A brand-new pet-friendly apartment complex in Southampton could become a template for residential block design across the region, according to Weston-Super-Mare property consultants Mcilroy Smith. Bow Square is a purpose-built apartment scheme catering for tenants with cats and dogs - and even offers a dog walking service. Andrew Simmonds, Managing Director of the new property consultancy in Weston-super-Mare says the scheme could catch on. Andrew commented: “Tenants with pets – particularly larger animals such as dogs – don’t normally expect to be received with open arms by the managers and landlords of residential blocks. “While the Bow Square scheme is a fairly unique idea for now, I think it could work within the social housing sector and maybe for specific blocks on larger complexes where a pet-friendly building could be included. “I am working with a brace of developers in the Weston area on a phased consultancy basis, looking to get lease issues like this sorted at the earliest possible stage of the development to help avoid friction later on.” As a basic rule of thumb, he said that present leases prevent the lessee from keeping any animals in a flat in order to guarantee protection from barking dogs etc but he believes times are changing. “These days, many people have smaller, more manageable dogs so apartments used as holiday or commuter pads might benefit from the idea. I have a small dog which goes everywhere with me and people are as likely to have lapdogs, as Alsatians or Labradors.” He went on: “It's often hard to turn away a potential tenant because of their pets, so it’s great to see the designers of the Bow Square scheme thinking outside the box. We are aiming to provide a more personal service and pets are typical of the sort of landlord-tenant issues which can be identified at the design stage. In my view, pet-friendly sites such as the development at Bow Square in Southampton should and will become a way of life."
