Landlord Pet Insurance and the Tenant Fees Act in England

The Short Answer: You Cannot Require It

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 lists every payment a landlord can require from a tenant. Mandatory pet insurance is not on the list. Requiring a tenant to purchase and maintain a pet damage policy as a condition of granting pet consent is a prohibited payment — even if you frame it as a "reasonable condition" of consent.

This catches landlords off guard. The instinct after granting pet permission is to shift the financial risk to the tenant through an insurance requirement. But the law does not allow it.

What About Voluntary Insurance?

A tenant can choose to buy their own pet liability or damage insurance voluntarily. You can mention that such policies exist. You can even suggest it as good practice. What you cannot do is make it a condition of consent — the difference between "we recommend" and "you must" is the line between lawful and prohibited.

If a tenant voluntarily takes out a policy, they control it: the policy terms, the insurer, and whether to maintain or cancel it. You have no enforcement mechanism, and attempting to create one (periodic proof-of-insurance demands tied to continued pet permission) risks crossing into prohibited territory.

Landlord-Purchased Pet Damage Insurance

The alternative that stays within the law is buying your own insurance. Several specialist landlord insurers offer pet damage cover as an add-on to standard landlord buildings and contents policies. The cost is yours — typically between £30 and £80 per year depending on the property and the level of cover.

This approach has two advantages. First, you control the policy terms and know exactly what is covered. Second, your claim does not depend on the tenant's cooperation — if the tenant's voluntary policy has lapsed (or never existed), you still have cover.

The trade-off is cost. But compared to the risk of an uninsured £2,000 carpet replacement after a tenancy ends — with the deposit capped at five or six weeks' rent depending on annual rent — the annual premium is modest.

The Rent Increase Question

Some landlords consider increasing the rent to offset the cost of pet damage insurance or the perceived higher risk. You can increase rent through the Section 13 notice process (the standard market-rent mechanism for periodic tenancies), but the increase must reflect the market rent for the property in its current condition. A tribunal assessing a challenged increase would look at comparable rents, not at whether a pet is present.

In practice, a small increase that brings the rent in line with the market rate is unlikely to be challenged. But framing a rent increase explicitly as a "pet surcharge" in correspondence is unwise — it invites scrutiny and may be viewed as a prohibited fee by another name.

The Practical Approach

Accept that pet damage is a manageable business risk, not an insurable-by-tenant cost. Take out your own landlord pet damage cover, conduct thorough check-in and checkout inventories, and use the tenancy deposit adjudication process for legitimate damage claims. This combination — insurance, inventory, and the deposit scheme — provides layered financial protection without breaching the Tenant Fees Act.

The Tenant Pet Requests guide includes a financial compliance matrix covering deposit caps, insurance options, and lawful conditions, so you can make an informed decision about how to manage pet-related financial risk.

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