How to write a pet resume a landlord will actually read

A pet request asks. A pet resume answers the questions the landlord was going to ask next, before they have to ask them. Sent together, they turn a favour into a decision that is easy to make.

The idea is not ours. Manitoba’s Residential Tenancies Branch publishes a sample pet information form for tenants, and a checklist of questions for landlords to ask pet owners. The Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta suggests a pet resume for tenants dealing with a condo board. What those have in common is that they are fact sheets. A pet resume is not a scrapbook, and it is not a character reference written by you about your own dog.

Why one page

Property managers file things. A letter goes in the file, a one-page fact sheet goes in next to it, and a folder of photographs goes nowhere. Keep it to one letter-size page, with headings a person can scan in twenty seconds, and it will still be in the file when the landlord calls to ask about the applicant with the dog.

The six headings

1. The basics. Name, species, breed or type, age and size. For a dog, an honest weight; for a cat, whether they are an indoor cat; for a rabbit or a bird, where they live in the unit. Landlords picture the animal, and a wrong picture is the most common reason a reasonable request goes wrong.
2. Health and care. Spayed or neutered, microchipped, vaccinations up to date, flea and worm treatment, and a city licence where your city requires one. Give the date of the last vaccination and offer to send the record. These are yes-or-no answers, and a page of yeses reads as a person who looks after an animal.
3. Training and temperament. For a dog, any formal training, and two plain sentences about how they behave indoors and when left alone. For a cat, litter habits and scratching. Resist adjectives. Calm, house-trained, does not bark when left tells a landlord more than the sweetest boy in the world.
4. Daily routine. Who is home during the day, how long the animal is alone, who walks them and where, and who looks after the animal in an emergency or while you are away. Manitoba’s checklist for landlords asks exactly these questions, so answer them before they are asked.
5. Renting history. Whether the animal has lived in a rental before, for how long, and whether there were complaints or damage. If a previous landlord will confirm it, say so. This is the strongest section on the page, because it is evidence rather than promise.
6. References. One or two people who can speak to the animal: a previous landlord, a veterinarian, a dog walker. Name, relationship, how to reach them, and confirmation that they are happy to be contacted. Manitoba’s guidance for tenants calls letters from previous landlords the best references you can have.

What to leave out

• Anything about your own health. An ordinary pet request does not depend on a diagnosis, and a landlord deciding whether to allow a cat has no need of one. Asking for an animal as an accommodation for a disability is a different request with its own rules, and it does not belong on a fact sheet a property manager will pass around. The difference is explained here.
• Photographs, beyond one. A single clear photograph of the animal is useful. A gallery is not.
• Offers the law does not allow. An Ontario landlord cannot take a pet deposit, and the Act bars most other charges, so do not offer either. In other provinces, deposits are capped, and offering more than the cap buys you nothing. The deposit rules are here.
• Certificates and registrations from private registers, ours included. They are not evidence of anything a landlord needs to know, and a skeptical property manager may discount the rest of the page because of them.
• Anything you cannot back up. A landlord who checks one claim and finds it padded will discount everything else.

If you hold tenant insurance with liability coverage, or pet insurance, mention it as a fact under health and care. It is not a term you need to offer.

How it goes with the letter

The letter asks; the pet resume goes with it as an attachment, and the letter should say so in one line so the property manager knows to file both. Our free template does the asking on its own.

In a condo or strata building, the landlord may not be the last word, and the building may want to approve the animal too. Send the same page to whoever does that. A board deciding about a dog wants to know what every landlord wants to know, in the same order. How building rules reach tenants.

Where our certificate fits

Not on this page. Our certificate is a private keepsake. It creates no rights, it certifies nothing about training or temperament, and a landlord is free to ignore it. The six headings above are free, and they are what does the work.

If you want a keepsake record of the animal anyway, a certificate, a wallet card and a public lookup number, that is what we sell. Keep it for yourself, not for the landlord’s file.