Recommendation 29

The proposal to make it easier for landlords to allow pets by making pet insurance a permitted payment under the Tenant Fees Act 2019 is a sensible and proportionate measure that could make a meaningful difference. On the other hand, the proposal to make it illegal for landlords to unreasonably withhold consent from those who request permission to have a pet seems impractical, even if a satisfactory definition of “unreasonably withholding consent” could be produced. We recommend that the Government abandon their promise to legislate to make it illegal to unreasonably withhold consent when a tenant requests permission to have a pet. If it cannot accept this recommendation, it should set out in response to this report what would constitute “unreasonably withholding consent” and explain in what circumstances it would be acceptable to force landlords to accept pets, especially where those landlords have had previous negative experiences of tenants with pets.