Is It Difficult to Find a Home With Pets as a Tenant?

Ashok and Aditi, based in Ahmedabad, have three little pets. They often find it difficult to find comfort within their homes. These four-legged creatures need as much space and comfort as human wants. Space is one of the toughest things to find in an apartment.

People feel hesitant when they get to know that someone is moving with pets. A bachelor with a pet looking for a house on rent, have no chance that they will get home.

Pet owners have faced many rejections since they are not allowed to move into a house with a pet. landlords try to hike the rent so that tenants have no choice but to move out.

We have interviewed a few landlords and they have shown some concerns regarding the family with pets.

They prefer to have the house vacant than rent to a family with pets. Landlords have hygiene issues with their pets. Although the counter-arguments from the tenants is that well-trained dogs do not harm any walls or furniture. Tenants are very well aware of the fear of the landlords.

Following a ban on pets from the Gurgaon based housing society, Jagruti, a Delhi based private trust issued a notice to society as instructed by the Chairperson of the Animal Welfare Board of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Among other instructions, it states that- “If the residents of the society choose to keep pets and are not violating any municipality guidelines/bye-laws in the process, you cannot interfere with that right. Even the general body of residents cannot together divest any single resident of the same. That merely because the power to frame bye-laws is available to the society, you cannot frame bye-laws that are at variance with the laws of the country.”

There have been several cases in which it has been stated that pets are not very welcome among many of the landlords. Even though they are right on this point, tenants also have a responsibility to maintain the landlord’s property.

In the event of damages or maintenance related to pets, it is always best to clarify these matters in advance with your landlord in writing, preferably.