East Midlands pet charity AdvoCATS has vowed to fight on after the Renters Reform Bill was dropped due to the General Election.
As stipulated by the bill, tenants were going to have the right to keep a pet in their home as standard, provided they took out pet damage insurance.
Jennifer Berezai, co-founder of AdvoCATS, said: “We are bitterly disappointed that the proposed legislation, which would have given people living in rented accommodation the legal right to request pets and challenge a negative response will now not become law.
“Our sensible proposal, to amend the Tenant Fees Act’s List of Permitted Payments to give landlords the right to stipulate pet damage insurance be held would have seen a big increase in the number of pet friendly rentals, easing the pressure on already overstretched rescues.”
The organisation has been campaigning for four years for the government to prevent landlords having a blanket ban on pets, bring 40 business involved, including the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), Propertymark, Property Redress Scheme, National Office for Animal Health (NOAH), International Cat Care, Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS) and Focus on Animal Law (FOAL).
Berezai added: “The fight goes on! The Conservative party would presumably pick up where they left off, and the Labour party has in the past promised to introduce “similar” legislation.
“We believe we have enough existing supporters who should retain their seats and would therefore be likely to help us put together a fresh cross-party political support base to lobby the new government.
“The current shadow housing minister Matthew Pennycook, was on the Bill committee that AdvoCATS gave evidence to, and so is very much aware of why renting with pets needs to be made easier, so we have good reason to be optimistic about there ultimately being a change in the law to give renters and their pets a better deal.”
Berezai previously gave oral evidence to the House of Commons Committee, which was amendments to the Renters Reform Bill while it was going through the parliamentary process.
AdvoCATS is a voluntary non-profit organisation based in Long Eaton, Derbyshire that offers free support and advice to landlords and tenants, assisting pet owners who have difficulty finding rental accommodation.