Covid: Pandemic pet boom prompts 'pet-nup' advice

Loved-up couples who have welcomed new pets during lockdown should consider signing a legal agreement setting out who gets custody if they break up, a law firm has said.

Nottingham-based John Hooper and Co said the soaring price of pedigree pets during the pandemic had increased the risk of post-split disputes.

It has joined other firms in offering "pet-nup" agreements for couples.

The document would act as a binding contract, the firm said.

An estimated 3.2 million UK households have acquired a pet since the start of the pandemic, according to the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association.

Dominic Lee, from John Hooper, said the firm's pet-nups - a play on the shortened version of the term pre-nuptial agreement - were short documents that would act as a legally binding contract between a married or co-habiting couple.

"It's part of a wider cultural change that I think I would like to see - couples being encouraged to have the conversations during their relationship, tough conversations, about what would happen if the relationship didn't work out," he said.

"Not only about the property they might own together - because disputes about property can be very expensive and stressful - but also about their loved pets as well.

"I think there'll be an increasing need for this because the popularity for pets has just gone through the roof during the pandemic, and they're also big money as well as the huge emotional investment.

"Pets have the same legal status as a car, furniture or an artwork. It doesn't reflect the emotional attachment we have to them but that is their legal status."

Mr Lee added other types of pre-nuptial agreements were not 100% binding but "more often than not" a judge would respect the terms agreed within.

Professor Ralph Sandland, lecturer in family law at the University of Nottingham, said there was no reason "pet-nups" should not stand up in court.

"The final decision whether to enforce any pre-nuptial or post-nuptial contract lies with the family court," he said.

"However, the judges have made it plain over the last few years that, as long as both parties knew what they were getting into and neither lied to, bullied or coerced the other to get them to agree, then any agreement they make will generally be valid.

"This would apply to agreements involving pets in the same way that it applies to any other agreement about the couples' property, as pets are seen by the law as property.

"The main reason to make a 'pet-nuptial agreement', however, is to avoid the need to go to court to settle any dispute."

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