Fighting Like ‘Cats & Dogs’ Over Ownership

Over 50% of households in the UK have a pet. Pets tend to become part of the family and are treated equally, if not better, than other members of the household. Because of this most families would class their pet as a member of the household.

If there was ever a question of ownership most would say the pet is “ours”. But what happens when a household becomes split and each party wishes to retain the pet? This is a usual scenario that is most commonly seen in the breakdown of a relationship.

In the event of pet disputes, the applicable law will be the same as those that apply to any other tangible object. Whilst the Children Act 1989 applies when parents cannot agree on where their child should live and how often that child should have contact with them, there are no statutes that specifically set out a process for resolving disputes over the ownership of cats, dogs, parrots, lizards and so forth.

This means the same legal principles that apply to who keeps the TV will also apply to the party entitled to retain the dog and/or cat. If challenged in the County Court, the person who entered into the contract to buy the pet, whether by purchase or other means, will normally be able to demonstrate that they are the legal “owner” provided no alternate agreements were made. The exception to this is when the purchaser gifts that pet to another as this will transfer legal ownership.

What happens if you both have joint ownership of a pet?

Whilst the legal principles appear straightforward at a first glance, difficulties can arise with joint ownership. Joint ownership would arise when there is more than one person entering the contract to take on the pet. This is often seen when households pool their resources together to purchase a pet.

When a disputed property is jointly owned the starting position is that the property should be split between the owners. For obvious reasons a pet cannot be split between owners so an alternative approach would be for the pet to be sold with the sale proceeds being split, which is unlikely to be favoured as this would remove the pet from the family. Parties in such dispute are always encouraged to reach an agreement for this reason as the decision in Court may be unfavourable to both parties. A compromise might therefore be to share ownership.

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If you are involved in a dispute regarding your pets please contact a member of our private litigation team who will be able to assist.