My last post, Service Animals/Emotional Support Animals - What you ought to Know, discussed the fact that, when you have rental properties, you have to know the laws on service and emotional support animals. We covered rules laid out by the ADA, but you can find 2 agencies that create regulation regarding these animals:

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The Fair Housing Act (FHA)

Here we will discuss the additional laws laid out by the FHA. Note that ADA covers commercial areas where FHA covers residential. Also, ADA does not cover emotional support animals but FHA does.

https://www.wellnesswag.com/ - protects renters from landlord discrimination. It prohibits discrimination of home sales, rentals, and financing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or those with disabilities.

Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA) of 1988:

Assistance Animal - an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability or provides emotional support that alleviates one or more symptoms or effects of a person's disability
an assistance animal doesn't have to be individually trained or certified
once an assistance animal is approved, the landlord is not permitted to charge any associated pet fees or deposits
a landlord is not permitted to put weight or breed restrictions on an assistance animal


What can you require:

the prospect or resident must have a disability within the meaning of the Fair Housing Act
there must be a disability-related need for the animal

Permissible questions:

May be the disability apparent or known?
Is the disability-related dependence on the animal apparent or known?
If both disability and the disability-related dependence on the pet are apparent and know, you may not ask any further questions and you'll not require any additional verification or documentation.
If the disability is not apparent or known, you might request reliable documentation of the disability and the disability-related dependence on the assistance animal.

For emotional support animals, you might request documentation from the physician, psychiatrist, social worker or other mental health professional that the animal provides emotional support that alleviates one or more of the identified symptoms or ramifications of an existing disability.

You might deny an accommodation request when:

it would cause undue financial hardship on the property
it could create an administrative burden on the house
the specific animal would be a direct threat to the house or would cause substantial physical harm to the property
when there is insufficient verification when the disability is non-apparent

The prospect/tenant can make a request from you for their animal in just about any manner including something as simple as writing their request on a sticky note. There is no formal request form and you can't require that they use one which you create.

Your next step would be to ask that written verification be supplied by the physician or medical provider. Again, it generally does not need to be on a specific form. You must accept verification from the reliable third party that confirms the applicant has a disability within the meaning of the Fair Housing Act and confirms that there is a disability-related dependence on the animal.

Without sufficient verification, you might deny the applicant. And - beware - there are several online sites offering certifications without requiring any verification of a disability.

The way the ADA and FHAA are different:

The ADA applies to areas of public accommodation. It does not apply to regions of the property not available to everyone. (i.e. Service animals must be allowed into the leasing office.)
The FHAA applies to the entire property. (Qualified service and emotional support animals should be allowed to reside in your rental property.)

Most of your concern as a landlord will probably be regarding regulations organized by the FHAA.

Wow, there's a lot in those 2 posts. What's been your experience with service animals?