When a neighbour complains about your animal
Answers
A complaint is not a finding, and what it is about determines everything that follows.
Sort the complaint first
- About the rules: the building has a no-pets policy and you have a dog. Answered by the fact that the accommodation was granted, and the provider can say so without explaining why.
- About conduct: noise, mess, an animal loose in a corridor. A real tenancy question that you have to deal with on its merits.
- About an allergy: the competing-accommodation situation, where the provider has to attempt to work with both of you.
- About dislike: not a ground for anything.
What a landlord should do
Establish what actually happened before acting. A complaint is one person account, and a provider who issues a removal demand on the strength of it has a weak notice. You are entitled to ask what the evidence is.
Dealing with it well
Where the complaint has substance, address it quickly and in writing, and say what you have done. Conduct complaints are the most common route to losing a properly granted accommodation, and the difference between losing it and keeping it is usually whether the file shows you responded or argued.
Where a neighbour is harassing you because of the animal or the disability behind it, that is interference with a fair housing right, and the provider has an obligation to address it rather than to pass the complaint along.
Common questions
- Can one neighbour get my animal removed?
- Not on preference. On documented conduct that amounts to a nuisance or a direct threat, the position is different.