UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All,

I am a tenant and would like landlords' thoughts on the following situation:

I have rented a house from the same landlord for 13 years, he operates it as a business as he also rents 3 other properties adjacent.
In the 13 years of living there i have always had pets, mainly cats (but other small caged animals too) these have always been with his knowledge and consent. The last tenancy agreement is dated 2008 and has obviously now gone onto a periodic tenancy. I also have written consent to keep my pets dated from then.

Suddenly in March he sent a letter stating that he wanted all pets gone within a month(i.e by the end of april).
It was a total shock and was(and still is) very distressing. Having received legal advice apparantly he can do this as there is a line in the agreement that "the landlord can revoke any consent or agreement at any time".
My cats are 13 and 11 years old, he must be out of his mind if he thinks that they will be "got rid of" as he so pleasantly put it.
After talking to him he is totally unwilling to budge on this stance, although he has kindly said "if you keep the cats inside the house, what i dont see i can't act upon" obviously he is unwilling to state this in a letter.
At this moment in time the cats are kept in the house as we refuse to comply with getting rid of them. Understandably we are looking for another place to rent........

I think we are good tenants, he has never complained to us about anything we have done or said that he is unhappy with anything before. I think we have been late paying 1 months rent (paid within about 5 days) due to unemployment about 7 years ago.

I guess i would like to have other landlords (or tenants) view on this.

Thanks

landlord 13 years older maybe goin a bit mental    hope it all works ok for you in the end

Sounds a bit of overkill.... My view on pets is No elephants!

Is there a back story? Has a neighbor made a official complaint about your cats? (Strange after all this time) 
There could be a root cause, other than sudden hatred of felines.

Not much comfort, hope you get sorted soon.