Freehold and Leasehold
Before landlords begin accepting pets in their properties, it's important to check the title deeds. Even though they own their properties, there may be certain stipulations in the deeds which would prevent them from giving permission for tenants to kept pets.
With freehold properties, there may be restrictive covenants prohibiting animals from being kept there. However, such covenants are increasingly uncommon and often relate only to farm animals.
With leasehold properties, it's important to study the terms of the lease to see whether there are any restrictions which would prevent landlords from accepting tenants with pets. If there are no such restrictions, they would normally be entitled as private landlords to allow tenants to keep pets at their discretion.
If a lease does restrict or prohibit the keeping of pets, the landlord may wish to approach the freeholder to see whether they would be willing to change the terms of their lease. However, if the property is in a block of flats the freeholder would need the consent of all the leaseholders as their leases would also need to be changed.
If the landlord owns a share of the freehold and all the other freeholders are in agreement, they can change the lease to allow pets. They would need to contact a solicitor to do this for them.