Surprise! You just discovered that one (or more) of your residents got a new pet over the holidays. While the image of a new puppy or kitten popping out of a gift box is undeniably adorable, a new, unreported pet means added liability for you as the housing provider and more responsibility for your residents to care for your rental property.
How can you mitigate the risk that comes with housing this new pet and pet owner? A pet screening and auditing platform, like PetScreening, can help. To better understand how it can help gauge your risk and reduce your liability, take a look at these three ways to hold your residents more accountable in your rental properties now and well into the New Year.
Reducing property liability is a key reason to perform a pet audit. A pet audit can be digitally administered for all of your current residents and help you better understand your on-site pet population. This often surfaces previously unknown pets and repeat pet-sitters throughout the community when your pet-owning residents create digital pet profiles with valuable information such as photos, breed, size, vaccinations, and behavioral history. Gathering this new information in a single, organized platform gives you the opportunity to recover lost revenue and charge applicable pet fees.
It's not uncommon for a new pet to go through a chewing phase or have a few accidents. Responsible pet owners will take care to curb destructive behaviors, but accidents can still happen. With PetScreening's Incident Report tool, you can report and track pet-related incidents for each pet residing in their rental properties. An Incident Report will follow the pet and pet owner for the lifetime of their Pet Profile, even if they relocate to another rental property.
A lot can change in a year, especially with a puppy or kitten. Most new pets are too young for vaccinations, so who's following up with the resident to ensure vaccinations are updated? PetScreening has active profiles which can be updated in real time. Residents should be encouraged to update their profiles whenever new records are available. Profiles are valid for one year from the date that the are activated, and PetScreening sends all pet owners a friendly email reminder when their Pet Profiles are getting ready to expire. If your resident is continuing their lease with you, it is important that they renew their Pet Profile and make any necessary updates to their pet's information. The profile is active but the Pet Profile url never changes, even when the resident renews or updates the profile information.
Having your residents complete a Pet Profile at PetScreening for their new pets — and keep the profile updated as their pets grow — helps build responsible pet ownership, holds your residents more accountable and gives you an added layer of third-party liability protection.
