REVEALED: Why Labour suddenly dropped pet damage insurance rule

The Government has revealed why it decided not to allow landlords to require tenants with dogs and cats to sign up for pet damage insurance within its looming Renters’ Rights Bill.

The clauses within the Bill covering this were unexpectedly pulled last week leaving many within the industry puzzled as to why such a sensible solution to the ‘pet damage’ conundrum had been scrapped.

But House of Lords’ housing minister Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (main image) yesterday afternoon revealed that, following talks with the Association of British Insurers and other industry bodies, it had become clear that pet damage insurance ‘at scale’ could not be developed fast enough before the Bill becomes law, most likely later this year.

Pet subject

The announcement came during the Bill’s second report stage in the Lords, which was dominated by arguments about tenants’ rights to have a pet and under what circumstances landlords could object.

Baroness Taylor said that, “I have listened carefully and recognise that while the insurance industry does respond to public policy there is a risk [in this case] that relevant insurance does not come on to the market sufficiently [quickly] following the implementation of the Bill.

“To avoid a situation where landlords could veto a tenant’s reasonable request to keep a pet [because the tenant cannot find insurance to take out] we are withdrawing the pet insurance provisions from the Bill.”

The Government is satisfied that five weeks’ rent is a sufficient level of deposit to cover pet damage.”

The minister went on to say that although the insurance industry will develop products at a later date, “we accept that this will not happen at the scale necessary”, she said.

Baroness Taylor also said that the Government is satisfied that five weeks’ rent is a sufficient level of deposit to cover pet damage, and not the eight weeks’ rent that several Lords had suggested during the debate and which is the case in Scotland, although nor did she mention the ‘pet deposit’ championed by several property industry bodies.

The post REVEALED: Why Labour suddenly dropped pet damage insurance rule appeared first on The Negotiator.

Author: Gemma