For renters

Can a landlord refuse my request to keep a pet in England?

Guide · England · Last checked on 2 October 2026

Yes, but the refusal must not be unreasonable. This is not a right to keep an animal whatever the landlord says. It is a right to ask, and a right to be answered, on a deadline. Since 1 May 2026, section 16A of the Housing Act 1988 has implied a term into most private tenancies in England: a tenant may keep a pet if the tenant asks and the landlord consents, consent is not to be unreasonably refused, and the landlord is to give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request.

One thing to settle first, because everything below rests on it. Section 16A(6) applies the term to every assured tenancy other than a tenancy of social housing, so if what you have is not an assured tenancy, nothing in section 16A reaches it: no implied term, and no 28 day deadline. Whatever your own agreement gives you is a separate matter, and so is simply asking. Living in the same home as the person you pay is the common case here, because a lodger with a resident landlord is usually not an assured tenant. It is not the only one: section 1 of the Housing Act 1988 sets out what makes a tenancy assured, and Schedule 1 to that Act lists the categories that are left out. If you are not sure which you are, Citizens Advice and Shelter will tell you, free.

This guide is written by VEYLO X, a software platform for renting and letting in England. The platform is not open yet. It covers what the request has to contain, the 28 day clock and the three things that can move it, what counts as a reasonable refusal and what does not, what a landlord may and may not charge, and which route actually exists if you are refused. One question from your landlord can end the whole duty if you leave it unanswered, and that has a section of its own. The right does not depend on when you signed, so a tenancy that started years ago is covered too, with one exception set out below for tenancies that were already under a possession notice before the law changed. This guide covers England. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland set their own rules for renting, and this guide does not cover them.

What law gives me the right to ask to keep a pet?

On 1 May 2026 the law put this right into your tenancy, whether or not your written agreement mentions it. It did that through section 11 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which came into force in England on that date under regulation 2(a) of SI 2026/421, for assured tenancies that are not social housing assured tenancies. Section 11(1) inserts two new sections, 16A and 16B, into the Housing Act 1988. Section 11(2) puts a definition of "pet" into section 45(1) of that Act.

What section 16A creates is an implied term. An implied term is part of your tenancy because the law puts it there, whether or not it appears in the document you signed. Section 16A(6) says the section applies to every assured tenancy other than a tenancy of social housing within the meaning of Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008.

The definition matters more than it looks. Section 45(1) of the Housing Act 1988 defines a pet as an animal kept by a person mainly for personal interest, companionship, ornamental purposes, or any combination of those. The test is why the animal is kept, not what species it is. Section 16B(1) adds that a tenant keeps a pet if the tenant permits the pet to live at the dwelling-house, whether or not the tenant is the owner of the pet. An animal that visits is a different question, because section 16B(2) says section 16A does not limit the terms that may be agreed about pets which do not live there. Pets are one of several things that moved on the same day, and our plain-English guide to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 walks through the rest.

How do I make a request my landlord has to answer?

In writing, with a description of the pet. Section 16B(3) of the Housing Act 1988 requires both, and a request missing either is not a request made in accordance with section 16A.

The statute does not say how long the description has to be. Putting the two sources together, a request has four things in it:

it is in writing, which section 16B(3)(a) requires
it describes the pet, which section 16B(3)(b) requires
the description covers what type of animal it is, how big it is, and how much room it will need, which is what GOV.UK guidance for tenants suggests, giving an enclosure as its example
it is dated, which nothing requires but everything afterwards is measured from

A description that already answers those points is one a landlord has less reason to come back on, and the section after next explains why coming back on it matters.

You may already hold the wording of this right, and which document it is in depends on when your tenancy started. Regulation 2(2) of SI 2026/324, the Assured Tenancies (Private Rented Sector) (Written Statement of Terms etc and Information Sheet) (England) Regulations 2026, requires the written statement of terms given under section 16D of the Housing Act 1988 to include the items listed in the Schedule to those regulations. Paragraph 17 of that Schedule is a statement explaining that, under section 16A, the tenant may keep a pet at the property if the tenant asks and the landlord consents, and that such consent is not to be unreasonably refused.

