Right to request a pet

Since 1 May 2026 a private tenant in England can ask to keep a pet and get a written answer within a fixed period — and a landlord who says no has to say why.

Does the Renters' Rights Act give me an automatic right to keep a pet?

No. It gives a right to request one. The landlord must consider the request and cannot unreasonably refuse it, but a reasonable refusal is still a refusal. The change is that a blanket no pets position is no longer available to a landlord of a relevant tenancy in England.

How long does the landlord have to answer?

Consent must be given or refused in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request. If the landlord reasonably asks for further information within that period, they get until 7 days after receiving it or the end of the original 28 days, whichever is later. Where a superior landlord's consent is needed and has been sought in time, the landlord can wait until 7 days after that answer arrives.

What counts as a reasonable refusal?

It depends on the pet and the property. A large dog in a small upper-floor flat with no outside space, or a pet the landlord is barred from allowing by a superior lease, are the kinds of reasons cited in government guidance. A general dislike of pets, or a policy applied without looking at the request, is not.

Can the landlord charge me extra or ask for a bigger deposit?

Fees for agreeing to a pet are not permitted, and any deposit still has to stay within the cap set by the Tenant Fees Act 2019 and be protected in an authorised scheme. Landlords cannot use a pet request as a route around either rule.

Does this apply to social housing tenants?

No. The new statutory right to request a pet applies to the private rented sector in England. Social landlords have their own policies, and the government has encouraged them to consider pet requests fairly, but the statutory right does not extend to them.

What about an assistance dog?

An assistance dog is a different question. Refusing to allow one may amount to a failure to make reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010, which is a stronger route than the pet request regime and does not depend on the landlord finding the request reasonable.

What changed on 1 May 2026

came into force, a tenant’s ability to keep a pet depended almost entirely on the wording of the tenancy agreement. A blanket ban was common. A tenant could argue that a blanket ban was an unfair term under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and the government’s model tenancy agreement had for years discouraged blanket bans, but neither gave a tenant a process to use or a deadline to hold a landlord to.

The Act supplies both. A tenant of a relevant tenancy in England may make a request to keep a pet. The landlord must give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request, and consent is not to be unreasonably refused. A tenancy term that purports to ban pets outright cannot survive that framework.

Note the shape of the right carefully, because it is easy to overstate. This is a right to

and to receive a reasoned written answer within a defined period. It is not a right to keep any animal you choose. Landlords retain a genuine discretion; what they have lost is the ability to exercise it arbitrarily, silently, or in advance for every tenant at once.

• Put it in writing, dated, describing the specific animal — species, breed, size, age — rather than pets in general. The date of the request is what the clock runs from, so a written request is worth far more than a conversation.
• The landlord must give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request. A refusal has to set out the reasons relied on.
• Requests for further information.
• If the landlord reasonably asks for more information within the 28 days, they have until 7 days after receiving it, or the end of the 28 days, whichever is later. Answer promptly — delay on your side extends their time, not yours.
• Where the landlord needs a superior landlord’s consent under a head lease and has sought it within the 28 days, they may wait until 7 days after that decision arrives. This is common in flats held on long leases.

Diarise the 28th day when you send the request. A landlord who simply does not respond is in a materially different position from one who responds with reasons, and the date you can point to is what makes that difference usable.

What makes a refusal reasonable

Reasonableness is assessed against the particular pet and the particular property, which means the quality of your request shapes the answer you get. Government guidance points to factors such as the size and type of animal relative to the property, the absence of outside space, restrictions imposed by a superior lease, and specific practical problems with the property itself. A landlord who has to obtain a freeholder’s consent and is refused it is not being unreasonable in passing that refusal on.

What does not work is a policy. Refusing because the landlord does not allow pets, or because a previous tenant’s dog caused damage, or without engaging with what was actually asked, is the behaviour the Act was written to stop. Nor can a refusal be manufactured after the fact: reasons given for the first time months later, after a complaint, tend to look like reasons invented for the occasion.

A tenant can improve the odds substantially with a well-made request. Offering references from a previous landlord, evidence that the animal is neutered, microchipped and vaccinated, a note of who cares for it during working hours, and an offer to make good any damage at the end of the tenancy all make a refusal harder to justify. None of this is required by the Act. All of it makes the request concrete.

If consent is unreasonably refused

The first step is to write back, setting out why the stated reason does not withstand scrutiny, and asking the landlord to reconsider within a short, stated period. A surprising proportion of refusals are reversed here, particularly where the landlord had applied a default rather than considered the request.

If that fails, the complaint routes matter more than the courtroom. Since 1 May 2026 landlords in England must belong to the

, which can investigate complaints about how a landlord has handled a request and direct redress, at no cost to the tenant. Complaining to the ombudsman is generally faster and less risky than litigation over a pet.

Two things not to do. Do not move the animal in and argue later — keeping a pet without consent may breach the tenancy and can feed into a possession case. And do not accept a pet deposit or a monthly pet charge that pushes your deposit beyond the Tenant Fees Act 2019 cap; prohibited payments are recoverable, and agreeing to one does not make it lawful. If a possession notice follows soon after a pet request or a complaint, look at the

A tenant of a ground-floor flat with a small garden emails her landlord on 4 June asking to keep a four-year-old rescue cat, attaching vet records and a reference from her previous landlord. On 11 June the landlord asks who will look after the cat during her working hours; she replies the same day.

Further information requested

11 June, answered 11 June

later of 18 June and 2 July

Written answer due by

Because her reply landed well inside the original period, the deadline stays at 2 July. If nothing arrives in writing by then, she has a dated request, a dated reply to the landlord’s query and a missed statutory deadline — a much stronger complaint to the ombudsman than an unanswered phone call would have been.

Renters' Rights Act 2025

Private Rented Sector Ombudsman

Retaliatory eviction

Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 11

If a tenant wants a pet to live with them

Can my landlord prevent me from keeping a pet? (England)

Right to Request a Pet — Renters' Rights Glossary

How the Renters' Rights Act 2025 pet request process works, the 28-day deadline for a written answer, what makes a refusal reasonable, and what to do if consent is unreasonably refused.