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Question Title: Pets & unfair contract terms
| Question: 293 |
| One of my landlords has just phoned me up to tell that one of his tenants has informed him in no uncertain terms that the clause in the tenancy agreements that prevents him keeping pets in his flat is illegal and unenforceable. Surely this can't be correct. We have had a number of occasions in the past where we have, often at considerable expense, had to bring a pest controller in to remove cat fleas from a property for a new tenant where we were not able to recover the costs from the previous, cat owning, tenant. Has there been a change that we don't know about?
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| The answer to this query is not entirely clear or certain. But we can, at least, explain just how this idea has arisen. In November last year the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued 'Guidance on unfair terms in tenancy agreements'. This guidance has been drawn up under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 which implements the EU Directive on Unfair terms in Consumer Contracts. On page 54 of this guidance in dealing with examples of potentially unreasonable prohibitions it states as follows: "Against keeping pets. Such a term has been considered unfair under comparable legislation in another EU state because it could prevent a tenant keeping a goldfish. A term prohibiting the keeping of pets that could harm the property or be a nuisance to other residents would be unlikely to meet the same objection." Whilst this is only guidance, it is ultimately for the courts to decide whether any term is unfair, the "guidance represents the OFT's considered views and the basis on which it is likely to take any enforcement action" [quoting from the guidance]. It would appear from this information that the OFT considers blanket bans on pets unfair and the Regulations states:- "An unfair term in a contract concluded with a consumer by a seller or supplier shall not be binding on the consumer." At the moment all that can be said with any certainty is that you cannot prohibit tenants keeping goldfish ! What else is possible is uncertain. The Letting Centre is, at present, reviewing its tenancy agreements and investigating alternative wordings in order to comply with the OFT guidance.
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References:
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Hyperlinks:
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Letting Handbook |
Chapter 9 |
letting-handbook-and-factsheets.html
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For more information, discuss on the Forum
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