A handler asked us this week what restrictions a landlord is allowed to place on an assistance dog. It is the right question, because most advice online only answers the easy half: can they say no. The harder and more useful question is what they can say yes to, and with what strings attached.

Here is the position as it stands today, and one step that matters more than everything else on this page.

Start here: the duty only begins when you ask

This is the part almost nobody mentions, and it is the difference between being protected and not.

In a shop or a taxi, the duty to make adjustments is automatic. The business has to have thought about it before you arrive.

In rented housing it is not. The law says the landlord's duty applies only once they receive a request from you, or from someone on your behalf, to take steps. No request, no duty.

So if you simply move in with your assistance dog and never raise it, you have weakened your own position. If you ask, in writing, and keep a copy, you have started the clock on a legal duty.

The same applies before you sign. If you are viewing or applying, you are covered as a prospective tenant, again only if you ask.

Put it in writing. Date it. Keep it. One email is enough.

What they cannot do

They cannot charge you for the dog. No pet deposit, no pet rent, no pet fee. And this one is worth being emphatic about, because the internet is full of the opposite:

A landlord cannot require pet insurance for your assistance dog. There was a clause in the recent reforms that would have let landlords require it. The Lords removed it, and it never became law. Any article telling you otherwise is describing a clause that died in Parliament. A proposed pet deposit of up to three weeks' rent was also rejected.

They cannot apply a blanket no animals policy to a disabled tenant who has asked for an adjustment. A blanket rule applied without looking at the individual is the classic way landlords lose these arguments.

They cannot impose conditions that defeat the dog's purpose. Excluding the dog from the bedroom of someone whose dog does overnight medical alerting, banning it from the communal route to the front door, or requiring it to be crated while you are home, are not adjustments. They are the problem wearing a different hat.

They cannot retaliate. Serving notice because of the dog, or piling on inspections and restrictions, is separately unlawful.

What they can do, and this is fair enough

A credible answer has to include the other side.

• Hold you responsible for damage. You are liable for damage beyond fair wear and tear, exactly like any other tenant, and it can come out of the ordinary deposit.
• Expect the dog not to be a nuisance. Barking all day is a noise issue, not a disability issue.
• Require control in communal areas. On a lead in halls, lifts and shared gardens is reasonable. Banning the dog from communal areas altogether is not, because you could not leave your flat.
• Ask reasonable questions about the animal. Breed, size, age, vaccinations, flea and worm treatment are normal things to ask.
• Require the property returned in the contractual condition at the end, on the same terms as any other tenant.

The test running through all of this is whether the condition is genuinely about protecting the property, or is really about the dog being there at all.

What evidence can they ask for?

There is no UK register of assistance dogs and no legal requirement to be registered. A landlord cannot insist you produce a certificate that does not exist, and cannot make accreditation by a particular charity a condition.

What they can reasonably ask is what the dog does for you and basic practical information about the animal. You do not have to hand over your medical records to rent a flat.

In practice, what settles most of these conversations is something simple they can look at: what the dog is, what it does, and a way to check it is genuine. That is the everyday job our registration plans do. A profile you can send in one link, and a card with a photo and an ID number. Not because the law requires it, because a landlord who can see something concrete says yes faster than one who is being asked to take your word on the phone.

If you are not ready for that, our free digital assistance dog law card at least gives you the relevant law on your phone when the letting agent says "we don't allow pets".

The newer pet rules, and who they actually help

Separately from disability law, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 gives tenants a right to request a pet, which a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. The pet provisions came into force on 1 May 2026.

Three things to know before you rely on it:

1. It excludes social housing tenants. If you rent from a council or housing association, that particular right does not apply to you.
2. In Scotland the equivalent right is not in force yet. The Scottish Act exists but only the power to make regulations has commenced. Scottish handlers are being told otherwise by articles written for England.
3. It may not even be the right law for you. The new rules are about pets. An assistance dog arguably is not a pet at all, since it is kept because of your disability rather than for companionship.

That last point cuts both ways, and it has not been tested. Which is why the disability route above is the stronger argument, and the pet rules are your backstop, not your first move.

If the landlord still says no

1. Ask again in writing, framed as a request for a reasonable adjustment because of your disability, and ask for reasons in writing if refused.
2. Check whether it is really the landlord. Sometimes a head lease or freeholder rule is behind it. There are routes through that, so do not accept "the freeholder says no" as the end of it.
3. Get free advice. In England, Wales and Scotland the Equality Advisory and Support Service is the national helpline.
4. If you rent socially, the Housing Ombudsman is available after the landlord's own complaints process, with its own time limits.
5. Court is the backstop: the county court in England and Wales, the sheriff court in Scotland, normally within six months of the act you are complaining about.

Northern Ireland has entirely separate equality legislation and its own Equality Commission, so take local advice rather than relying on guidance written for Great Britain.

The short version

Ask in writing. They cannot charge you for the dog or demand pet insurance. They can expect it to be controlled and can hold you liable for damage. A refusal has to be about your actual circumstances, not a blanket rule.

General information for UK handlers, not legal advice about your own situation.