Tenancy Agreement, 24 hours notice

[ian124]

This is a bit long but here goes. Me and my partner have moved from a rented flat to a rented house. Upon renting the house we asked the letting agency if we could have a pet in the house, actually a dog. The letting agency, Hunters, said yes it was fine it had been agreed we could have a dog as long as we contacted them to let them know we had one its name and make. We got the dog and the contacted Hunters, 4 days later they contacted us to say that we was no longer aloud a dog. We would be aloud one 6 months down the line just not now. We then 3 days after been told we can not have the dog received an email and letter saying we have 24 hours to remove the dog or we will have to leave. If we are made to leave they will charge us £200 + VAT to re list the property. Since dealing with this one person at Hunters we have had nothing but problems she is rude and has lied to us on 2 occasions now, but im going to take that up with Hunters. Is there anything we can do about the 24 hours notice to remove the dog or ourselves?

Sorry but one more quick question, on Monday we reported that the washing machine had stopped working and the circuit breaker for the house keeps tripping. Its now thursday and in the letter we received yesterday it says the previous tenants never reported any problems and if we require to call them and they will log the fault. We reported this on Monday and if the switch trips we have no electric at all is there any way we can get this sorted sooner? Is there any legal requirement to have electrical and gas appliances serviced?

Any help at all would be appreciated

Thanks

Ian

[boxtops]

First off, did you get it in writing from Hunters that you could have the dog? You always need to get this sort of thing in writing in case it's challenged later.
Second - the fact the other tenants never reported these faults is not relevant - you have, if it says in the tenancy agreement that it's their responsibility to fix it then they should. And yes, they have to be checked IMO, in rented property.

[ian124]

Cool, so to be blunt am screwed

[boxtops]

I'm only going by what happened to me when I wanted to keep my cats in rented property - I had written permission so when the landlord conveniently forgot and complained I was keeping an animal, I could show him the letter.
Hopefully someone will answer you who understands the legal implications of your tenancy agreement - 24 hours seems very short notice to rehome either yourselves or your dog.

[bushbaby_de]

What does your tenancy agreement say about pets? Exact wording please!

[Barmaid]

I assume it is an assured short hold tenancy in England and Wales? If so, it's quite simple. If you don't remove the dog, they will have to take possession proceedings to get you out. They can't just boot you out. They also can't charge £200 to relist the property (the costs awarded under possession proceedings are fixed costs).

You can defend the possession proceedings on the basis that you had permission to have the dog. Does the tenancy agreement state whether you need such permission in writing? If it does, you are going to have a problem. If it doesn't it will be worth a fight.

Why on earth are they saying you can only have a dog in 6 months?!

[milly143]

I have a lot of experience of lettings agents (and was actually one myself for a short time) and they are only interested in getting someone in a property and getting their money. When we moved into our house in Jan, I asked before hand if we would be allowed to bring our cat (if we couldn't have then I couldn't have taken the house). The agent forgot about it so I asked her again and she said she had checked with the landlord and it was ok. Few months later the landlord pops round to fix something and is very shocked to see a cat, asking if it was mine. I informed him that I had been informed he said it was ok and he was furios with the letting agent although thankfully decided he was ok with the cat. They also set up the standing order the wrong way round so when my first months rent was due, I received £800 in my account from my landlord! Talk about useless

[shiznit]

I have previously rented a property where we told that we could not have pets, we have 2 house cats. When I pressed them for a reason they then changed their minds and said that if we were prepared to pay an extra £200 bond that it would be ok. I suppose this might have been for any damage or cleaning that may have been required. In the end they never asked for it and I never mentioned it. We left the house actually cleaner than when we moved in. Maybe you could over some kind of deal like this. Hope you get it sorted.

Shiz