Should landlords be allowed to ban pets?

Oh boy, this is a touchy subject for me.

If any of you follow me on social media, you'll know I have the most adorable rescue dog called Mr Barkley.

He's six kilos of puppy love.

Despite his name he hardly barks, he is house trained and basically likes cuddles and sleeping.

Mr Barkley also now limits where my husband and I can rent.

That is because landlords discriminate against pets.

How very dare they?

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Mr Barkley is an angel and I can promise you he makes less noise and is less destructive than a toddler.

But landlords can't ban small humans.

Discrimination I tells ya!

Australia has one of the highest rates of household pet ownership in the world, with 62% of households having a pet.

However, when it comes to renting, the laws allowing pets or banning them are different in each state.

In Victoria, the onus in on the landlord to get approval from the rental tribunal to refuse consent for a pet.

In NSW, legally landlords can't say no to a pet BUT they can say no pets on the ads.

In Queensland, you need the landlord's permission. And so on.

It's all frustrating and confusing for pet owners.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2.16 million renting families are pet owners. That's ruling out a lot of tenants.

I am a landlord and I allow my tenants to have pets.

I also expect they will repair any damage if there is any and get the carpets cleaned.

I expect to do that myself. To me it's no big deal. In fact it's just being polite.

And there are so many other advantages of having pets.

Pets combat loneliness and help with mental health.

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Not everyone chooses to have kids or they are elderly and their kids don't visit them very often.

My friend who has just gone through breast cancer, puppy-sat Mr Barkley for two weeks.

She saw her oncologist straight afterwards and he said she'd lost three kilos and he could reduce her depression medication and that she should get a dog.

But her landlord said no.

That just seems horribly unfair.

The 9Honey superstars had a lot to say about this and believe it or not they did not all agree with me as you'll see in the video above.