PetScreening and First Communities Management Announce Partnership

Screening Platform Introduced at over 200 Communities, 53,000 Apartment Homes

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Jan 28, 2020, 08:50 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- PetScreening, 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 First Communities Management to implement its platform at more than 53,000 apartment homes spanning over 200 communities.

First Communities is an Atlanta-based apartment operator with a heavy presence in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Possessing more than 40 years of management experience in the industry, the company has managed more than 200,000 apartment homes spanning more than 1,000 communities. By partnering with PetScreening, First Communities is streamlining its pet processes and freeing its onsite teams from the burden of service and assistance animal verification. First Communities first rolled out the PetScreening platform on Nov. 21.

Under the PetScreening platform, a pet-owning applicant pays a nominal fee at the time they apply for a rental home and enters information about their specific pet(s) into the only centralized pet-screening database to analyze rental housing-related risk. The platform weighs various pet-related factors, including a community's specific restrictions, such as breed, weight and age. This serves as a streamlined way to comprehensively evaluate a specific pet and pet owner who wants to live in a rental property.

Each pet profile also includes animal-related incidents that property managers record and report while a pet is living at their community. Examples include pet/animal bites, property damage or any owner issues, such as repeat noise complaints, off-leash offenders or failure to pick up pet waste. These registered incidents will follow the pet/animal and its owner in perpetuity so that the next property manager can review the incident log and use it at their discretion. The platform also screens documentation for service and assistance animals and determines whether it is valid. Learn more about the platform at PetScreening.com.

"We're delighted to partner with First Communities, and we're eager to enable their onsite teams to streamline their pet-related processes in the most comprehensive way possible," said Pat Patterson, Director of Multifamily for PetScreening.com. "The early feedback from the property teams has been wonderful, as associates now can eliminate many time-consuming tasks and utilize the platform to heighten resident accountability, recover pet revenue and validate service and assistance animal requests. Most of all, we're eager to help create a connected, pet-friendly experience at First Communities properties, for residents and onsite teams alike."

About PetScreening
PetScreening™ helps property managers and housing providers manage residents' pets and assistance animals for free while generating more opportunities for pet-related revenue. The proprietary screening platform adds an additional layer of liability protection by having a standardized process when dealing with household pets and assistance animals. It also helps with assistance animal accommodation request validation through a comprehensive legal and FHAct/HUD guideline review process. The end result for each pet application is a Pet Profile with FIDO Score™based on pet specific information such as breed, pictures, weight, vaccination records, and behaviors.

About First Communities
First Communities (FC) is one of the nation's most successful apartment management companies. Founded in 1978, FC has managed over 200,000 units and 1,000 communities. The company's market reach has grown to include some of the industry's most exciting submarkets including Washington, DC, Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, Houston, Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Greenville, Birmingham, Charleston, Nashville and Central Florida.