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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Tenants with pets - could be a good bet?

I've talked in the past about should you let your precious buy-to-let property to tenants with pets.

The downside is that potentially a landlords property suffers damage from the pet and when it comes to re-letting your property is a fusty wet do smelling animal cave! Not attractive to many tenants.

I was at one of my properties yesterday changing over a defunct washing machine. The area in which my flat is located is now surrounded by a sea of buy-to-let properties that have sprung up over recent years and long before I invested in my rental property over 15 years ago. What struck me was the number of to let signs outside this glut of shiny design and build palaces. It made me reflect.

My flat has been let to a female tenant with a couple of cats since 2004. This compares to the average tenancy length for an AST of between 9-12 months. It maybe that tenants with pets are less fancy free than petless tenants. The difficulty of finding a landlord who is prepared to accept a tenant with a pet probably has a deterent effect on the tenant moving.

Therefore, the motto is. A happy pet, means a happy tenant and a happy tenant means a long term tenant which make for a very happy and fully let landlord. Simples!


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4 comments:

Claire R said...

I quite agree. The more a tenant settles in and feels at home the longer they stay. On a similar line I allow them to redecorate, install satellite dishes and so on. If they stay five years it doesn't really matter if you have to redecorate at the end.

Anonymous said...

My experience is a tale of tenants:

The first doesn't have a pet but she's in her 3rd year of tenancy. She's a student and I hope this isn't her final year.

My recent tenants have a dog and a cat and they've only been tenants for almost 4 months. So, it's too ealy to tell about longevity. The fact that they've signed up for a 12-month tenancy is indicative that they're there for the long term.

In fact, both tenants sign 12-month contracts. So, I'm not really convinced about the effect that pets have on the longevity of tenancies. My 3rd house will shed more light.

I believe that it's whether they let furnished or unfurnished. I believe that letting unfurnished makes tenants more likely to stay for longer. Both my properties are let unfurnished and the 3rd one will be let that way.

Katie said...

Cats are fine, but dogs can be a different matter.

I doubt any landlord would let me keep an indoor rabbit though, they're surprisingly destructive.

Anonymous said...

How could a landlord not love an indoor rabbit? Theye so cute.