A tenancy that was already running on 1 May 2026, and was wholly or partly in writing, is on a different route. Paragraph 7(1)(a) of Schedule 6 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 disapplies section 16D for those, and paragraph 7(2) instead requires the landlord to give written information about the changes the Act made, which regulation 3 of the same regulations identifies as the government information sheet. A tenancy that was wholly oral is different again: paragraph 7(5) keeps section 16D but reads its deadline as before the end of the period of one month beginning with the commencement date. So an older written agreement that says nothing about pets is not evidence of anything having gone wrong, and it does not affect the right, because section 16A puts the term into the tenancy either way.

How long does my landlord have to reply?

On or before the 28th day after the date of the request, in writing. That is section 16A(1)(c) of the Housing Act 1988. The clock runs from the date of the request, not from the date the landlord got round to reading it.

Three things in the statute can move that date, and only three, and each of them names its own new date.

Section 16A(2), where the landlord reasonably requests further information about the pet on or before the 28th day. The statute puts the date at the 7th day after you provide it, and GOV.UK guidance for tenants reads that together with the original 28 days, so that whichever falls later is the one that counts.
Section 16A(3), where keeping the pet would require the consent of a superior landlord under the terms of a superior tenancy and the landlord seeks that consent on or before the 28th day. The statute puts the date at the 7th day after the superior landlord's consent or refusal reaches your landlord.
Section 16A(4), where you and your landlord agree that the answer may be delayed. The date is whatever the two of you agree.

Where more than one of those applies, section 16A(5) says the landlord may delay until the latest of the dates available.

Two of the three are outside your control. The third, an agreement to give the landlord longer, is not, because it only moves the date if you agree to move it.

What happens if I do not reply when my landlord asks for more information?

The duty to answer falls away entirely. If a landlord reasonably requests further information about the pet and the tenant does not provide it, section 16A(2)(b) of the Housing Act 1988 says the landlord is not required to give or refuse consent. There is then no deadline left to miss, and nothing for the 28 day rule to bite on.

Two limits sit on the landlord's side of that. The request has to be reasonable, and it has to be made on or before the 28th day after the date of your request. A question asked on day 40 is not a request made under section 16A(2).

Once you have answered, a new date arrives. The statute puts it at the 7th day after the date on which you provide the information. GOV.UK guidance for tenants describes the result as the remainder of the original 28 days or an extra 7 days, whichever is later, which follows from reading section 16A(2)(a) together with the 28 day period in section 16A(1)(c). Either way, answering a question on day 5 does not hand the landlord a fresh 28 days.

When is a landlord's refusal unreasonable?

GOV.UK guidance for tenants lists six reasons it says would usually be unreasonable. The landlord does not like pets. The landlord has had issues with tenants who had pets in the past. The landlord has general concerns about potential damage in the future. The landlord had previous tenants with pets who damaged the property. The landlord thinks a pet might affect future rentals. The landlord knows the tenant needs an assistance animal, such as a guide dog.

Read together, five of those six are the same objection: something a pet might do, or something a different pet once did. The statutory question is whether refusing this request is reasonable, and the guidance treats a general dislike of animals as not reaching that standard.

The sixth sits partly outside this guide, for two reasons. The Equality Act 2010 imposes its own duties, which run in parallel with section 16A and are not covered here. And section 45(1) of the Housing Act 1988 asks what an animal is mainly kept for, so an animal that works for the person it lives with may not answer that description at all, which means whether a given request is even a pet request can turn on the facts. GOV.UK handles assistance animals inside its pet guidance, and the Equality Act duties sit separately again. Those duties come with their own routes and their own time limits, which are not the pet timetable and can be much shorter, so anyone in that position should take advice promptly rather than rely on this page.

When is it reasonable for a landlord to say no?

The statute gives two circumstances by name, and both are about somebody above your landlord. Section 16B(4) of the Housing Act 1988 says refusal is reasonable where keeping the pet would put the landlord in breach of an agreement with a superior landlord, and where such an agreement bans pets without the superior landlord's consent and the landlord has taken reasonable steps to obtain that consent but has not been given it.

The word in section 16B(4) is "include", so that pair is a floor rather than the whole list. GOV.UK guidance for tenants gives four further situations where a refusal may be reasonable: a person you live with has an allergy, the property is too small for a large pet or several pets, a freeholder owns the property and does not allow pets, and the pet is illegal to own. GOV.UK guidance also says a landlord cannot refuse without a fair reason, and that a landlord who refuses should explain why.

