Can a landlord require pet insurance or a bigger deposit in England?

Short answer: no to both. This one comes up constantly because the draft law said something different from the law that passed, and a lot of advice online never got updated.

Pet insurance: the clause was removed

The Renters’ Rights Bill originally contained a provision letting landlords require a tenant to hold pet insurance as a condition of consent. It was debated, and it was removed by amendment at report stage in the House of Lords before the Bill became an Act.

The Government’s reasoning was straightforward: the tenancy deposit already exists to cover damage, so a separate insurance requirement was unnecessary.

So the position under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is that there is no power for a landlord to demand pet insurance as the price of saying yes.

There is a second reason it would be difficult anyway. Requiring a tenant to pay for something as a condition of the tenancy runs into the Tenant Fees Act 2019, which restricts what payments a landlord can require to a defined list of permitted payments.

Deposits: already capped, no pet exception

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 caps a tenancy deposit at five weeks’ rent, where the annual rent is under £50,000. There is no pet uplift, no separate pet deposit, and nothing in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 that created one.

If a landlord asks for “an extra £300 pet deposit”, that is not a thing.

What a landlord can still do

It is worth being fair about the other side of this.

• Refuse, if the refusal is reasonable. Consent must not be unreasonably refused, which is not the same as always granted.
• Use the deposit for actual damage. That is what it is for, pet or no pet.
• Pursue damage beyond the deposit. If an animal causes more damage than five weeks’ rent covers, the ordinary route through the courts is still open to them.
• Ask reasonable questions. They can request further information about the pet, which extends their deadline by up to 7 days after you answer.

What this means for your letter

Do not offer pet insurance in a pet request letter.

This feels counterintuitive. You want to seem reasonable, insurance sounds reassuring, so why not put it in?

Two reasons. It hands back a power Parliament deliberately removed — for you and, by precedent, for the next tenant that landlord deals with. And it reframes consent as something you are buying rather than something you are entitled to have properly considered.

If you already hold pet insurance, by all means mention it. As a fact about how you look after your animal, it is genuinely reassuring. As an offer, it is a concession you did not need to make. There is a real difference between:

I already hold pet insurance with [insurer].

and

I am happy to take out pet insurance if that would help.

The first is evidence. The second is a negotiation you had already won.

Our free letter template is written that way, and so is the paid kit — the letter it produces will not offer insurance or a deposit under any circumstances, even if you tick every other box.

If your landlord insists

Reply in writing, once, along the lines of: “My understanding is that the pet insurance provision was removed from the Renters’ Rights Bill before it became law, and that deposits are capped by the Tenant Fees Act 2019. I am happy to be corrected if you have different information. In the meantime, could you confirm whether consent is being refused, and on what basis?”

Calm, specific, and it puts the burden back where it belongs. If it goes further than that, Shelter and Citizens Advice both give free advice in England.