The SPCA says its work is made harder because most landlords do not allow tenats to have pets.
Photo: Supplied/SPCA
Auckland’s SPCA in Mangere claims every year the centre is reaching breaking-point to be able to catch up with the backlog of cats to be fostered.
Despite the charity’s efforts to find homes for more than 400 animals this summer just at the Mangere centre, most of the rental market still says no to pets in their properties.
SPCA’s support services manager Laura Millar said every year the situation got worse.
“We seem to be following a trend of each summer getting a little bit more hectic and seeing a lot more animals that need our care.”
Cats bred throughout warm months, and the country was experiencing longer and longer summers, she said.
“That means an extended breeding period for these animals, and more cats and kittens in the community that need our help.”
Millar said with the increased number of animals each year, SPCA was constantly looking for volunteers and foster homes.
She said the high cost-of-living was one of the factors helping the rise on the number of animals.
“We are seeing a lot more people who are struggling now to make ends meet and that is a contributing factor for people to not have their animals desexed.”
She said one of biggest challenges people face when applying to foster or adopt recue animals is still the prohibition of pets in many rental properties.
The SPCA always encouraged landlords to accept animals when it was possible, Millar said.
“It’s quite an issue for a number of people who have pets to find a suitable house. They are either in a position to have a house or a pet.”
SPCA science officer Dr Alison Vaughan said lack of affordable pet-friendly rental properties was a known barrier to adoption.
“A recent New Zealand survey by Companion Animals New Zealand, found that 59 percent of people who do not have companion animals would like to get one.
“Thirty-three percent of this group said the main barriers to have companion animals is the landlord or property where people live not allowing it.”
Vaughan said landlords interested in dipping their toe in the waters could also consider allowing tenants to foster animals.
This could be an excellent, low-commitment approach to trial allowing a property to be pet-friendly, she said.
“SPCA is concerned that current restrictions contribute to the number of pets relinquished to shelters in New Zealand.”
President of Renters United Geordie Roggers said landlords did not consider the possibility of modifying rental contracts to include the benefit of having a pet.
“When it comes to finding insurance for the property it does makes it slightly more expensive for them.”
In that case they tossed up the decision between taking on little bit of extra cost or passing it on to the renter, and stopping someone from being able to have a pet.
Landlords might own the property, but renters own the home, Roggers said.
“It’s a sad reality really. Landlords are choosing profit or costs of someone else’s ability to enjoy living in their home and have a pet to support them in that.”
Blame the lawmakers, not the landlords
The New Zealand Property Investor Federation – NZPIF – is the umbrella body for 17 local Property Investors’ Associations throughout New Zealand.
Through a statement, its vice-president Peter Lewis said the legislation in New Zealand made it risky for landlords to allow pets.
“The Tenancy Tribunal has ruled that if a landlord knowingly rents a property to a pet-owner they must then expect a consequential increase in damage to the property and that the repair cost of that damage therefore falls on the landlord not the tenant.”
There was also the risk of annoying neighbours, Lewis said, when pets were kept, thus creating more negative feedback for the property owner.
Unfortunately, the Residential Tenancy Act prohibited the landlord from asking for any commensurate increase in the security to offset that risk, he said.
Lewis said asking for any type of bond to cover having a pet in a rental home was illegal.
The maximum Tenancy Bond that can be requested by the landlord was equivalent to four weeks rent, he said.
“Most landlords will specify that four weeks bond as a matter of course, therefore any further bond, even if classed as a pet bond, is illegal.”
Lewis said the NZPIF has prepared a long-term tenancy proposal called Fixing the Rental Crisis that would allow much more freedom to allow pets in rentals.
“This proposal has been distributed to lawmakers and politicians but has yet to be adopted.”
