September 10, 2017 at 3:12 PMThanks.