Important: Property owners’ approval, refusal, and conditions for keeping pets at premises
Upon receiving the tenant’s request in the approved form, the property owner/manager must respond to the tenant’s request within 14 days. The response must be in writing and state the following:
•whether the property owner/manager approves or refuses the tenant’s request •If the property owner/manager approves the tenant’s request subject to conditions, stating the conditions of the approval •If the property owner/manager refuses the tenant’s request, stating the grounds for refusal and the reasons why they believe the grounds for refusal apply to the request.
The property owner/manager is taken to approve the keeping of the pet at the premises if:
•they do not respond to the request within 14 days after receiving the request, or •the property owner/manager’s response does not comply with the requirement to state reasons for approval or refusal of the request, including the conditions of the approval. To simply state that ‘no pets are allowed’ is not enough to comply with the requirement to explain the reasons for a refusal.
The authorisation to keep the pet at the premises continues for the life of the pet and is not affected by the expiry date of a tenancy agreement if the tenant continues occupying the same premises under a new agreement or there is a change in the property owner or property manager.
Examples of reasonable conditions for approval of a pet include:
•The pet is to be kept outside because the stated pet is not a type of pet ordinarily kept inside. •The pet can be kept inside, provided the carpets in the property are professionally cleaned at the end of
the tenancy. •The property must be professionally fumigated at the end of the tenancy, as the stated pet is capable of carrying parasites that could infect the premises.
For more details on the rights and responsibilities around renting with a pet, please refer to the Renting with pets fact sheet from the RTA.
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