"Apartment operators often increase their risk when
pet-free residents end up acquiring a pet."
dog might not comply with community
regulations. Apartment operators often
leave money on the table and increase their
risk when pet-free residents such as this one
end up acquiring a pet. The leasing team is
often focused on other areas of business and
are unable to stop and validate each dog
they see during the course of their day.
Encouragingly, innovative solutions from
third-party providers such as PetScreening.
com, offer a way to close this loophole by
requiring all residents – even those without
pets – to acknowledge pet policies line-
by-line during the application process. Pet
owners set up an account and enter their
pet’s medical and behavioral history for a
small annual fee, enabling the community to
have more visibility into their pet population
and report any future incidents to a
centralized database. Pet-free residents set
up a free profile that requires them to report
any new pet activity.
2019
While most apartment operators have
a pet-reporting process in place, it usually
involves an addendum to the leasing
agreement that is given to the resident
after they report having a new pet or after
they’re caught with a pet. The Web-based
screening process replaces that with a
digitally based agreement that is more
binding because it is given upfront and
requires policy-by-policy acknowledgment
during the application process. The
integration of pet screening into the
existing online application process erases
any loopholes and communicates what the
pet policies are whether or not the resident
is a full-time pet owner.
Most pet-free residents won’t have much
interest in signing up for a pet profile, their
apathy for doing so can change when it is
required as part of the application process
and there is a no-cost component. This
carries the added bonus for community
management teams that their residents
are educated about the community’s
pet policies and understand what is
expected of pet-owning residents. This
has helped onsite teams save time, erase
any resident misconceptions and create a
more streamlined pet-related experience.
Ultimately, it leads to more responsible and
accountable pet owners.
Although the challenges surrounding
assistance animals are perhaps more
prominent in the industry, the non-pet-
owner who suddenly becomes one can
create quite the conundrum. But tech
advancements have made certain that
community management teams will have a
robust way to address this challenge moving
forward.
Kortney Balas is Vice
President of Information
Management at JVM Realty
Corporation.
G olf T ournament
AUGUST 9, 2019 | C ommon G round G olf C ourse
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