A pet referencing service is courting controversy by suggesting more animals should be allowed in rental properties – and that landlords, not tenants, should pay for references. 

PetsScore is launching in August and says its service will be the first in the world for dogs and cats; it aims to attract landlords and agents in the short lets and longer term rental sectors. 

“When it launches it will allow Pet Owners to register their pets for free, list all the information a landlord needs and then gather online references about that pet” says the firm.

“Once a pet owner has references saved, PetsScore uses that data to create a ‘risk score’ for the pet which,like human tenant referencing, it will supply to the Lettings industry” it continues.

However PetScore says landlords and agents – rather than tenants – will have to pay “as little as £1.50” to buy access to the reference.

A page on the service’s website shows that a single one-off access to one reference would be £10. If landlords bought a subscription they could then obtain ‘bundle’ charges for multiple reference checks. For example, a bundle of 10 would cost £15 while a bundle of 300 checks would cost £300.

Founder Natasha Homer-Earley says: “I founded PetScore after spending almost  six months trying to find somewhere to rent with my dog Daisy. I’d been a landlord previously, seen my family manage their Property portfolio but I was really unaware of how tough it is for Pet Renters.

“I have a 20 year background in Tech Startups and Fintech. So, I knew in order to create something letting agents and landlords would trust, it would need to deliver a level of verification typically found in Financial Services.

“I designed the PetsScore service with the help of UK Letting Agents. PetsScore’s mission is to significantly move the dial on the percentage of rentals accepting Pets worldwide,. This is why from launch a PetsScore can be shared with Letting Agents, Landlords or sharing economy hosts wordlwide.”

The company says it soon wants to sell insurance to pet-owning tenants too.