Pet owners in South West say rental crisis is tearing best friends apart

Despite proof that having a pet improves mental and physical health, pet owners across the South West are finding it increasingly difficult to find rental homes.

The number of pet owners being forced to re-home their animals because of rental restrictions is up by nearly a quarter, according to an animal welfare charity.

One in ten people wanting to hand over their dog now give housing as the main reason.

Jim Seton and his wife have two dogs and a cat. After a long struggle, they found somewhere to live, but now they are looking to upsize. On 12 April they were refused a house because of their pets.

Jim said: "We applied for maybe 50, 60, 70 properties and we had one in the course of nine months that we actually managed to have a viewing on. We were eliminated from every other property."

Poppy made the move from Cornwall to Bristol and had to give her kitten to her mum to look after.

She said that moving four hours away was stressful enough, let alone trying to find somewhere to rent where the cat was allowed too.

Poppy said: "It just made everything a lot more difficult and it just felt impossible. We were putting all this work into something when we weren’t going to get anywhere

"When I first started looking online there were lots of places that accepted cats, maybe not dogs, but you don’t find any now.

"It was quite difficult anyway because the rental market is already so mad in Bristol, things go within a day," she said.

Animal welfare organisations say it's time for responsible tenants to be given better protection in the rental market.

Emma Wakefield, the rehoming centre manager for the Dogs Trust said: "We're definitely seeing more dogs being handed over because of problems with accommodation.

"We think it's to do with the cost of living crisis and people having to downsize, and then struggling to find somewhere appropriate that's pet friendly.

"It's very very distressing, so we've called on the government to call for better protection for responsible renters with pets.

Currently, landlords keen to avoid damage to their property can include "no-pet" clauses in tenancy agreement.

But the industry body, The British Landlords Association, said they encourage owners to accept tenants with pets.

Sajjad Ahmad, CEO of the association said: "Some landlords believe pets will cause damage to their property. Some landlords believe it may cause a nuisance for neighbours.

"We would say you should seriously consider accepting them and not be put off by the pet. Especially if the property is able to take pets, generally there isn't a problem."

The government has already outlined plans to introduce better protection for tenants as part of its Renters Reform Bill.

But until the act makes its way through Parliament, renting as a pet owner will continue to be struggle.