Can my landlord charge me a pet fee or a bigger deposit?

One scope point first, because this section does not cover quite the same people as the rest of the page. Section 27 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is what widened the Tenant Fees Act 2019 from assured shorthold tenancies to assured tenancies other than tenancies of social housing, and paragraph 12 of Schedule 6 says that amendment does not apply to a tenancy that was, immediately before 1 May 2026, an assured tenancy other than an assured shorthold tenancy. Paragraph 11 does the same for the deposit changes made by section 26. If that is you, the pet right still reaches you and this section may not, which is worth advice.

Schedule 1 to the Tenant Fees Act 2019 lists the payments a landlord may require from a tenant, and section 3(1) of that Act says a payment is a prohibited payment unless it is a permitted payment by virtue of that Schedule. No payment named for a pet appears anywhere in the Schedule. That is not the same as saying no money connected with a pet can ever be lawfully asked for, because some of the general categories in the Schedule can still reach the situation, and two of them are worth knowing about.

The first is paragraph 6. A payment to a landlord in consideration of the variation of a tenancy at the tenant's request is permitted, and paragraph 6(2) caps it at the greater of £50 or the landlord's reasonable costs of the variation, with any excess a prohibited payment.

Whether a pet arrangement is such a variation is a question the provisions pull in two directions on, so here are both halves of it. On one side, a landlord may say that writing a pet into the agreement at your request is exactly what paragraph 6 describes. On the other, paragraph 6(1)(a) requires the payment to be in consideration of a variation requested by the tenant, while what section 16B(3) lets you make is a request for consent, and section 16A(1) has already put the term in the tenancy, so answering it is performing an obligation that exists rather than changing the agreement. There is also section 16A(1)(b) to reckon with, because consent is not to be unreasonably refused, and whether a refusal until a sum is paid meets that standard is itself the statutory question. What paragraph 6 permits is a payment for a variation that actually happens at your request, so giving or refusing consent is not, by itself, one. A genuine variation of the agreement is a separate thing and would need looking at on its own terms. Nothing in the provisions set out above answers which way a given case goes, and this page does not pretend to. What paragraph 6 does settle is the ceiling, wherever such a payment is permitted at all.

The second is paragraph 5, under which a payment of damages for breach of a tenancy agreement is permitted, which is the route a claim about actual damage travels down.

A tenancy deposit is permitted, and it is capped. Paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 1 caps it at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000, and at six weeks' rent where the annual rent is £50,000 or more, and says the amount of any excess is a prohibited payment. A separate pet deposit, added on top of a deposit already at the cap, is the excess that paragraph is describing.

Rent is a different matter. A payment of rent is a permitted payment under paragraph 1 of Schedule 1, so a home advertised at a steady higher rent because pets are allowed is not a fee. That does not put every rent arrangement outside the Act. Paragraph 1(1A) makes a payment of rent a prohibited payment where it is payable before an assured tenancy is entered into. Paragraph 1A makes the extra amount prohibited where the rent for an earlier period is higher than the rent for a later one, with paragraph 1A(8) confining the comparison to periods beginning within the first year, which is the shape of an offer to let the pet in for three expensive months. Paragraph 1A(6) then leaves out of account any difference that results from varying the rent for the later period, either under a term of the tenancy agreement enabling the rent to be increased or reduced or by agreement between landlord and tenant after the tenancy agreement was entered into. Changing the rent of a tenancy that is already running is its own subject, with its own statutory procedure, and how a landlord can increase rent under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 covers it. What the deposit itself is for, and what a landlord has to do with it, is in how deposit protection works in England.

On damage, GOV.UK guidance for tenants says a landlord can keep money from the deposit to cover repair costs caused by pet damage, and may also be able to claim through your pet insurance if you have any, but cannot claim for the same damage twice, so they cannot claim on insurance and deduct the same damage from the deposit as well.

