Emotional Animal Support guidelines for Landlords in Santa Barbara
When it comes to letting an emotional support animal fly, the airline industry has carefully tried to keep the balance between accommodating the needs of an individual with those of the collective passengers on board.
It’s no different in the rental industry. Landlords have a concern that animals can cause damage to the rental unit. They may also harm other residents or disturb the quiet enjoyment of other renters. As a result, many landlords decide to implement a no pet policy or have restrictions around type, breed and size of the pets allowed.
It is important to understand the legal guidelines under The Fair Housing Act (FHA), which require that a reasonable request for a service or emotional support animal (ESA) be entertained regardless of the pet policy implemented. Housing providers cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a person with a disability the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling.
It’s also important to understand the definition of an assistance animal as described by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. An assistance animal is an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person’s disability. An assistance animal is not a pet.
While a landlord or housing provider may ask for documentation of the disability-related need for the assistance animal, he or she may NOT ask for personal medical details. HUD states that a housing provider “may not ask an applicant or tenant to provide access to medical records or medical providers or provide detailed or extensive information or documentation of a person’s physical or mental impairments.” (FHEO Notice: FHEO-2013-01 at page 4).
A reasonable accommodation request for an assistance animal may include, for example:
- A request to live with an assistance animal at a property where a housing provider has a no-pets policy or
- A request to waive a pet deposit, fee, or other rule as to an assistance animal.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has just released new guidelines on handling those reasonable accommodation requests to help landlords and property managers with those obligations.
The new HUD guidelines cover how to assess a person’s request to have a service animal as a reasonable accommodation under the FHA and includes:
- Understanding what is and isn’t an emotional support animal and/or service animal
- The two important (and ONLY) questions to ask someone requesting a service animal
- Request analysis for assistance animals other than service animals
- Criteria for assessing whether to grant requested accommodations
- Types of animals including unique animals for unique circumstances
- Best practices for documenting an individual’s need for an assistance animal
The goal of the FHAct is to give disabled individuals and equal opportunity to use and enjoy their dwellings like non-disabled individuals. Reasonable accommodations are a recognized means of achieving that goal.
For more detailed information on this topic please refer to he new HUD guidelines together with the Reasonable Accommodations Under the Fair Housing Act Joint Statement of The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice located here: https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/huddojstatement.pdf
