Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to support pet owners in the private rented sector following recent revisions to the Model Tenancy Agreement.
The Government has revised the Model Tenancy Agreement, the Government’s recommended contract for assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector, 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. It provides that a landlord should accept a request from a tenant to keep a pet 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. 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.