When talking about rental properties we must focus on the Fair Housing Act or the FHA. The Americans Disability Act gives us basic guidelines for service animals but mainly focuses on public access, not housing. State laws for assistance animals also typically focus on public access, especially for service dogs in training, they also give us the actual laws that offenders can be charged under, they tend not to focus on housing.
FHA
When talking about the guidelines for the FHA when it comes to assistance animals there is one big point I would like to make. Both service animals and emotional support animals are that both are grouped into the same category simply called assistance animals. In my opinion, this also allows those that want to refer to their service dogs as service dogs in training the availability to use the FHA guidelines as it could be considered an ESA till the SD terminology is met.
As for a disclaimer, please note I am not an expert on this subject, I tend to be well-read on the subject, but please do your own research. None of this should be used as a legal basis, I am not a lawyer or anything like that.
Service animals are granted a few perks when it comes to housing when it comes to rentals, HOAs, and the like. Typically, the rule of thumb is if a landlord owns more than 4 rentals and is not living in one of them they are typically covered under the FHA. Apartment complexes and rentals that are managed by a property company are almost always under the FHA. Just ask your management company, and they will know.
Perks:
- Allowed even when there is a "no pets" policy.
- No pet deposits.
- No breed or size restrictions (there are restrictions to this).
- Letter from your healthcare provider (that you are in a current relationship)
- This means that the letter must be from a healthcare provider who you are currently seeing. This does not allow for those online registration companies.
- Remember this is for assistance animals, so service dogs will do this also.
- Requesting reasonable accommodations from your landlord/management group.
- This is normally a form to fill out saying that you need special accommodations due to your disability.
While the FHA & ADA specifically that there are no size or breed restrictions there are some caveats to this.
If a rental can show that it would cause an "undue financial hardship" due to allowing the animal onsite they can deny the accommodation. I normally see this due to insurance, where the insurance policy restricts the breeds allowed on the property. If a restricted breed is allowed the policy would be dropped or the company would have to purchase additional riders to the policy to cover. This is considered an undue hardship.
There is a growing trend of states that are telling insurance companies that they can not restrict specific dog breeds, but currently, this is only the case in a few states so far.
I hope this article was able to help. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to do so in our forums at Service Dog Advocate.
Links:
HUD/FHA FAQs
Housing Discrimination
HUD Letter Example
