By the middle of next year we will have moved to France and are intending to rent our home in England rather than sell.
Ideally I would like to rent to someone who has dog/dogs that perhaps have lost their homes in this economic climate as I know how devastated we would be if we should be in that same situation. Knowing that a lot of people will not rent to people with dogs I wonder if there are any Agents that deal in homes for rent that take animals. I am aware that you can stipulate to any Agent that you will take animals but feel that there may be places/Agents were responsible dog owners know that there will be houses for rental on their books. I would prefer to have it managed rather that do private rentals so obviously need this facility. Any in the North West?

I believe the DOgsTrust have a campaign at the moment to encourage more landlords to rent to pet owners so they may be able to give you some relevant information.

http://www.petfriendlyrentals.co.uk/

I don't know how well managed they are if at all.

I'm seeking a house to rent that allows dogs and for a good price in the south east this is proving difficult. Most letting/estate agents should be able to as you ask. I know there is one agent in my area who never has houses on their books which accepts pets :-(... There is one agent which appears very pet friendly. Leaders have a stipulation on theirs that if you have pets then when you leave you have to pay for the carpets to be professionally cleaned and they take a higher deposit too.

Personally I think most dogs are far better behaved than some peoples children:) ! Sorry i am not really anti kids but that is how it looks sometimes

Can I ask where your house is and will you accept people on benefits?  Just that I know someone looking for a property.  Thanks

I think you would be better advertising on the main sites but stating on the listing that pets are welcome.  IMO, the specialist sites won't have the advertising capacity or the footfall that the big ones will get so you can highlight in the listing 'no children, no DSS but pets welcome' lol

I understand what you are saying. I know that an Agent can get it rented but I feel that the majority of people who have dog/dogs would care for your home more because they care for their pets. Also I feel very strongly that if I lost my home I would be devastated if I couldn't find somewhere that would let me keep my dogs. If I just put it in the hands of any local agent then they could rent to just anyone that comes along were I would prefer it to go to someone who is in real need. People with children can (in the main) get housed more easily than people with pets. Penny have PM'd you.

Saw an article on this site in a paper yesterday. Might be useful?

M.

I have no words of wisdom to share but just wanted to say your thoughts are lovely :)
This comes from somebody who is renting a house that is damp, moldy and making me ill...
Landlord doing nothing about it as I think they are aware we are pretty much stuck and can't kick off as if we did and they handed us our notice we would soon be homeless as that is how difficult it is to find a property that accepts pets...

Been looking for a new property for +8 months now but the minute I say I have 3 dogs, they ask what size and when I say giant, agencies say maybe a small one would have been ok but not big dogs...

I have my own house which I rent out as it wasn't big enough for us all to comfortably live in any longer and was quite happy for dog owners to live there. (as it happens the current tenant only has a rabbit). My main reason for wanting to rent it to a dog family was that it is so hard to find a landlord that will accept multiple dogs. When we moved out of our home we decided to rent somewhere bigger as selling ours wasn't a sensible option as we wouldn't have been able to afford to buy what we wanted. The majority of agents as soon as the heard we had 4 large dogs immediately said no.

We did find a house and have been here for 8 months but will be moving on next month to somewhere else. Although our landlady was happy to accept the dogs she isn't happy for us to pay for the fence height to be increased and as we live on a busy road it isn't as suitable for us as we first hoped.

The new house however seems to be perfect and has a paddock so we can finally do agility at home :) so hopefully we will stay there for a good few years until we can afford to buy our own again.

Good on you though for wanting to rent to a dog family!

Its so nice to hear this.  When I was relocating from Somerset to the Midlands I found it so difficult to find somewhere to rent that accepted pets (I had two dogs and 3 cats).  I ended up renting a house where the owner would only accept cats.  I know this is naughty but looking back I was getting pretty desperate, I only told the agent and the owner about my cats and omitted to mention the dogs.  I knew I would keep the property clean and look after it and that is usually the main source of their concern.  The agent and the owners never found out and when I moved out of the property two years later I had a letter from the owner thanking me for leaving the place in such great condition!  I'm not suggesting that everyone should do this but sometimes needs must and all that!

Aw Good Luck on the new place McManigan, I recently moved to a place with a paddock and it's brilliant you get so much more training done :)
I think you're doing a lovely thing AlisonGold, we rent and know what a trial it is finding somewhere nice that will accept multiple dogs, another bonus is that families like ours often stay put for many years in a nice pet friendly rental.

HI alison
I know 2 divorced ladies they have 8 dogs between them and are desperate to rent somewhere ,i wish there were more like you !