Pet Screening for Apartments Profiles Your Pet and Reviews Your ESA Letter

If your apartment's application asks you to complete a pet screening, you have been sent to a third-party service such as PetScreening or OurPetPolicy, and what you do next depends on the animal. A pet gets a profile with photos and vaccine records. An emotional support animal gets a separate request, reviewed on a letter from your provider. This guide covers both, from what the two services publish themselves, read on October 25, 2026. ESA Card has no connection to either service.

Pet screening is a profile of your animal that an apartment asks for before the animal moves in

PetScreening describes itself as "a third-party service utilized by property managers/landlords/housing providers to screen non-pet owners, pet owners, household pets, and Assistance Animals" (PetScreening FAQ), and says more than 28,000 communities use it (PetScreening). OurPetPolicy calls itself a solution "to manage residents with pets, emotional support animals, service animals, and more" (OurPetPolicy). Your property picks the service, and the link usually comes from your property manager: OurPetPolicy says you will get an email from it, or your property manager will hand out a sign-up sheet or a link (help center).

The profile you create depends on whether you have no animal, a pet or an assistance animal

A pet profile asks for photos, vaccine records and a few details about the animal

A PetScreening pet profile costs $30 by card or $25 by ACH, and an assistance animal profile costs nothing

PetScreening says the fee is an annual one for household pet profiles, "helps cover the cost of securely processing and managing your pet's information", and that there is "no charge for assistance animal profiles or no-pet profiles" (PetScreening). Renewing early is cheaper by $5, so $25 by card or $20 by ACH, and a household pet profile can be renewed up to 90 days before it expires (PetScreening). OurPetPolicy publishes no resident price: its sign-up guide says only "Some properties require payment for this application", and its form for property managers asks whether the company or the tenant will pay.

A FIDO Score rates a pet from 0 to 5 paws, and the apartment decides what to do with it

PetScreening calls the FIDO Score "a housing-related risk indicator for each pet". It weighs breed, sex, age, weight, behavior and the owner's care, and a 5-paw score means potentially lower risk while a 1-paw score means potentially higher risk. A 0-paw score means the pet hits a limit in the property's own policy on weight, breed, age, spay or neuter status or reported bites (PetScreening).

Two details are worth knowing. PetScreening says "we do not approve or deny household pet profiles": it shares the score with the property, and what to do with it, and whether to show it to you, are the property's decisions. It also says it can score a pet low on breed, weight or age even where the property has no limit, and that this "doesn't mean you have to deny the pet".

You can raise a score with the parts that are in your hands: exact vaccination details, an uploaded vaccination record, spaying or neutering, and photos of the pet. Breed, age and weight are not in your control.

The two services judge a pet differently, and the apartment makes the final call

Some properties also ask a resident to finish responsible animal ownership training before an OurPetPolicy application counts as complete (help center). What a pet costs beyond the profile is your building's call: OurPetPolicy's own blog says a pet is "subject to typical property owners policies, including pet fees, deposits, and restrictions" (OurPetPolicy).

An emotional support animal takes the other route, and the wrong profile can cost a fee

An emotional support animal request is not a pet profile. At PetScreening it goes to the Assistance Animal Review Team, whose standard review time is "2-5 business days from the date of submission", and which makes a recommendation that the property can follow or not (PetScreening). At OurPetPolicy the service contacts your provider and then decides the request itself. Our guides explain each one: how PetScreening verifies an emotional support animal letter and how OurPetPolicy handles an emotional support animal request.

PetScreening tells property managers that when a resident says they are being charged for an assistance animal, it is likely they created a household pet profile by mistake. The fix it gives is to convert the profile (PetScreening):

1. Open the pet profile in your PetScreening account and click Edit.
2. Make sure it is shared with your property management company.
3. Click the small pencil under the animal's name and check the box that says you are making a reasonable accommodation request.
4. Upload your provider's letter under Animal Details, then submit the profile for review.

If you already paid for the household pet profile, PetScreening says that once the request is reviewed and shows Recommended, you can email its support team and it is "more than happy to refund the household pet profile charge" (PetScreening). At OurPetPolicy you say what kind of animal you have as you add it, choosing pet, service animal or emotional support animal (help center).

What you pay for an emotional support animal depends on your state and your building

Many landlords waive pet fees for an emotional support animal with a clinician's letter; rules vary by state and building, so ask yours. What the services say is narrower: PetScreening says a profile returned to you and left for 10 days is "considered abandoned, subjecting the resident and their animal to the community's usual pet policies and fees." Our guides to a landlord denying an emotional support animal and to the letter for housing cover what the letter does, and our state guides cover the rules each state adds.

A few habits keep a screening profile from stalling

1. Use the link your property sent. A profile made without it can still be found, but the property has to request access and you have to grant it (PetScreening).
2. Activate the profile. A draft is not shared with your housing provider until you activate it, and each yearly renewal has to be updated and activated to be shared again (PetScreening FAQ).
3. Pick the right profile type before you pay: a pet profile for a pet, an assistance animal profile for an emotional support animal.
4. Upload a supported file. PetScreening takes JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG and PDF files up to 25 MB each.
5. Answer within 10 days if PetScreening returns an assistance animal profile to you, or it turns Non-responsive.
6. Keep the profile when you move. PetScreening says an active pet profile is transferable between housing providers.

If your provider's letter is the part that is missing, our free sample ESA letter shows each piece a reviewer reads, and our guide to how a letter is verified shows the checks it goes through.

No provider of your own? In New Jersey and New York we can book you a live video evaluation with an independent therapist licensed in your state: $120, with $80 back if they can't approve you, and the therapist alone decides on the letter. You can book in New Jersey or book in New York.

Alongside the letter, ESA Card registration gives your animal a wallet card with its photo, a certificate and a number anyone can check at esacard.com/verify, for $39$59$79$99 once, in about three minutes. It is handy for the everyday questions; the letter is what a screening reviewer reads.