[Keesha290]

"Hi, so heres the deal.

Me and my hubby Scott have two dogs, Keesha and Ronnie. Keesha is my three year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier, fully trained, microchipped, spayed, the works. The Rotty, Ronnie is the same. Neither are aggresive, destructive or really messy with hairs etc full stop. But no landlord will even give us the time of day! We have tried offering more cash, pet C.V's, vet recommendations, the whole hog. But nope, we are still homeless and stuck with my mother. To cap it off we are relying on £441 housing benifit to find a place, my partner and I are struggling looking for proper work. Scott has a small job cleaning for an old lady daily whom I know, but its only bringing in £10 a day, 5 days a week. I only finished college last july with a load of certificates in Zoo management and attendance, and now I carn't even seem to get a cleaners job!
So far we haven't even viewed one home, and the stay with my mum was only ment to have been temporary. We have now been there for 6 months and refused 59 homes in cheshire as we live near Chester.Ridiculous. We are not bad people, my hubby is very loving and attentive to (most) of my needs and the dogs never go without. We are obviously responsible as we have pets that are well cared for and trained. They both know all the normal commands such as leave, sit, drop, go out, come in, lie down and the only one that ever may make a sound is the rotty when grumbling. She isn't even a big rotty, in fact shes quite a small one, say 40cm at the shoulder. We won't give them to a shelter because of some picky landlords. I can understand them being wary allowing dogs, but not point blank NO! Whats the point when 70% of the nation own pets?! We have tried explaining our problems to landlords, but we just get downright pig ignorance back. I know there are places in london that allow pets, but I don't want to live that far away from my family, Scotts family isn't a problem because they hate him after he didn't choose the girl his mummy wanted him to, and she became a sour note and threw him and the rotty ( shes his dog btw) out up birkenhead. Now we are actually glad she is out of our lives because she was really foul to me and him nearly all of the time for a year. If we did get somewhere the dogs would be sleeping in the bedroom on the floor ( ironically, we are big animal fans, but scotts allergic to lots of fur) in their bed and as I want somewhere un-furnished, then what the f***k is their problem?"

"Anyone know anything about this please?"

[twinkiedooter]

I don't live in England but the USA and I was a landlord in Florida many years ago. It seems that most landlords don't like pets and dogs as a rule due to the destructiveness of dogs digging, gnawing, etc. You may try placing an ad in the newspaper about wanting to rent with 2 dogs and see if you get any takers. I actually liked renters who had dogs as I didn't want to get burgled and dogs seemed to help keep the place burglar free. One dog is OK but most landlords really balk when it's 2 dogs. You may be stuck at mom's for quite a while if you insist on keeping 2 dogs. See what you can do with only one dog. I had to give up one of my 2 dogs when I moved to where I live now as they have a one pet per home policy even though I own my own home. I wish you lots and lots of good luck in finding a place.

[Keesha290]

Thank you, and I contacted our lettings agency, yesterday and they are going to work hard to help find us somewhere to live that will accept the dogs.

[Fr_Chuck]

As a person who has had many rentals in the past, I may allow one dog ( outside) but they could not be of breeds that are considered dangerous ( normally this is because my insurance would not cover me for them)

So the breed of your dogs and the fact there is two dogs is the largest issue.

Also income ( did not say what his income was I don't think( most places have a income to rent ratio they look at.