Pet-friendly landlord Deirdre explains why she made the decision to accept tenants with pets.
"I let 3 properties with Mountgrange Heritage and currently have a dog owner in one of them.
When I met the tenants, they were desperate to find somewhere suitable for their spaniel having come up with blanks in their search for a home.
I believe all landlords should consider pets – if you don’t then you are missing out on a huge part of the market.
My advice to fellow landlords? Don’t be frightened! Meet the tenants and establish a relationship with them so they will be honest if any problems do arise. Meet the pet too before making a decision.
Just because you’re accepting of pets doesn’t mean you have to accept every pet into every property. Be pragmatic. I’ve never experienced any problems with pets at my properties and always get a larger deposit to cover any extra wear and tear. The tenants tend to be lovely people too!
As a landlord you will be asked this question more and more - more tenants these days come with pets. Pets are an integral part of the family, just like children!"
Harry Downes, founder and managing director of Fizzy Living, talks about his pet-friendly developments.
"At Fizzy, we welcome four-legged friends. We’re all about creating a strong sense of community and pets are an integral part of this. Our pet-friendly developments have pet grooming stations, pet parties (nick-named “Yappy Hour”) and even pet welcome packs like our human tenants get but tailored to pets’ needs."
“I think it’s very unfortunate so many of the capital’s landlords are shut shops for pet owners. The situation is obviously bad for pet-owning renters, since their options are severely limited. But it’s not great business sense for landlords either: they’re closing themselves off from a surprisingly large portion of the market."
“Our latest Fizzy development is already attracting loads of attention from pet-owners so I’m optimistic we’ll be welcoming lots more cats, dogs, lizards and goldfish in the future.”
Chema Garcia, a resident at one of Fizzy Living’s pet-friendly developments, explains Fizzy’s pet-friendly policy:
“I’m the proud owner of Pipo the King Charles Cavalier and many other places I’ve rented with have a very strict ‘no pets’ policy, whereas Fizzy don’t just permit pets, they really welcome their tenants having them.
Many of my neighbours are always willing to lend a hand with the dog walking duties and the house management team are always willing to go that extra mile to be pet friendly.”