Section 16A of the Housing Act 1988: the pet request rule, read from the Act
Short answer: Since 1 May 2026, every assured tenancy in England (social housing aside) carries an implied term under section 16A of the Housing Act 1988: a tenant may keep a pet if they ask in writing and the landlord consents, consent must not be unreasonably refused, and the landlord must answer in writing on or before the 28th day. A landlord cannot make consent conditional on pet insurance or an extra payment.
Section 16A is short, and a good deal of what is written about it online, our own page until this week included, describes provisions that are not in the Act, a pet-insurance condition among them. We went back to the text on legislation.gov.uk and set out below what a London landlord is actually bound by. Every section reference was checked against the Act as revised to 30 June 2026.
What does section 16A actually say?
Section 16A was inserted into the Housing Act 1988 by section 11 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 and came into force on 1 May 2026. It makes three things an implied term of every assured tenancy it applies to:
- A tenant may keep a pet at the property if they ask to do so in accordance with the section and the landlord consents.
- That consent is not to be unreasonably refused by the landlord.
- The landlord is to give or refuse consent in writing on or before the 28th day after the date of the request, subject to the extensions in subsections (2) to (5).
Because it is an implied term, it sits inside every tenancy agreement whether or not the agreement mentions pets. A "no pets" clause does not switch it off. Section 16A(6) applies the section to every assured tenancy other than a tenancy of social housing, and since the Renters' Rights Act converted the private sector to assured periodic tenancies from the same date, that means every private tenancy in England.
What counts as a pet, and what counts as keeping one?
Section 11(2) of the Renters' Rights Act added a definition to section 45(1) of the Housing Act 1988: a pet is an animal kept by a person mainly for personal interest, companionship, ornamental purposes, or any combination of those. Section 16B(1) adds that a tenant keeps a pet if they permit it to live at the property, whether or not the tenant owns it. A flatmate's dog is the tenant's request to make. Section 16B(2) is worth knowing too: the section does not limit what can be agreed about pets that visit but do not live there, so a tenancy agreement can still deal with visiting animals on its own terms.
How does a tenant have to ask?
Section 16B(3) sets two requirements. The request must be in writing, and it must include a description of the pet for which consent is sought. That is all the Act demands. On a managed property we ask for species, breed, age and expected adult size, because a request that answers the obvious questions gets a quicker answer, but a tenant who sends two lines by email has made a valid request and the clock starts on that date.
How long does the landlord have to answer?
The default is the 28th day after the date of the request, and the answer must be in writing. The Act then allows the date to move in three defined ways, and only these three.
| Situation | What the Act allows | Section |
|---|---|---|
| The landlord reasonably asks for more information about the pet within the 28 days | The landlord may delay until the 7th day after the tenant provides it. If the tenant never provides it, the landlord is not required to answer | s.16A(2) |
| The head-lease means a superior landlord's consent is needed, and the landlord seeks it within the 28 days | The landlord may delay until the 7th day after the superior landlord gives or refuses consent | s.16A(3) |
| The landlord and tenant agree a later date between themselves | The landlord may delay until the agreed date | s.16A(4) |
Where more than one applies, the latest date governs (section 16A(5)). Two things the Act does not say are worth stating plainly, because both appear on other websites. It does not say the landlord may ask for further information only once. And it does not say that silence is consent: there is no deemed-consent provision anywhere in sections 16A or 16B. A landlord who misses the deadline is in breach of the implied term, which is a different thing.
When is a refusal reasonable?
Section 16B(4) names two circumstances in which it is reasonable for a landlord to refuse: where keeping the pet would put the landlord in breach of an agreement with a superior landlord, and where the head-lease prohibits pets without the superior landlord's consent and the landlord has taken reasonable steps to obtain that consent but has not been given it. The subsection says the reasonable circumstances "include" those two, so the list is not closed. Beyond them, the Act does not define reasonableness. A court decides it on the facts of the particular animal and the particular property.
For a leasehold flat, which is most of the London new-build stock, that makes the head-lease the first document to read when a request arrives, and it makes writing to the freeholder inside the 28 days the way to protect the timetable. On the properties we manage that is our first step.
Can a landlord require pet insurance or a bigger deposit?
No, and this is the point on which the most published guidance is wrong. The contents of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 carry no pet-insurance provision and no pet-deposit provision, and the Tenant Fees Act 2019, as it stands on the statute book, does not contain the word "pet". Whatever was proposed while the Bill was going through Parliament, the Act as passed does not let a landlord require either.
What the Tenant Fees Act does contain is section 1(3)(b), which forbids a landlord from requiring a tenant to enter into a contract of insurance with a third party in connection with the tenancy, and section 2(3)(b), which forbids a letting agent from doing the same. The only exceptions, in section 1(4), are utilities and communication services. Schedule 1, paragraph 2 caps the tenancy deposit at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000 and six weeks' rent above it, and any excess is a prohibited payment. There is no pet top-up. A "pet insurance" condition in a consent letter is therefore a prohibited requirement, whoever writes it. We won't put one in a tenancy, and we have corrected our own Pet Requests page, which had described a pet-insurance condition that is not in the Act.
A tenant remains free to insure their own pet if they choose to. The line the Act draws is between a tenant's choice and a landlord's condition.
What happens if a landlord refuses unreasonably, or does not answer?
Section 16B(5) provides that in proceedings in which a tenant alleges the landlord has breached the implied term, the court may order specific performance of the obligation: in plain terms, order the landlord to give the consent. The Act gives no role to the First-tier Tribunal on a pet request, and the remedy is the court's, not an automatic yes. In practice a refusal that states its ground in writing, and a request that is answered on time, rarely get that far.
What we do on a managed property
A request to lettings@harveywjames.com is logged on the day it arrives. We read the head-lease the same week, write to the freeholder where consent is needed, and give the landlord a recommendation with the ground for any refusal set out in writing. We answer well inside the 28 days. Pet-related damage at the end of the tenancy is claimed from the ordinary deposit against the inventory and check-out report, under the same rules as any other claim: see Deposit Returns for how we assess one.
Sources
- Housing Act 1988, section 16A: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/16A
- Housing Act 1988, section 16B: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/16B
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, section 11 (inserting ss.16A–16B and the definition of "pet"): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/11
- Renters' Rights Act 2025, contents: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/contents
- Tenant Fees Act 2019, section 1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/section/1
- Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/schedule/1
The statutory text above was read from the Statute Law Database versions revised to 30 June 2026 (Housing Act 1988) and 22 June 2026 (Tenant Fees Act 2019). This article describes the law as published and how we apply it on managed property; it is not legal advice for a particular tenancy.
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