Pets and Animal Nuisance

Pets can be a delight. They can beome the best of friends and lifelong companions. BUT they can also cause a nuisance and it the responsibility of all pet or animal owners or keepers to ensure that they do not cause a nuisance or annoyance to others.

Tenancy Agreement

The Tenancy Agreement says that:

"Tenants must not keep any animal in the Property other than normal common domestic pets and small caged animals. Tenants must obtain written consent for all other animals to be kept in the Property.

In complying with this condition Tenants are responsible for ensuring that pets do not:

(a) soil or damage the Council’s Property; or

(b) cause a nuisance or annoyance to neighbours.

Tenants will have to pay for any cleaning, repair or replacement of the Council’s property or neighbours’ property if an animal under their control damages it.

In sheltered schemes for the elderly, normal common domestic pets are discouraged with the exception of small caged animals, unless express prior written permission has been obtained."

Pets Advice

All tenants are given in our leaflet Pets in the Home.

We do expect pet owners and keepers to comply with the Pets Owners Code of Conduct:

ALL PETS

Check with us first to see if you need permission to keep a pet

Ask a vet or the RSPCA about having your pet neutered / doctored to avoid unwanted puppies or kittens

Vaccinate your pet against killer diseases; worm every six months

YOUR DOG

Give your dog plenty of exercise but keep him under control.

If he strays he may cause a road accident or damage property. You are legally responsible for his conduct.

NEVER let him foul on estate property especially where children play. Let him use your garden or the street gutter, and then CLEAN IT UP.

When you are away arrange for your pet to be looked after.

Look in the yellow pages or other local directory for details of boarding kennels.

Train you dog to “come”, “sit” and “stay”. Ask about dog training clubs at your local library.

REMEMBER—Consider your neighbours—they may not share your enjoyment of pet animals.

Both Gloucester City Council| and the RSPCA| are useful partners in dealing with animal-related problems. Either can advise on the animal's wellbeing and whether the accommodation is suitable.

What should I do if a pet or animal is causing a nuisance or annoyance?

STEP 1

First of all consider approaching the person in charge of the pet or animal and find out whether they realise how it is affecting you.

Once they know how it is effecting you, they will hopefully try not to cause any further nuisance or annoyance.

If however, you are worried about approaching the person directly or you have approached them and they are not willing to co-operate with any reasonable requests, then please contact us.

Follow this link to report the pet / animal nuisance to Gloucester City Council's Environmental Health| service.

STEP 2

It is essential that you keep a record of all the pet / animal nuisance and how it is effecting you. This information could be crucial to any legal action. If neighbours are also suffering then they should also be asked to keep a record and to complain to Gloucester City Homes and Gloucester City Council's Environmental Health service.

Follow this link to download our pet / animal nuisance incident log sheet.|

If you are concerned about noise or other nuisance caused by animals you should at first consider talking to the person responsible and explain the problem. You may find that you can resolve the problem amicably.

What can the City Council / Gloucester City Homes do to help?

If the person is an owner occupier then Environmental Health or their Streetcare Partner - Accord, may carry out their own investigation.

If however it is a tenant, leaseholder or shared owner who are customers of Gloucester City Homes then Environmental Health will normally ask us to investigate the pet / animal nuisance in partnership with them.

If speaking with the person concerned does not reduce the nuisance or annoyance then Gloucester City Homes and Environmental Health will decide what action can be taken to stop the nuisance.

This could include the following non-legal action:

Gloucester City Homes or Environmental Health could ask you and the person allowing the nuisance to attend Mediation to try and work out a solution to the problem.

Alternatively we could ask the person allowing the nuisance to sign an Acceptable Behaviour Contract which gets them to agree to reduce the nuisance to acceptable levels or prevent it entirely.

If that doesn't work the following legal action could be taken:

Environmental Health will investigate and may decide to issue a fixed penalty notice or serve an Abatement Notice on pet / animal owner. If the pet / animal owner does not comply with this Notice, Environmental Health can confiscate prosecute the noise-maker and impose a fine of up to £5000.

If that does not solve the problem Gloucester City Homes could ask the Courts for an Injunction which forbids the pet / animal owner allowing the noise. If the injunction is broken the court could decide to jail the owner.

Alternatively Gloucester City Homes and Environmental Health could decide to ask the courts for an Anti-social Behaviour Order (ASBO). If the ASBO is broken the court could decide to jail the pet / animal owner.

Ultimately if this still fails to prevent the nuisance Gloucester City Homes could ask the Courts to threaten repossession of a tenants home, or the revocation of the lease for leaseholders or shared owners, suspended if they stopped the nuisance. If they continued to allow the nuisance then Gloucester City Homes could ask the Court for repossession of the property and person allowing the nuisance would be evicted. As the nuisance maker had caused themselves to become homeless it is unlikely that the Council's Housing service would be required to permanently rehouse them. They are more likely to have to find their own suitable alternative accommodation.