As an avid animal and dog lover, I sympathise with pet owners that are new to the covenants of a leasehold property. However, we at Red Brick urge all pet owners to review and fully understand the conditions of keeping an animal in the property (if permitted) from their property lease.
There has been many occasions where we have been contacted by a distraught pet owner, having received complaints from their neighbours about their dog or cat only to find out that the lease stipulates that animals are not permitted. This allows the Management Company the authority to have the animal removed. We cannot highlight the importance of reading the covenants under your lease document and abiding by those agreements.
You we see examples such as ‘Not to keep or permit to be kept and bird dog or other animal in or upon the demised premises which may cause a nuisance damage or annoyance to the tenants or occupiers of any other part of the Property or to which an objection shall be notified by the Company’. This clause allows you to keep an animal within the property but an objection may arise should the animal become a nuisance to other residents within the development which could then result in the animal being removed.
Another is ‘The Lessee must not keep any animal, bird or reptile in the Flat without the Landlord’s prior written permission. The Landlord’s permission may not be unreasonably withheld and if given may be withdrawn at an time if it is reasonable to do so’. This clause allows animals to be kept within the demised premises but only with the written consent of the Landlord, which could be the Management Company or Freehold Company and if this consent in writing has been given, it can also be revoked.
The problems we experience as agents dealing with pets in leasehold flats it the access and use over the common parts. Dog hair or wet dog smell in the communal areas or cats that have access to the communal stairwells via a cat flap. Dogs barking throughout the day/night or animal faeces not cleared from the communal gardens. It is these complaints that will be raised to us by residents and in the worst case scenario, may result in your loyal companion having to be rehomed.
Lucie Shaw
