Renting with a pet in England: your right to ask, explained

If you rent in England, the single most useful thing you can know about keeping a pet is this: since 1 May 2026 you have a statutory right to ask, and your landlord has to answer properly.

That comes from section 11 of the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, which inserted a new section 16A into the Housing Act 1988. It is short, and it does four things.

What the law actually says

1. You can request consent to keep a pet. The request needs to be made in accordance with the section — in practice, in writing, clearly identifying the animal.

2. Your landlord must respond in writing within 28 days. Specifically, they must give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of your request. Note the deadline was 42 days in earlier drafts of the Bill; it is 28 in the Act.

3. Consent must not be unreasonably refused. They can say no — but the refusal has to be reasonable on the facts of your case, not a blanket policy applied without thought.

4. Two things can extend the clock, both by 7 days. If they reasonably ask you for more information about the pet within the 28 days, they can wait until the 7th day after you provide it. And if they need a superior landlord’s consent — a freeholder, say — and they ask for it within the 28 days, they can wait until the 7th day after they get an answer.

What the law does not say

This is where a lot of online advice goes wrong, so read this bit twice.

Silence is not consent. You will find articles saying that if your landlord misses the 28 days, permission is automatically granted. The Act does not say that. Missing the deadline is a failure of their duty, and it gives you grounds to complain and to escalate — but it does not conjure permission out of nothing. Do not move a dog in on the strength of a missed deadline.

Your landlord cannot make you take out pet insurance. A clause allowing landlords to require pet insurance was in the Bill and was removed by amendment before it passed. It is not in the Act. The Government’s position was that the tenancy deposit already covers damage.

Your landlord cannot take a bigger deposit for a pet. Deposits are capped by the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and there is no pet exception.

If a landlord tells you otherwise, they are either out of date or trying it on. Neither is your problem to solve, but it helps to know.

What counts as an unreasonable refusal

The Act does not give a list, and no court has yet built one, so anyone claiming certainty here is guessing. What we can say is what the reasoning has to look like: each request considered on its own facts.

Refusals that look reasonable in principle:

• A genuine restriction in a superior lease that the landlord cannot get round.
• A property that is obviously unsuitable for the specific animal — a large, high-energy dog in a small flat with no outside space.
• A documented history of damage or complaints involving that same animal.
• Allergy or health issues in a shared house with other tenants.

Refusals that look weak:

• “We don’t allow pets.” A blanket policy applied without looking at your request is close to the definition of not considering it.
• “The insurance won’t allow it,” with no evidence that it does not.
• No reason at all.

What to do, in order

1. Put the request in writing. Email is fine. Not a phone call, not a conversation at a viewing. You want a dated record.
2. Give them enough to say yes to. The animal, its age and breed, whether it is neutered, microchipped and house-trained, vaccination status, what happens during the working day, and any history of renting with it before.
3. Diary the date 28 days out. Put it in your calendar the day you send it.
4. If they ask for more information, send it quickly and note the date, because it restarts a short clock.
5. If they refuse, ask for the reason in writing. A refusal that will not explain itself is much harder to defend later.
6. If it is going wrong, Shelter and Citizens Advice both give free housing advice in England, and the landlord redress scheme is the escalation route.

Does an ESA certificate help?

Not legally, no. This right belongs to you as a tenant. It has nothing to do with whether your pet is described as an emotional support animal, and a certificate from us or anyone else adds nothing to the legal position.

What genuinely makes the difference is the quality of the request: specific, calm, evidenced, and easy to say yes to. That is a writing problem, not a paperwork problem.

If you would rather not draft it from scratch, our Landlord Pet Request Kit writes it for you — the legal wording is fixed and checked, and the parts about your pet come from what you tell us. But there is nothing in it you could not write yourself with this article and an hour, and we would honestly rather you knew that.