A new story from the I newspaper says that private rental tenants are now what it calls ‘crafting’ comprehensive details about their pets together with photos detailing their temperament and behaviour to hopefully being granted a tenancy.

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It is of no real surprise that landlords and lettings agents are demanding tenants with furry friends to provide some form of ‘references’, bios and pictures for their ‘friends’ following the Covid boom of renters taking on pets.

Letting agents told the newspaper they have seen a “new trend” of pet owning tenants “taking creative approaches” to being given a tenancy in the highly competitive PRS market for home seekers.

Harriet Scanlan, lettings manager at a London-based estate agency, told I that quite a few landlords will not allow tenants with pets in their properties. However slowly but surely momentum is increasing whereby landlords are becoming more open to the idea if prospective tenants with pets can provide a reference from a previous landlord.

She said: “I have had two or three physical pet references with a photo of the pet. That’s definitely a new trend post-lockdown,”

Emlyn Akoto-Dwemoh, area director of a UK wide estate agency, said pet references “have become an integral part of the traditional landlord reference” for them which now includes asking previous agents or  landlords “about the behaviour and impact of pets on their properties”.

He added that some prospective renters look to gain advantage over their competing home-seekers by “submitting a pet bio or profile complete with an irresistibly cute picture” which “aims to tug on the heartstrings of landlords and property managers”.

Another agents’ area manager told the newspaper that some renters were taking things to the ‘extreme’ by “crafting detailed paragraphs about their pets, outlining their behaviours and temperaments.”

During the pandemic pet ownership surged with many people using the staying at home ‘dictate’ as a reason to become dog and cat owners for company.

Prior to the introduction of the Rental Reform Bill landlords can decide whether they ‘house’ pets with many refusing to do so.

As usual the baying mob of renting campaigners have demanded the government to outlaw the practise as it is apparently discriminatory against tenants who should be given the same right as homeowners to house pets.