Home > Information For Tenants > Pets 

Pets

Am I Allowed to Have a Pet?

In BC, there is no law that allows tenants to have a pet. In fact, the Residential Tenancy Act explicitly gives landlords the right to refuse pets, or to charge an extra deposit for accepting pets. In order to keep a pet you need to have a term in your tenancy agreement that allows you to keep a pet. If your tenancy agreement doesn’t allow pets, and you get one anyway, your landlord can tell you to remove it. If you don't, the landlord might give you an eviction notice.

• See Section 18 of the Residential Tenancy Act.

Condition Inspection Report

The law in BC requires that you do a condition inspection report with the landlord when you move in and when you move out of your place. You must also do a condition report when you begin keeping a pet if you did not do one when you moved in.

A Sample condition inspection report forms can be found here:

• Condition Inspection Report Form
  
  

Guide Dogs

If you have an assistance animal covered by the Guide Animal Act your landlord has to accept it. You cannot be charged a pet deposit for an animal covered by the Guide Animal Act.
 

More information for tenants with pets can be found here:

• TRAC's pets in rental housing policy
• Security Deposits and Pet Damage Deposits (Residential Tenancy Branch Fact Sheet)
• Pets in Tenancies (Residential Tenancy Branch Fact Sheet)
• Residential Tenancy Policy Guideline #28: Pet Clauses
• Residential Tenancy Policy Guideline #31: Pet Damage Deposits
• BC SPCA Pets in Rental Housing Toolkit 

Have you called TRAC's telephone Infoline before? If you have a moment, we would appreciate some feedback on your experience: