leasehold properties and dogs

hi guys, we;'re almost at the stage of completion with buying our house. I phoned the solicitor the other day to check about takin indie with us as its leasehold and the solicitor said that on the lease it says no pets. So ive asked them to ask to landlord for permission and we;re waiting to hear back.
Does anyone know anything about this? the estate agent is under the impression that all leases say no pets and the landlord sometimes lets it slide.

Im really worried now we wont get this place as we wont go there without indie. Nor do we just want to take her without askin as we wud then have to get rid of her if they found out anyway! and thats again not an option

Hi Jen

I am no expert in fact know nothing but what so ever.

But if they do say you can have pets - get it in writing and make sure it is water tight and that it also includes any future pets you may get.

well when we looked at a previous property that was also leasehold the lady who owned it originally said that the lease said no pets, but when she asked the landlord he said i could have one small dog if it wasnt noisy and could get no more if that one died. But.. it also meant if someone complained i would have to give up the dog.
I assume this is the same, but dont know

Firstly, I am not a lawyer ...

Now that's out of the way, a large proportion of leasehold properties have the "no pets allowed" clause, probably because the other leaseholders of the flats/lodgings etc in the same location might object to noise, nuisance etc.

There may be a new phrase in use:

‘The keeping of pets that could harm the property, or be of a nuisance to the
neighbours is prohibited’.

which basically means that the landlord can charge for damage or nuisance caused.

The Human Rights Act 1998 guarantees the dog's owners the right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 ) and that the forcible parting of a dog from its owner would breach that right - Judge Peter Clark.

We have just moved into a Privately rented house, in the contract it says NO pets not even a gold fish. But we asked about us taking the dogs and they asked the Landlord, she was happy for us to have the dogs with us as long as we paid an extra on top of bond which we get back when we leave. The extra being £100 per dog (4 dogs) then if we want to bring in another dog we just have to ask and get it in writing.

You will find that alot will accept 1 dog poss 2 if you tell them that they are adults and dont chew ect (we did this when we were looking at other houses and all were fine) but most of the time you do have to pay a little extra ontop of bond, just incase anything gets damaged by the dog.

Good luck.

As Kazz says, get everything you agree on in writing!!!

Hi Jenny...I'm being a bit thick but I don't know what a leasehold property is??

It's sounds as though you are buying a place, would that not make it your own house??

Or is it still some kind if renting??

Whichever it is yes, do get it in writing with signatures etc if the 'landlord' says you can but the contract doesn't. Or get them to change the contract to accomodate the fact that you will be allowed to have dogs

Jen is there any chance you could negoiate a price for the leashold? before you go any further?

Karen

Leasehold properties typically apply to things like flats/maisonettes where there is some kind of shared responsibility eg who repairs the roof if it leaks, what happens if the ceiling falls down etc.

The land the property is on is owned by the landlord and is rented to the tenant.

You can now negotiate to buy the freehold of the land, but you then become the landlord of that piece of land, and the person living above or below you then becomes your tenant

Thanks Roy, crikey that is all quite confusing!