There is a lot of angst from both sides of the tenancy agreement about pets.  

Many Tenants want to keep a pet but aren’t allowed.  Many landlords are unhappy about the damage caused by pets and want to ban them completely.

Hence the almost universal use of pet prohibition clauses in tenancy agreements and the despair of tenants seeking animal companionship.

However, I am here to tell you that if you want to have a pet hen or a rabbit – you may be able to do so.

Enter the Allotments Act 1950

This largely forgotten act provides, in section 12, as follows:

12  Abolition of contractual restrictions on keeping hens and rabbits.

(1) Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in any lease or tenancy or in any covenant, contract or undertaking relating to the use to be made of any land, it shall be lawful for the occupier of any land to keep, otherwise than by way of trade or business, Hens or rabbits in any place on the land and to erect or place and maintain such buildings or structures on the land as reasonably necessary for that purpose:

Provided that nothing in this subsection shall authorise any hens or rabbits to be kept in such a place or in such a manner as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance or affect the operation of any enactment.

So what does this mean?

You can keep hens and/or rabbits

• So long as keeping them is not part of your trade or business
• will not be ‘prejudicial to health’, or
• A nuisance, or
• Affect the operation of any enactment.

It does not look as if s12 is limited to allotments as it talks about ‘any lease or tenancy or in any covenant, contract or undertaking relating to the use to be made of any land’

Giles Peaker wrote a brilliant post on this here in 2011 when he pointed out (in the comments) that the act is still good law but that it would not extend to cockerels.

The act probably stems from the days of rationing when people needed to keep hens and rabbits for food.  Something which could also apply today with our current cost of living crisis – although I suspect fewer people nowadays will be up for the disagreeable business of getting hens and rabbits ready for the pot.  

However, the law may well apply to any ’emotional support’ hens or rabbits that tenants may want to keep.  Hens, for example, can be surprisingly good pets, as this article shows.

What can landlords do about it?

So if you are a landlord and, on doing your property inspection, you find rabbits and hens roaming around inside – what can you do?

You will need to prohibit the animal under the terms of the act.  So, for example, letting rabbits run around free indoors can be a hazard as they have a tendency to chew electrical wiring (I have personal experience of this from my childhood!).  So something you could legitimately, I suspect, prohibit under the terms of your tenancy agreement.

However, if the animals are being kept in well-maintained hutches in the garden or on a balcony – it may be hard for you to object.

Has anyone had any recent experience with this act?

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