PetScreening.com, a first-of-its-kind screening platform that empowers property managers to outsource their pet risk assessment and assistance animal validation processes at no charge, today announced that an internal analysis of its data found that 18-percent of reasonable accommodation requests had insufficient documentation, unresponsive third-party verifiers, or were discovered to be fraudulent.

PetScreening.com, a first-of-its-kind screening platform that empowers property managers to outsource their pet risk assessment and assistance animal validation processes at no charge, today announced it has partnered with Blue Ridge Property Management to implement its platform at approximately 12,000+ apartment homes spanning 45 communities.

PetScreening.com, a first-of-its-kind screening platform that empowers property managers to outsource their pet risk assessment and assistance animal validation processes at no charge, announced it has closed a Series Seed round of venture capital financing. Fenwick & West represented PetScreening.com in the transaction. Grotech Ventures led the Series Seed round with Camber Creek and Relevance Capital as additional participating partners.

In a recent article published on Multifamily Executive, Kortney Balas, Vice President of Information Management at JVM Realty Corporation, explains how technology — including automated pet screening and animal validation — is helping streamline the leasing process to give on-site managers the ability to focus building relationships with their residents.

When a prospective resident submits an application at an apartment community, on-site teams want to know virtually everything about that resident before allowing them to sign a lease. Credit history, criminal background, rent history, current finances, that minor traffic ticket for failure to yield in 2004, and so on.

Yet, when it comes to the pets that accompany residents to their new home, little—if anything—is known about them. A detailed history of a pet’s behavior, the owner’s behavior with the pet, vaccinations, damages, excessive noise disruptions and other nuisances can prove just as relevant for apartment operators as the background of their residents.

In a new article published on the Student Housing Business website, PetScreening.com Founder John Ray Bradford discusses Service Animals vs. Assistance Animals and covers when and where the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Fair Housing Act (FHAct) are applicable.

In an article published by the National Apartment Association (NAA), Kortney Balas of JVM Realty Corporation discusses an on-going problem within the property management industry — unauthorized pets.

When a household pet gets loose or runs away from home, it can be stressful for the pet owner when trying to find the pet and devastating if the pet never returns. While there are measures one can and should take to keep his or her pet secure, having a pet go missing can happen to anyone — even the most responsible pet owner.

It happens time and time again, and the reasons given are common: “I didn’t know.” Or: “Nobody told me I couldn’t do this.”

Residents will often move into a community without a pet, but they may adopt one or have a friend or relative visit with a pet. Some may even start a pet-sitting business in their living rooms. On most occasions, they do not notify the community of these new pet-related developments. Naturally, this creates a risk for the community, especially if those pets have a history of barking, running off leash or even violent behavior.

If you’re like most people, you probably use the terms service animal and assistance animal interchangeably especially when discussing the recent media coverage about the person with an emotional support alligator or the peacock trying to board an airplane. If you’re a multifamily professional, not knowing the difference between these two terms could result in costly and risky unintended consequences.

To help prevent such a scenario from happening, you simply need to know the difference between a service animal and an assistance animal. More importantly, knowing when and how to deal with each one is imperative. Understanding the differences can help ensure you don’t ask an inappropriate question that could result in inadvertently discriminating against a person with a disability or help prevent a bad actor from committing animal fraud.