Six years of AdvoCATS

Back at the beginning of 2018, 4 friends who’d all been involved in cat rescue, ate too much pizza one night and decided to found a voluntary organisation which would help people in rented accommodation have pets. Fast forward 6 years, and AdvoCATS is well known and respected by some of the biggest names in the private rental sector and animal welfare world: NRLA, Propertymark, Property Redress Scheme, Battersea, Cats Protection and NOAH to name just a few, and has been heavily involved in the renters reform legislation currently working its way through parliament.

So how on earth did we get to this position?

Our first 2 years was spent holding information days around the region, getting ourselves known by lettings agents, vets and rescues and most importantly carrying out casework for tenants moving with pets or wanting pets for the first time. In July 2019 we attended the APGOCATS AGM in Westminster, and had a case study included in a report on loneliness and the benefits of pet ownership that they were writing, and in the September, we were invited to give a presentation to Propertymark’s Autumn regional meeting – we felt we’d peaked – surely this was as recognised as we were likely to get?

But it wasn’t. In September 2020, we were approached by a researcher working for an MP called Andrew Rosindell, who was introducing a Ten Minute Private Members Bill looking to ban No Pets clauses in rental contracts. We provided some information, and the bill sailed through its first reading. Buoyed up by this, we submitted a post on an online landlord forum about the bill and how landlords had nothing to fear from responsible pet owners.

Oh how naïve we were. We got SAVAGED. Torn apart personally and professionally. A short, sharp and unpleasant introduction to the armchair warriors of the landlord community. We were told that pets were a lifestyle choice that could easily be remedied by a trip to the vets or a rehoming centre. It was a bleak time. How could we counter such extreme opinions?

The answer of course is that we couldn’t, there is no reasoning with extremists of any kind. What we could and indeed did do was pick through the vitriol and try and find out WHY these opinions were held and felt so strongly. It soon became apparent that landlords felt picked on and weighed down by evermore stringent regulation, and the introduction of the Tenant Fees Act 2019, capping the amount of deposit a landlord could request at 5 weeks worth of rent, no more separate pet deposits – was the final straw – if a landlord felt they could end up out of pocket, seriously in some instances, then not allowing pets was an easy way of mitigating at least some of that risk.

On the back of this analysis, we approached the MP’s office and asked if we could have their blessing to research possible insurance options, to which they readily agreed. It’s amazing how many doors open when you say you’re carrying out work on an MP’s behalf! From speaking to landlord organisations and insurance companies, we learned that whilst a few pet damage insurance policies did exist, landlords could not, under the Tenant Fees Act as it stood, tell tenants they had to have it, it wasn’t a permitted payment. Our initial report cited this as the main reason fewer landlords were allowing pets, backed up by research from TDS showing some 20% had altered their stance on the subject, and recommended that the TFA’s list of Permitted Payments be amended to include this insurance.

Andrew fully took this onboard, and when the second reading of his bill was delayed due to the second lockdown, he hosted a webinar where we were to present our findings.

And then…nothing. Lockdown and a reduced parliamentary timetable dictated that his bill would not progress any further, and everything ground to a halt. Briefly. We’d made good connections and knew we had a really sound proposal to make renting with pets easier for all parties, why shouldn’t we go it alone and launch a specific campaign?

So we did. The report was beefed up with additional research from SCAS/YouGov, input from NOAH and support from…well, pretty much everyone we asked! Over 40 organisations plus the same number of MPs/Peers from across the political spectrum put their name to the campaign, and the Heads for Tails! report launched on 1 September 2021. It was sent to the then Housing Sectretary Robert Jenrick, and then again just a month later to his successor Michael Gove. An intense social media campaign ran alongside the parliamentary machinations, and following a question asked by Andrew in a DLUHC debate, we were invited to meet with Housing Minister Eddie Hughes.

The meeting took place in December 2021, and our emphasis on an “unintended consequence” of the TFA being less pets in rental properties, Eddie promised to look into the subject more, with a further meeting suggested for the following spring. That meeting never took place, but something better happened – on XX May 2022, the Renters Reform White Paper was published, and not only did it stipulate tenants had a right to request a pet which a landlord couldn’t reasonably refuse, and if they did refuse that decision could be challenged, but it added pet damage insurance to the list of permitted payments under the TFA!!! We’d done it!

Except of course we hadn’t – not yet. Just because the issue was included on the white paper, didn’t mean it automatically would be included in the Bill itself when it was introduced. But it was, just one year later; our umbrella campaign had succeeded against all the odds you’d get on a small, local organisation, run from a corner of a (very untidy) dining room successfully influencing government policy and getting such recent legislation changed.

Since the white paper, alongside all the day to day AdvoCATS activities such as casework, fundraising, administration, we’d also been involved in various working groups helping advise DLUHC on how the legislation could actually work in practice, all of which culminated in our being invited to give evidence to the Bill Committee in November 2023, which we were incredibly proud and pleased to do. (link to watch it?).

So we’ve made it, right? Well yes, in the sense that we are demonstrably a force to be reckoned with and our opinions are respected by some really big players, but no, in that the work is only really now beginning. Assuming the Bill gains Royal Assent and becomes law before the next general election, there is going to be a significant upswing in the need for tenant/pet referencing. A lack of ticked boxes as concerns microchipping, neutering, vaccinating etc etc could be deemed a reasonable excuse for refusing pets. Things are going to get very, very busy. AdvoCATS needs to go forward in such a way as other organisations – rescues perhaps – can adopt our ethos and carry out their own checks using our templates and reputation. How we manage that is our biggest challenge going forward, so watch this space!