How to Handle Tenant Pet Requests Under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

What changed under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

Blanket "no pets" clauses are unenforceable. Every tenant with an assured tenancy now has a statutory right to ask, in writing, to keep a pet — and the landlord must respond within 28 days and cannot refuse without a fair reason. Read the full Renters' Rights Act 2025 guide.

Since 1 May 2026, most private tenancies in England have run under the Renters' Rights Act 2025, and the pet request procedure is one of the changes landlords are most likely to hit in practice — often within weeks of a tenancy starting. This guide sets out the mechanics precisely: what the request must look like, exactly how many days the landlord has to answer, what a reasonable refusal actually looks like, and — a point a lot of landlord guidance still gets wrong — what a landlord can and cannot charge for.

The new statutory right to request a pet

Section 11 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserts two new sections — 16A and 16B — into the Housing Act 1988. Section 16A makes it an implied term of every assured tenancy (other than social housing) that:

• the tenant may keep a pet if they ask in writing and the landlord consents;
• the landlord must not unreasonably refuse consent; and
• the landlord must give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request.

This is an implied term — it applies automatically by law, regardless of what the written tenancy agreement says. A landlord cannot contract out of it by inserting a "no pets" clause; that clause simply has no effect against the statutory right.

Section 16B sets out the mechanics of the request itself. The tenant's request must be in writing and must include a description of the pet for which consent is sought — for example the type of animal, its size, and how much space it will need.

The 28-day response window — and when it can be extended

The headline figure is 28 days, running from the date of the tenant's written request. That is the default deadline for the landlord to give or refuse consent in writing.

The 28 days can be extended in three situations set out in the Act:

1. The landlord reasonably asks for more information. If the landlord asks a genuine follow-up question about the pet within the original 28 days, and the tenant answers, the landlord then has either the remainder of the original 28 days or a further 7 days — whichever is later — to give a final decision. If the tenant doesn't respond to the request for more information, the landlord isn't required to give a decision at all.
2. A superior landlord's consent is needed. If keeping the pet would require consent from a superior landlord (for example, a freeholder under a lease), and the landlord asks for that consent within the 28 days, the landlord can delay their decision until 7 days after they hear back from the superior landlord.
3. Landlord and tenant agree a different date. The parties can simply agree between themselves to extend the deadline.

If none of these apply and the landlord simply doesn't respond in time, that is a breach of the implied term in section 16A. The tenant can challenge it directly or apply to the court, and under section 16B(5) the court can order specific performance — in effect, forcing the landlord to deal with the request properly. Don't rely on "if I say nothing, nothing changes"; always put a written response on file within the 28 days.

What counts as a reasonable ground for refusal

The Act itself only spells out one specific example of a reasonable refusal — where keeping the pet would breach an agreement with a superior landlord, or the superior landlord won't consent despite the landlord taking reasonable steps to obtain it (section 16B(4)). Beyond that, "reasonable" is assessed case by case, and GOV.UK's guidance for landlords gives a working list of what is likely to be reasonable and what is not.

Likely to be reasonable:

• another tenant in the property has a genuine allergy;
• the property is too small for the pet, or too small for several pets;
• the pet is illegal to own in the UK;
• you're a leaseholder and your freeholder doesn't allow pets.

Likely to be unreasonable:

• you personally don't like pets;
• a previous tenant's pet caused problems or damage;
• you have general, non-specific worries about possible future damage;
• you think a pet "might" put off future tenants or buyers;
• you know the tenant needs an assistance animal (such as a guide dog) — refusing on that basis is unlikely to hold up.

Whatever the decision, put the reasons in writing. If a tenant believes a refusal is unreasonable, they can raise a complaint or apply to the court — so a refusal that isn't properly reasoned and documented is a real litigation risk, not just a customer-service problem.

Deposits, insurance, and pet damage — what actually changed (and what didn't)

This is the area where a lot of landlord guidance is out of date, because an earlier draft of the Bill worked differently to the Act that actually passed.

• No separate "pet deposit." The Tenant Fees Act 2019 deposit cap — five weeks' rent for most tenancies (six weeks where annual rent is £50,000 or more) — is unchanged and still applies whether or not the tenant has a pet. There is no RRA2025 carve-out allowing an extra, uncapped pet deposit.
• No power to require pet insurance. An earlier version of the Bill would have let landlords make consent conditional on the tenant taking out pet damage insurance. That clause was dropped before the Act received Royal Assent, so landlords cannot lawfully insist on insurance as a condition of saying yes. You can still ask whether the tenant has insurance, or encourage it, but you cannot refuse consent purely because they don't have it.
• The existing deposit still covers pet damage. If a pet causes damage, the landlord can claim the repair cost from the standard tenancy deposit through the usual deposit-protection scheme process, in the same way as any other damage claim.
• No double recovery. If the landlord also holds their own insurance covering pet damage, they cannot claim on that insurance and deduct the same damage from the deposit — GOV.UK guidance is explicit that doing so may amount to fraud.

Documenting the decision properly

Because a missed deadline or a poorly reasoned refusal both carry real legal exposure, treat every pet request as a mini paper trail:

1. Log the date the written request arrived and check it includes a description of the pet — if it doesn't, ask for one straight away (this also gives you a legitimate reason to pause the clock while you wait for the answer).
2. Diarise the 28-day deadline the moment the request lands.
3. If you refuse, set out the specific reasonable ground in writing, referencing the actual circumstances of the property or tenancy — not a generic "no pets" objection.
4. If you consent, record the agreed pet in writing. Once given, consent cannot simply be withdrawn later, and if the tenant later wants a different or additional pet, that requires a fresh request.
5. Where you do consent, update the tenancy paperwork so the permitted pet, and any related expectations about care of the property, are recorded clearly for both sides.

Where this fits with the rest of your tenancy paperwork

The pet request procedure sits alongside the wider set of changes the Renters' Rights Act 2025 made to tenancies from 1 May 2026 — including the end of Section 21 and fixed-term assured tenancies. If you're updating your tenancy documentation to reflect a pet being permitted, or bringing your paperwork up to date with RRA2025 more generally, start from our Renters' Rights Act 2025 hub and our pets in a rental property hub for the wider picture, or browse our legal document templates for landlords to keep the rest of your tenancy paperwork current.

This guide sets out the general position under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and GOV.UK guidance as at the date above. It is not a substitute for advice on your specific circumstances, and you should check GOV.UK for the latest version of the guidance before relying on it.