Being asked to take out pet insurance is a different question from having it, and the more useful one. Nothing in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 requires a tenant to hold it. Section 1(3) of the Tenant Fees Act 2019 goes further, and says a landlord must not require a relevant person to enter into a contract with a third party in connection with a tenancy of housing in England where that contract is a contract for the provision of a service or a contract of insurance, with section 1(4) excepting a utility or a communication service supplied to the tenant. Section 1(6)(a) treats a requirement as being in connection with the tenancy where it is made in consideration of the grant, renewal, continuance, variation, assignment, novation or termination of one. Section 2 puts prohibitions of the same kind on a letting agent, drawn slightly differently. The scope point at the top of this section applies to all of that.

One point before the next section, because the next section is about a different rule. If a payment in this area was a prohibited one, the Tenant Fees Act 2019 has its own enforcement, separate from anything the Renters' Rights Act 2025 does about pets. Section 8(1) lets an enforcement authority, which is usually your council's trading standards service, impose a financial penalty on a person it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt has breached section 1, 2 or 5A or Schedule 2, and section 8(2)(b) caps that at £5,000. That is the cap for an ordinary breach: section 8(3) lets the penalty go above £5,000, up to £30,000, where the authority is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the person committed an offence under section 12. The Act says a person rather than a landlord, so a letting agent is within it on the same terms. Section 15(3) lets the person who paid apply to the First-tier Tribunal to get the money back, on the conditions that section sets.

Can the council fine my landlord for refusing my pet?

No. Section 16I of the Housing Act 1988 lets a local housing authority impose a financial penalty of up to £7,000, but section 16I(1) ties that power to a contravention of section 16D or of a paragraph of section 16E(1). Section 16A is not in that list, and the penalty in the pet rules is therefore one that does not exist.

So the council route that exists for some of the landlord duties introduced by the same Act does not exist for this one. A landlord who refuses a pet unreasonably, or who never answers, is not exposed to a civil penalty for it. Our guide to what the law changed for landlords sets out which duties do carry one.

What GOV.UK guidance for tenants tells you to do is complain to your landlord or letting agent, either where they do not respond to your request within 28 days, or where you think the reason for refusing is unreasonable.

Where an agent is involved, a complaint may have somewhere to go afterwards. The Redress Schemes for Lettings Agency Work and Property Management Work (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc) (England) Order 2014 has two limbs. Article 5(1) requires a person who engages in property management work to belong to a redress scheme approved or designated by the Secretary of State, for dealing with complaints in connection with that work, which is the limb that fits a complaint about how an ongoing tenancy is being managed. Article 3(1) does the same for lettings agency work, and it has two conditions rather than one. The complaint has to be connected with lettings agency work, and article 3(3) defines a complaint under that article as one made by a person who is or has been a prospective landlord or a prospective tenant. Having since moved in does not by itself take a person outside that description, which is a different point from saying the article covers complaints about how a tenancy is being run.

Neither limb is automatic. Article 4 takes specified things outside lettings agency work and article 6 does the same for property management work, including some student accommodation arrangements, and whether a particular complaint falls inside a particular scheme's jurisdiction is a matter for that scheme. This is also a route about the agent's handling of the matter rather than a way of compelling a landlord to consent, and what a scheme can require at the end of it is set by that scheme's own terms rather than by the Order, so it is worth reading them before deciding whether the route is worth your time. Nothing of the kind exists for a landlord acting alone: the landlord redress scheme in the Renters' Rights Act 2025 is a power to make regulations, and no such duty is in force.

What can I do if my landlord ignores my request or refuses it unreasonably?

The remedy is the implied term itself. Because section 16A puts the obligation inside your tenancy, a failure to meet it is a breach of the tenancy agreement, and section 16B(5) of the Housing Act 1988 gives the court a specific power in proceedings brought on that basis.

Specific performance is an order to do the thing, rather than an order to pay for not having done it. Note also what the statute does not say. It does not say that silence becomes consent on day 29, so a landlord who says nothing has left the request unanswered rather than granted it.

Free independent advice on your own situation is available from Citizens Advice and Shelter.

Every part of that turns on dates. The date of the request, the date any further information was asked for, the date it was provided, and the date of the reply decide whether the 28 days ran out and whether section 16A(2)(b) ended the duty. Where section 16A(3) or section 16A(4) is in play, more dates join them: the date your landlord asked the superior landlord, which under section 16A(3)(b) is what makes that extension available at all, the date the superior landlord's answer reached your landlord, and the date you agreed to. These are ordinary facts, easy to write down on the day and hard to establish a year later, and writing them down as you go is the part of this that is entirely in your hands.

