Can a Landlord Refuse Pets? The 2026 Position Explained

England only

Of everything in the Act, this is the change generating the most misinformation. Landlord forums, agent newsletters and a surprising number of law firm briefings still say you can require the tenant to take out pet damage insurance. You can’t. That clause existed in the Renters’ Rights Bill as introduced, was removed during its passage through Parliament, and never made it into the Act. If your source says otherwise, your source is describing a draft from 2024.

How a pet request works

Stage	What happens	Timing
1. Request	Tenant asks in writing, describing the pet	Any time during the tenancy
2. Your reply	Consent, or refuse with reasons — in writing	Within 28 days
3. More info	If you ask the tenant for further details, the clock extends	Later of the remaining 28 days, or 7 days after they reply
4. Superior landlord	If you must ask a freeholder or head lessor, the clock extends the same way	7 days after you get their answer
5. Agreement	You and the tenant can agree a longer period	By agreement

The request has to be in writing and has to describe the pet — type, size, and what space it needs. A tenant saying “can I get a dog?” in passing is not a formal request that starts the clock. A tenant emailing “I’d like to keep a two-year-old neutered cocker spaniel, kept indoors, walked twice daily” is.

What counts as reasonable refusal

The Act gives one express example: refusal is reasonable where keeping the pet would put you in breach of an agreement with a superior landlord. Beyond that, “reasonable” is judged on the facts, and government guidance fills in the practical picture.

Likely reasonable	Likely unreasonable
A head lease or freeholder agreement prohibits pets	You don’t like pets
The property is genuinely too small for the animal	A previous tenant’s pet caused damage
Another tenant in a shared property has a serious allergy	You’re worried it will be harder to let later
The animal is illegal to keep	Your agreement contains a blanket no-pets clause
The specific animal is unsuited to the specific property	Refusing an assistance animal

The distinction running through that table is worth internalising, because it will decide most disputes: a reasonable refusal is specific. It’s about this flat and this dog. A general policy about pets, however sincerely held, is the thing the legislation removed.

Assistance animals sit in their own category. Refusing one is very unlikely to be reasonable and may also engage disability discrimination law, which carries consequences well beyond this Act.

If you’re refusing, write it properly

State the specific reason, refer to the specific property and animal, and where a superior landlord is the cause, attach or quote the clause. A refusal that says “unfortunately we do not permit pets at this property” is the weakest possible position — it reads as a blanket policy, which is exactly what it can’t be.

The money: what you can and can’t do

I’d flag the “pet rent” line specifically. Charging an extra £25 a month because there’s a dog is not a permitted payment, and dressing it up as a rent increase doesn’t fix it — a section 13 increase has to be justifiable as market rent for the property, not as a surcharge for the animal.

What you’re left with is the ordinary deposit and ordinary evidence. Which means the inventory matters more than it used to: photograph carpets, skirting, doors and garden before the pet arrives, and again at the end. That’s the mechanism the Act leaves you, so use it properly.

What I actually do

My own view, for whatever it’s worth as one landlord: consenting is usually the better commercial decision. Pet-owning tenants have fewer places to go, tend to stay longer, and a longer tenancy is worth considerably more than the marginal risk to a carpet. The Act has removed the tools I might once have used to price that risk, but it hasn’t changed the underlying economics, which were never as unfavourable as landlords assumed.

What I do insist on is a proper record: the request in writing, my consent in writing naming the specific animal, and a dated photographic inventory before it moves in. Consent to “a cat” is not consent to three cats and a python two years later.

Questions