Juanita Milne and her dog Shadow spent several years without a solid roof over their heads.
Now she has settled into a rental in the Adelaide Hills with Shadow and her aptly named other dog, Hope.
“My two dogs are my world, they’re my babies,” she said.
“Having them here just gives me something worth living for.”
From 2021 until late 2024, Ms Milne was living in a caravan and couch surfing.
In that time, her pets were in and out of foster care and looked after with support from organisation Safe Pets Safe Families.
A suite of legislative changes which came into effect from July 2024 mean renters in South Australia, like Ms Milne, now cannot unreasonably be denied their pets by landlords or agents, except in some circumstances such as being restricted by strata or community title rules.
Landlords can enforce conditions like keeping pets outside or requiring carpets to be cleaned, but they cannot charge a pet bond.
While Ms Milne said she believed the changes did make it easier to get a rental with her dogs, she said she had “definitely” lost out on places because of them, despite the changes.
“If it’s a negotiable thing, there’s still that ‘maybe they’ll get accepted, or maybe not’,” she said.
“To think that I may not be able to get my girls back from foster and have to surrender them … there were many tears shed.
“To be able to find a place that originally the previous tenants had a dog, it gave me a little bit of hope that I might be able to get my girls here as well.”
Renters concerned they’re still being rejected
Rental advocates, like Better Renting deputy director Bernadette Barrett, still hold concerns about how the legislation works in practice.
“A lot of renters have told us that they feel more at ease, being able to look at properties, and seeing more properties available that don’t exclude pets,” she said.
“But what we’re also hearing is that many renters are still feeling concerned that their applications are still being denied on the basis of having pets.
“But it’s not being disclosed that that’s the reason, because landlords and real estate agents aren’t required to give reasons for a tenant not being accepted to a property.”
Ms Barrett said while potential tenants had to disclose having pets, she was concerned they would be discriminated against.
“Until we can have a system where anyone can be accepted for a house, regardless of owning a pet or not, that won’t really change,” she said.
She said Better Renting would like to see the onus moved from tenants to landlords to challenge for pets in properties.
“Currently, if a landlord does not approve a pet in a property, the tenant has to go to SACAT [South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal] to challenge that,” she said.
“If we looked at other models across the country, it is the landlord that has to make that dispute, so that would make it fairer for renters looking to rent with pets.”
In Adelaide’s northern suburbs, the Animal Welfare League in Wingfield is full of surrendered animals.
Media and communications manager Anthony Cochrane said the organisation continued to see an increase in surrender numbers despite the legislative changes.
But he recognised there were other factors continuing to bite for pet owners.
“There’s been nearly a 2.5 per cent increase in people needing to surrender their dogs in that time, year on year, since that legislation was brought in,” he said.
“I think coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, we haven’t really seen much of a difference.
“We want to see pets stay in their homes as long as possible, seeing people in tears surrendering their dogs and cats is very concerning for us.”
Feedback positive, minister says
Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs Andrea Michaels said she was happy with how the legislation was working in practice, and was confident landlords were working with tenants to accommodate pets.
She said so far, the feedback received had been positive.
“We really haven’t seen many complaints from either tenants or landlords,” she said.
“When we introduced this, we did think there might be some backlash, but I think we did strike the right balance.”
Now, Ms Milne can play with Hope and Shadow in the comfort of their backyard.
But she is still hopeful more could be done to make it easier for people like her to have their pets in rentals.
“The laws that have just been passed, they’ve got a long way to come yet,” she said.
