…It’s the Pets You Don’t Know About
by Jennifer Stoops
When I first started in property management almost 20 years ago, I had the same belief many operators still hold today: pets are risky. Full stop. Dogs scratch floors, cats stain carpets, and every so often, someone’s “sweet baby angel” turns out to be a four-legged demolition expert with a personal vendetta against drywall.
If you have been in housing long enough, you’ve seen it all. I certainly have. But here is the part no one told me about early in my career, and the part that years of running portfolios taught me the hard way: The pets we approved and documented were almost never the problem; the problem was the pets we did not know existed.
Unauthorized pets — the secret husky hiding behind a baby gate, the “temporary” cat that mysteriously lives in the unit for 12 months, the pet someone hopes we won’t notice because the application didn’t ask enough questions — those were the ones that caused the biggest headaches, the biggest risks, and the biggest financial surprises.
The more I talk with owners, operators, REITs, and regional managers across the country, the more I realize this is not just my experience. It is an industry-wide blind spot.
A Story Every Operator Knows — Even If the Details Are Different
Let me paint a picture you may recognize. A maintenance tech arrives at a service request — maybe a leaking disposal or a clogged drain. The resident opens the door just wide enough to squeeze out, and behind them two bright eyes and a wagging tail appear.
“Oh, don’t mind him,” the resident laughs nervously. “He’s just visiting my mom only for the weekend.” Except “the weekend guest” is wearing a monogrammed collar, a custom bandana, and there’s a 60-pound bag of dog food sitting in the corner of the kitchen.
The resident has been quietly housing a pet for months without approval, without documentation, without a pet fee, and with-out any compliance measures you rely on to manage risk. In my operator days, those “surprise pets” were responsible for the majority of the pet-related costs we incurred — not the pets we approved.
Why Unauthorized Pets Are the True Risk
Over the years, I started keeping informal tallies. When carpets had to be replaced, when doors were chewed, when blinds were destroyed, when complaints rolled in… I would ask my teams: “Is this an approved pet or an unauthorized one?” Overwhelmingly, the worst incidents came from households we did not even know had a pet.
Then, the industry data started catching up with what operators had been feeling intuitively for years. Multiple studies show less than 10% of pets cause any damage at all, and, when they do, the average cost is only around $200; pet-friendly housing saw no statistically significant increase in damage compared with no-pet homes. However, nearly 1 in 5 renters admit they are hiding a pet from their landlord, and some markets report even higher rates.
So yes, pets can create damage. However, in most cases, well-behaved, well-documented, well-screened pets are not the problem. The problem is risk without visibility, and unauthorized pets thrive in the dark.
Two Dogs, Two Outcomes: A Tale of Real Risk
Let me share a couple of stories from my time as an operator. Both involve large dogs. Both lived in single-family rentals. But the outcomes could not have been more different.
Dog #1
The Approved, Screened, Documented Dog
Bella was a 4-year-old lab mix with a sweet face. The resident completed every step of our pet screening workflow. Bella had documented vaccinations; the resident signed a pet addendum, complete with behavior notes and photos; and the pet rent was paid every month.
At move-out, the only “damage” was a tennis ball lodged behind the dryer. Bella’s owner left the house spotless. We barely had to lift a finger.
Dog #2
The Unauthorized Dog
Then there was the other property, the one with the mysterious scratches on the back door. The resident insisted it was “normal wear and tear,” but that door looked like someone tried to claw their way out of Alcatraz. We later found out via a neighbor that the resident had been keeping a large breed dog — one we were never told about and never screened.
We ended up replacing the back door, the carpet in two rooms, window blinds, and half the baseboards. There was no pet deposit, no pet rent, no documentation, and no accountability.
One dog cost us nothing. The other cost us thousands of dollars. The difference was not the dog — it was the visibility.
The Liability Nobody Talks About
Two other areas where unauthorized pets (or visiting pets) pose a much larger danger are dog bites and insurance claims.
Most insurance carriers require breed disclosures, documentation of vaccinations, and proper identification of all animals in the home. But when a pet is unauthorized, none of that exists. If a bite occurs, and statistically, bites overwhelmingly occur from dogs known to the victim, the landlord is suddenly in a defensive scramble.
Worse yet, unauthorized dogs often have unknown bite histories, unknown behavioral histories, no temperament information, and no verified vaccination records. That’s risk with a capital R.
Why Pet-Friendly Housing with Structure Is Safer Housing
Some owners still cling to the idea that banning pets reduces risk. After 20 years in this industry, I can promise you that banning pets does not eliminate pets — it eliminates control.
When you ban pets, you lose visibility. When residents feel they cannot be honest, they hide animals. And when animals are hidden, you cannot manage risk. When there is no policy structure, there is no accountability.
On the flip side, well-managed pet-friendly policies create transparency, which is the cornerstone of risk mitigation. Policies provide documentation, behavior insights, accountability, fee structures that fund increased wear, fair housing protections, and insight into who (and what) is actually living in your property. The result? More control, less risk.
From Operator to Risk Advocate: What I Wish I’d Known Sooner
Looking back at my operator years, I wish someone had told me that the pet isn’t the risk; the unknown is. Unauthorized pets were responsible for more property damage, disturbance complaints, and liability concerns and caused more tensions at move-out and more operational inefficiency.
And yet, ironically, the solution was never stricter policies. It was clearer expectations. Once we implemented structured screening, not just for pets but for all residents, the number of unauthorized animals dropped dramatically. When you make it easy to follow the rules, residents are far more likely to follow them.
A New Philosophy for 2025 and Beyond
Here’s my belief, shaped by two decades of managing portfolios and working with owners nationwide: Pet-friendly housing with strong controls is the safest housing model and pet-restrictive housing without controls is the riskiest.
The more transparent your pet process, the more data you gather. The more data you gather, the more effectively you can manage liability, wear-and-tear, vendor safety, compliance, resident communication, and fair housing consistency.
Risk is never fully eliminated in housing, but it can be dramatically reduced. And when you reduce risk in a thoughtful and structured way, you also create better relationships with residents and stronger financial performance for owners.
The Bottom Line
If you take only one thing from this article, let it be this: The danger isn’t pets; the danger is pets you don’t know about.
In an industry where risk multiplies in silence, the smartest thing we can do is bring everything into the light — with transparency, screening, documentation, and a consistent process that protects owners, residents, and yes… even the pets themselves.
