Residents
Owners
As a landlord, do you know the laws regarding assistance animals? When you have a tenant renting from you that requires the medical need to have an animal, you need to be aware of your tenant’s rights and what federal and state laws say about the situation. Here is what landlords should know about this type of situation.
What are assistance animals?
Landlords need to understand that assistance animals are those which assist people suffering from a medical ailment. A person that might own an assistant animal would be someone that has a mental or physical impairment that limits lifestyle activities. This could include impairments in working, seeing, walking, dressing, cleaning, etc. If a person has a history of such impairments or is regarded as having such impairments, they could qualify for reasonable accommodations due to disability. Even if a landlord doesn’t allow pets on a property, allowing someone to rent from you that owns an assistance animal is making a reasonable accommodation due to disability.
The Law
Landlords cannot refuse to rent to a person because of their disability. Landlords may not ask tenants for details of their condition. In most cases, lawmakers say that assistance animals would fall under reasonable accommodations for disabilities. In fact, assistance animals may be working as emotionally support to the owner. Assistance animals fall under the categories of service animals and support animals.
The law says that if a person requesting the animal has a diagnosed disability impacting major lifestyle activities and the person has a disability-related need to own it in which the animal is responsible for performing services or tasks for the disabled person, then the landlord must allow the animal. Typically, dogs are the only service animals, but sometimes miniature horses are service animals.
Example of Service Animals
A few of examples of assistance animals include those that are seeing eye dogs for the blind, service dogs for those that can’t hear in which the dog does for them, and those that pull wheelchairs for a wheelchair bound owner.
Landlords Need To Know
Along with service animals bypassing a no pet restriction at your property, service animals are also allowed in food areas. You cannot charge a pet deposit or pet fee for the animal, but the owner is responsible for damage the animal causes. Landlords can’t ask for specifics about the disability but they can request written verification from the health care provider. Landlords can obtain copies of the animal’s health records.
Landlords do have the right to set a limit on size, breed, species, and number of assistance animals if it’s a companion animal. Landlords can refuse certain companion animals if it’s going to cause undue hardship on the business including raising insurance rates or dropping coverage due to a dog breed.
