The Renters’ Rights Act – an achievement to celebrate for dogs and cats!

3 min read06 November 2025 Partner content

The Renters’ Rights Act means that more people can open their homes to a pet – a huge step forward in making more properties pet friendly.

The government’s new law on renters’ rights has ended blanket bans on pets in rental properties. From now on, tenants will have the right to request a pet which landlords will not be able to unreasonably refuse.

Battersea has long championed this change, having launched our Pet Friendly Properties campaign back in 2018. Sadly, housing restrictions remain one of the main reasons people are forced to surrender their pets to us – a heartbreaking choice between a beloved pet and having a place to live.

When landlords block their tenants from keeping pets, they also deny them all the benefits that pet ownership can bring: from better physical and mental health to improved connections with their local community. There are advantages for landlords too: tenants with pets often stay in the same property for longer, saving landlords money over time because they do not have to seek out new tenants.¹

The private rented sector has changed a lot in the past two decades, with more people renting and for longer. A third of private renters have been in the sector for a decade or more, and on average private renters will stay in place for 4.4 years.² Families with children, traditionally the most likely demographic to be pet owners, now make up 35% of the rental market.³ This means that increasingly people are treating the property they rent as a home, but up until now the law did not reflect this reality.

For rescue centres located in areas where lots of people rent, like London, this creates a big problem. It means there are many households who would like to adopt a pet and could offer one a great home, but are unable to because their landlord has refused. The Renters’ Rights Act changes things.

Now that landlords cannot unreasonably refuse tenants’ requests for pets, more people will be able to rescue dogs and cats from charities like Battersea. Not only that, we’re hoping this signals a culture shift away from landlords refusing to consider pet owners as tenants. This could result in fewer renters struggling to find a property that accepts their pet and therefore fewer being forced to give up these pets to rescues.

We’re delighted with this progress and extend our thanks to key political advocates for the change, including Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook MP, and Lord Black of Brentwood, who gave this issue valuable support in the House of Lords. Battersea has been proud to work alongside the many MPs and Peers from across the political spectrum who have felt as passionately about this issue as we have.

There’s still more work to be done, and we now wait to see how the new law beds in. Battersea remains committed to working on this issue in the longer-term. We know that the government plans to legislate on leasehold properties, and we’ll be pushing for the same pet rights to be extended to those properties too.

For now, though, it’s a moment for celebration. The change in law has created many more potential homes for rescue animals and means more people will be able to experience the very real joys and benefits of pet ownership.

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