If you board animals (including kennels, catteries, home boarding and dog day care), breed dogs, sell animals, hire horses or keep or train animals for exhibition, you will need a licence from us.
If you are wishing to licence an establishment outside of the Sevenoaks district area, please apply for your licence directly via your local authority.
Star Rating Scheme
Animal licences include a star rating. The rating is based on licensees’ animal welfare standards and how they manage risks.
The rating ranges from one to five stars with five stars being the top rating.
Star ratings of animal licences in the Sevenoaks District
Appealing against a Star Rating
You can appeal a star rating. Before you do so, we would encourage you to discuss informally your rating with us.
Appeals must be in writing no more than 21 days after we have issued the licence. We have 21 days to respond to your appeal.
If we carry out an additional inspection, and your star rating has not improved following the appeal, you will be charged for the inspection fees.
If you disagree with outcome of the appeal, you can challenge our decision by judicial review or you can make a complaint to us.
Re-inspections
You can ask for your premises to be re-inspected at any time. This must be in writing and you should outline the case for a re-inspection, including improvements you have made and the supporting evidence. We can refuse to carry out a re-inspection if you do not provide sufficient evidence of improvement. We aim to carry out re-inspections within three months of your request.
There is no limit to the number of re-inspections you can request, however, you will be required to pay the full costs of each inspection.
Following a re-inspection, your rating could go up, down or could remain the same.