Can a landlord increase rent for a pet? Pet rent, pet deposits and the RRA 2025

Can a landlord increase rent for a pet? The short answer

Not as a pet charge, and not outside the normal rules. In England there is no such thing as lawful “pet rent” imposed on a sitting tenant. Your landlord can only raise the rent by a Section 13 notice, once a year, with two months' notice, and only up to the open market rent for the property. A pet does not change that. Nor can they take a larger deposit or make you buy insurance: both ideas were removed from the Renters' Rights Act before it passed.

What a landlord can do is say no to the pet, if the refusal is reasonable, or propose a new rent through the proper channel. The rest of this page explains where the lines are.

Your right to a pet under the Renters' Rights Act 2025

• You can ask for a pet at any point in the tenancy. Put the request in writing and describe the animal. The pet request letter generator produces a request in the right form.
• The landlord must consider the request and cannot unreasonably refuse it. Refusal must be given in writing.
• It is always reasonable to refuse where a superior landlord's lease bans pets (common in leasehold flats). Other reasons are judged case by case.
• A refusal you believe is unreasonable can be taken to the Private Rented Sector Ombudsman, or ultimately to court.

Pet rent, pet deposits and insurance

Three charges get mentioned, and none of them survives contact with the law as it now stands:

1. “Pet rent” added mid-tenancy. A rent increase in a private tenancy in England happens one way: a Section 13 notice. A letter saying “rent is now £1,230 to reflect the cat” is a request. You can decline it and keep paying your current rent; see can I refuse a rent increase. If you start paying it, that may be treated as agreement.
2. Pet deposit. The deposit cap is five weeks' rent (six for rents of £50,000 a year or more) and the Tenant Fees Act allows no top-up for pets. The House of Lords voted in July 2025 to allow an extra three weeks' rent as a pet deposit; the Commons rejected it on 8 September 2025 and it is not in the Act. Any “pet deposit” above the cap is a prohibited payment you can recover. See the tenancy deposit cap.
3. Pet insurance. The original Bill let landlords require tenants to hold pet damage insurance. The government removed that before the Act passed, so a landlord cannot make consent conditional on you buying a policy. Damage a pet causes is dealt with through the ordinary deposit and, in rare cases, a claim.

If the landlord serves a Section 13 notice

A landlord who wants more rent after agreeing to a pet can serve a Section 13 notice like any other, provided a year has passed since the last increase. The notice is then tested the usual way. The tribunal sets the open market rent for the property; it does not add a pet premium. If pet-friendly lets genuinely command more locally, the comparables will show it, and the figure will reflect what similar pet-friendly homes let for, not the landlord's view of the risk.

Under the Renters' Rights Act 2025 the tribunal can only confirm or lower the proposed rent — never raise it. Your application must reach the tribunal before the date the new rent in the Section 13 notice would take effect. £47 application fee — waived if your notice is dated before 1 May 2026 or you rent from a social landlord, and Help with Fees can reduce it to £0 if you have little or no savings.

What to do

1. Make the request properly. Use the pet request letter so the landlord's duty to consider it and the “reasonable refusal” test are clearly engaged.
2. Separate consent from rent. If the reply bundles a rent rise with the consent, say in writing that you are grateful for the consent and will consider any rent proposal when it comes on a Section 13 notice.
3. Check any proposed figure. The free rent check compares it with local lets. If it is above market, you have the same options as for any increase: negotiate, or refer it to the tribunal before the start date.
4. Refuse prohibited payments. A deposit top-up or a compulsory insurance policy is not something you have to pay. If you already have, it can be reclaimed.

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