Pet Screening for Your Maryland Rental: Fees, Deposits and Assistance Animals

What is pet screening?

Pet screening is a review of each pet before it moves into your rental. Real Property Management Gold runs it through PetScreening.com. The firm’s page explains the reason: “all pets and their owners are not the same,” and two things most often cause property damage, “People and Pets.”

Here is the process. During the rental application, potential renters complete a Pet Profile. They provide the pet’s history, vet records, insurance information and assistance animal documents. The profile is reviewed for accuracy and scored against screening criteria.

Pet screening is part of the 6.9% tenant placement service listed on the fee page. It sits next to the 6-point tenant screening. See tenant screening for how the full review works.

What does pet screening do for an owner?

The firm lists five benefits of PetScreening.com:

1. Greater diligence for pets and assistance animals living in your rental.
2. A full Pet Profile for the leasing record.
3. Access to the tenant’s Pet Profile anywhere, at any time.
4. “A layer of third-party liability protection.”
5. Validation of service and companion animal status.

A written profile also helps if a question comes up later. You know how many pets the lease approved and what records the tenant gave.

What do pets cost at Real Property Management Gold?

The tenant terms are published on the firm’s site. They apply to homes the firm manages.

The owner side of the picture is the Preferred Pet Deposit Alternative Program. It appears on the fee page for each management plan:

The Platinum plan lists additional protections, including a line for service animal damage. Real Property Management Gold is not a licensed insurance broker. Please refer to the insurance policy for coverage information.

How does Maryland’s deposit cap apply to pets?

Maryland counts a pet deposit as a security deposit. That matters because the law caps deposits. The statute defines a security deposit as “any payment of money, including payment of the last month’s rent in advance of the time it is due, given to a landlord by a tenant in order to protect the landlord against nonpayment of rent, damage due to breach of lease, or damage to the leased premises.” The People’s Law Library says plainly that this includes “a pet deposit or the last month’s rent.”

The cap in most leases is “1 month’s rent per dwelling unit, regardless of the number of tenants” (Real Property 8-203). Add a pet deposit to the regular deposit, and the total must stay within that cap. Example, with a $2,000 rent: a $1,500 regular deposit plus a $750 pet deposit is $2,250, which is over the cap.

A monthly pet fee works differently from a deposit. The firm’s disclosure says its $50 fee is “a recurring charge and not a deposit.” Whether a particular charge is a deposit under Maryland law is a legal question about how it is written and paid. If you design your own pet terms, have a Maryland attorney read them first. Our security deposit guide covers the cap, the 45-day return and the interest rules. See also the pet deposit and security deposit entries.

Are assistance animals the same as pets?

No. Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a person with a disability can ask for a reasonable accommodation, which is an exception to a pet rule, so that they can live with an assistance animal. The assistance animal and reasonable accommodation entries give short definitions, and the Fair Housing Act entry explains the law.

The rules for this topic have shifted recently, so read this section with care.

• HUD’s 2020 notice. In January 2020, HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) issued guidance on animal requests. A May 2026 HUD memo describes it this way: the 2020 notice “explained that pet fees could not be assessed for untrained emotional support animals (ESAs).”
• HUD’s May 22, 2026 enforcement guidance. HUD’s memo says: “Effective immediately, for complaints related to animal-related reasonable accommodations, FHEO will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only for those cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance.”

What this means for an owner, in plain terms: HUD has narrowed which animal complaints it will pursue. The memo is enforcement guidance. It does not repeal the Fair Housing Act or Maryland’s own fair housing law. Courts and state agencies can read the law differently from HUD’s memo.

A safe approach for an owner:

1. Review each request on its own facts. Do not apply a blanket “no animals” answer.
2. Do not charge a pet fee, pet rent or pet deposit for a trained service animal.
3. For an untrained support animal request, the law is in flux. Do not deny it or charge for it until you have talked to a Maryland attorney or the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights.
4. Keep any disability-related information private and share it only with people who need it to decide.
5. Apply the same process to every applicant.

PetScreening.com can document assistance animal status for the leasing record, as the firm’s page notes. It does not replace your own fair housing review. For more on fair housing at the application stage, see tenant screening.

How should the lease handle pets?

Put pet terms in writing, and keep them specific. The items below are common practice, not a legal checklist. Ask a Maryland attorney to review your lease addendum.

1. Name each approved pet. List the type and number of pets the screening approved, so that an added animal is a lease question and not a surprise.
2. State the monthly fee. Real Property Management Gold lists $50 per approved pet and says it is a recurring charge, not a deposit.
3. State who pays for damage. The firm’s disclosure makes the tenant responsible for pet damage, assessed at move-out and deducted from the security deposit or billed separately.
4. Keep records. Store the Pet Profile with the lease, along with photos at move-in.
5. Treat assistance animals separately. Do not put an assistance animal under the pet fee terms. Use the individual review described above.

A pet policy only works if it is applied the same way each time. Apply the same steps to every applicant who has a pet, and keep notes on how you reached each decision.

What does pet screening not do?

It does not decide an accommodation request for you. A score is one input. The decision to grant or deny a request for an assistance animal is yours, and it follows Fair Housing law. It also does not replace insurance. Ask your insurer how a pet in the home affects your owner policy. Our rental property insurance guide lists questions to ask. Finally, it does not remove normal wear. Use the wear and tear guide to separate wear from damage at move-out.

Should I allow pets in my rental?

It is your decision, as long as you follow fair housing rules for assistance animals. Real Property Management Gold’s published approach allows pets case by case with a monthly fee and a screening profile. That gives the owner a record of each pet and a recurring charge to offset wear.

Weigh it this way:

• Wear and damage. Pets can cause damage beyond normal wear. Our wear and tear guide shows how to tell damage from normal wear.
• Applicant pool. A home that allows pets is open to more applicants.
• Move-out costs. The tenant is responsible for pet damage, assessed at move-out.
• Cleaning and flooring. Hard floors are easier to restore than carpet. See what rent ready means.

If you are new to this, ask the team during a free assessment how it would set pet terms for your home.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Laws change; check the linked official source or talk to a Maryland attorney.

Next step

Questions about pet terms for your rental? Request a free assessment at /contact-us or call (301) 392-2172.