Pet Requests in Social Housing

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 will give tenants in the private rented sector (and market rent stock of private registered providers) the right to request permission to keep a pet and the right to challenge a landlord’s decision, if consent is refused.

Further to this, Baroness Taylor, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing and Local Government, has written a letter to social housing landlords “to reaffirm the importance of ensuring that tenant requests to keep pets are considered fairly and, where appropriate, tenants are allowed to keep pets”.

Baroness Taylor acknowledges that social tenants do not generally face the same challenges to keeping a pet as those in the private rented sector although believes it is “important there is clarity, fairness and consistency across the private and social rented sectors”.

The letter goes on to outline the types of good practice and expectations Baroness Taylor has for landlords regarding their policies on pets, including:

• Clear, accessible pet policies that confirm the process for pet requests and the situations in which a request would be refused
• A clear explanation on the factors that will be considered for any request for a pet, e.g. suitability of the property, size and type of the animal, welfare concerns   
• A typical timeframe for decisions and setting out instances when such timeframe may be extended
• Providing written decisions together with reasoning when a request is refused, and highlighting the routes for redress or review available to the tenant
• Details on pet welfare and control measures so that animals are kept in good health, safely maintained and do not affect neighbours

For those social landlords that do not have policies in place, Baroness Taylor encourages them to “adopt one as soon as practicable”.

Our Housing Policy, Advisory and Regulatory team can assist landlords in reviewing and/or amending their policies on pets in line with the above suggested practices. Should you require further advice at this time, please do not hesitate contact Jabir Dar or Sarah Orchard.

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