A pet bond WA landlords can charge is capped at $350 for a residential tenancy, and it sits separately from the security bond. The bigger change since the rental reforms is not the money. It is that an owner can now only refuse a pet outright where keeping it would break a law or a strata rule. For every other reason, the owner has to apply to the Commissioner for Consumer Protection for approval to refuse.
How does a tenant ask?
On Form 25, the pet request form published by Consumer Protection. The owner then has fourteen days, starting the day after the form is received, to make a decision.
Silence is not a strategy. The fourteen day window exists so a request cannot sit unanswered while everyone hopes it goes away.
When can a landlord simply say no?
Where keeping the pet would break a law or a strata rule. That is the only refusal an owner can make on their own.
Anything else requires the Commissioner’s approval, and Consumer Protection sets out the grounds that can be put forward. They include premises that are unsuitable, for example a yard without fencing, too many pets at the property already, likely damage that would cost more than the bond to put right, an unacceptable risk to health or safety, undue hardship to the landlord or to another tenant, and a dog that is a dangerous dog under the Dog Act 1976.
That is a workable list, but it is a list, and an owner relying on one of these grounds has to make the case rather than assert it. A refusal because the owner would simply rather not have animals in the property is not on it.
How much is the pet bond and what does it cover?
Up to $350 for a residential tenancy, for fumigation or pet related damage. For a residential park the figure is $250 and it covers fumigation only.
It is held and accounted for separately from the security bond, so it is not four weeks rent with a bit extra on top, and it is lodged with the Bond Administrator like any other bond.
Be realistic about what $350 does. It covers a carpet clean and a modest repair. It does not cover a dog that has worked its way through a set of blinds. The bond is a contribution, not insurance, and the protections that actually matter are a detailed property condition report at the start and inspections that happen on schedule.
What about assistance animals?
An assistance animal is not a pet. Consumer Protection is direct about it: assistance animals are trained to help a person with a disability in relation to that disability and do not count as pets, and there is no pet bond for an assistance animal.
An owner who treats a guide dog as a pet request has started in the wrong place.
Should a Perth landlord say yes?
On the numbers, usually. Pet friendly rentals are still a minority of what is advertised in Perth, and a tenant with an animal and a good record has fewer places to go and more reason to stay. Longer tenancies and shorter vacancies are worth considerably more than the cost of a carpet clean.
The risk is real but it is manageable, and the parts that manage it are not the bond. They are the condition report with photographs, inspections carried out on time, and a written record of exactly what was agreed at the outset.
Practical points for owners
Put the animal on the record. If consent is given, the agreement should say which animal and how many, so a request for one cat does not quietly become three.
Answer in writing inside the fourteen days, even if the answer is a question. A written trail is what any later dispute turns on.
Do not use a pet refusal to manage something else. If the real concern is the tenant’s history or the condition of the property, that is a different conversation, and it will not survive being looked at as a pet refusal.
Lodge the pet bond properly. It goes to the Bond Administrator, separately recorded.
The short version
Requests come on Form 25 and are answered within fourteen days. An outright refusal is only available where a law or strata rule would be broken. Every other refusal needs the Commissioner’s approval on stated grounds. The bond is capped at $350 and held separately. Assistance animals are not pets and attract no pet bond.
If you are letting a property in Perth and would rather the pet question was handled properly than avoided, our residential leasing service sets these terms at the start of the tenancy, which is where it is easiest to get right. The condition report and the written consent are worth more than anything that can be done after a tenant has moved in.
These rules come from the Residential Tenancies Act 1987 and the guidance published by Consumer Protection WA. This article is general information and not advice.