Does this apply if my tenancy started before May 2026?

Yes for most, with one real exception. Section 11 came into force on 1 May 2026 under regulation 2(a) of SI 2026/421, for assured tenancies that are not social housing assured tenancies, and section 16A(6) of the Housing Act 1988 applies the section to every assured tenancy other than a tenancy of social housing. Neither the commencement regulations nor the section turn on the date the tenancy was entered into, and the same Act converted most existing assured shorthold tenancies into assured tenancies on 1 May 2026, so a tenancy signed in 2023 will usually be an assured tenancy now. The right arrived by statute rather than by agreement, which is why it does not depend on your written agreement mentioning it. What a converted tenancy looks like is covered in what a periodic tenancy is under the Renters' Rights Act 2025.

The exception is a possession notice that was already running. Where a valid notice under section 21 or section 8 of the Housing Act 1988 had been given before 1 May 2026 and had not yet ceased to be valid, paragraphs 3, 4, 16 and 17 of Schedule 6 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025 say that the amendments made by Chapter 1 of Part 1 of that Act do not apply to the tenancy until the notice ceases to be valid, and that the tenancy remains an assured shorthold tenancy until then. Section 11 sits in that Chapter, so for as long as one of those notices is alive there is no section 16A right on that tenancy, and no 28 day deadline. Paragraph 1(2) does something similar where a fixed term expired immediately before 1 May 2026, holding the amendments off until the first periodic term has begun.

The size of that exception turns on one procedural fact, and it is not the one people expect. It is whether the claimant asked the court to issue the claim form, and when, rather than whether a hearing has happened. Paragraphs 3 and 16 cover the case where that request was made before 1 May 2026, and there the notice stays valid until the possession proceedings are concluded. Paragraphs 4 and 17 cover the case where it was not, and there the notice stays valid until the end of an applicable period, which is a deadline for requesting the claim form rather than the notice period before proceedings may be brought. For a section 21 notice that period is six months beginning with the date the notice was given, or four months beginning with the date specified in the notice in the particular cases the Schedule rewrites. For a section 8 notice it is the twelve month period included in the notice under section 8(3)(c) of the Housing Act 1988. Each of those is cut short where three months beginning with 1 May 2026 ends earlier. If the claim form was requested before the applicable period ended, the notice again stays valid until the proceedings are concluded.

So this is not a historical footnote. A tenancy can still be in that position today, months after the Act changed everything else. Where a possession notice was given before 1 May 2026, which of those paragraphs applies turns on facts this page cannot see, and that is a position for independent advice rather than for anything written above.

Common questions

What if my tenancy agreement has a "no pets" clause?

Section 11 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 does not say that a "no pets" clause in a tenancy agreement is void, and this guide does not say so either. What the statute does is imply a term into the tenancy under section 16A of the Housing Act 1988, so the route to ask exists and a refusal has to be reasonable. Anyone facing an outright written ban should take independent advice on their own position.

What happens if I get a pet without asking?

GOV.UK guidance for tenants says that if you keep or get a pet without permission, you may be breaking the terms of your tenancy agreement. The implied term in section 16A(1)(a) of the Housing Act 1988 is that a tenant may keep a pet if the tenant asks in accordance with the section and the landlord consents, so the request comes first.

If my landlord agrees, can they change their mind later?

GOV.UK guidance for tenants says that consent covers the pet you asked about, so if you want another pet you have to ask for permission again. For the pet you did ask about, the guidance says that once your landlord agrees they cannot change their mind or change your tenancy agreement, and that you can still keep your pet if they do.

Sources

The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts.

Who wrote this

VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. The platform is not open yet. It is built for record keeping, which is why this guide spends its last section on dates. It does not decide any question between a landlord and a tenant, takes no view on any individual case, and changes nothing about what section 16A requires.

This article is general information, not legal advice. It reflects the position in England as at September 2026. Section 11 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, which inserted sections 16A and 16B into the Housing Act 1988, came into force on 1 May 2026 under SI 2026/421 for assured tenancies that are not social housing assured tenancies. For your own situation, take independent advice, and free help is available from Citizens Advice and Shelter.