Case Note ~ Faith Intervenes to Refuse Permission to Keep a Dog

SHINDY & ANOR v ANTCLIFF & ANOR (Residential Tenancies) [2023] ACAT 53

This was an application by landlords under section 71AF(3)(d) of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 that the Tribunal uphold their refusal to permit the tenant to keep a dog. The request was refused on religious grounds, being a belief held by members of the Muslim faith that dogs are unclean animals. The landlords had previously given the tenant permission to keep a cat.

The Tribunal stated that it was necessary to balance the statutory right of a tenant to keep an animal with the landlord’s permission and a landlord’s right to refuse permission in appropriate circumstances, noting that, from a statutory point of view, the balance is tipped in favour of the tenant. Although the Tribunal accepted the premises could be professionally cleaned to address ordinary issues of cleanliness with respect to keeping animals, this was not a case about the cleanliness of the premises. Here, the landlords’ religious beliefs mean they will always harbour genuine doubts about the cleanliness of the house based on the fact that it has been occupied by an unclean animal. To them, their home can never be the same again.

Finding that landlords’ belief was honestly held, not irrational and gave rise to “a real, not imagined, disadvantage,” the Tribunal upheld the landlords’ right to refuse permission to keep a dog.