With the government pushing ahead with its plans to introduce its Tenant Fee Ban in July this year, let’s take a look at this legislation and how it might affect pet owners in the property rental market.
What is the Tenant Fee Ban?
This piece of legislation, which was passed through parliament in February this year, effectively stops the practice of landlords and letting agents being able to add myriad charges on top of standard rental agreements; in addition, it caps the tenancy deposit it is legal to ask for.
Currently, landlords can add charges for all manner of items, such as guarantor forms, references, admin fees, inventories and credit checks, to name but a few. Landlords who have invested in property inventory software will find it easier to automate some of these processes to cut down on administration.
IIf you are a landlord and want to find out more about the Tenant Fee Ban, the Guild of Residential Landlords provides guidance on what the legislation will mean for you in real terms.
Why could it affect pet owners specifically?
The number of tenants with pets has increased significantly in recent years as UK pet ownership continues to rise. Pet owners wish to take their furry friends with them, of course, as they are part of the family; however, having pets in a property can cause additional damage and increase cleaning needs.
Historically, landlords have increased deposits or charged additional rents up front to cover these costs, but they won’t be able to do this from July. In turn, this may lead some landlords to decide it is not worth allowing tenants to have any pets.
Cutting down on the time it takes to complete admin tasks and streamlining processes can help landlords to recoup some of the fees they will lose under this new legislation, with using an inventory management program one way to do this.
If you would like to automate your inventory management, Inventory Base property inventory software providers have a choice of schemes with a range of features to suit most businesses.
If you are a landlord, it is worth looking at the changes to tenant fees in more detail and reviewing your current practices to ensure you stay within the law.
Anna is an author at Max90hyperfuses.co.uk and contributed many more articles on different topic. Anna has knowledge of digital marketing.