Room rental and service animals - Landlord Forum thread 357410

Room rental and service animals by DEWAYNE HUP (CA) on May 17, 2018 @05:40

I rent rooms (2) in my house to college students. I have them sign a 1 year agreement. In that agreement it say no pets. Now of the new guys is saying that he needs a support animal. But I don't want them in my house and he cannot take the animal to classes. Since this is a private home with only 1 address, do I have to allow this?

[ Reply ] [ Return to forum ]

Re: Room rental and service animals by lamac66 (ga) on May 17, 2018 @07:57	[ Reply ]

no

Re: Room rental and service animals by Michelle (CA) on May 17, 2018 @15:51	[ Reply ]

That's funny. I just called a reference and I asked if any unauthorized pets ever took up residence, and the answer was yes, but that the tenant went and certified the pet as a service animal. We know that the rules for rooms in the landlord's residence have a different set of rules, but I've noticed that this depends on the number of rooms that the landlord has rented out, which varies by locale. With a certain number of in-house tenants, you end up with the standard Fair Housing rules, which address service animals. I wonder if a lease application can even ask about service animals.

Re: Room rental and service animals

Re: Room rental and service animals by Anonymous on May 18, 2018 @18:15	[ Reply ]

Two things, first Obviously not a service animal if he can't take it to classes, ESA's don't carry the same legal status as service animals. Regardless this is the perfect application of the "Mrs. Murphy" exception " to fair housing rental law. You don't have to have anyone or thing living in your house you don't want to. Suppose you were allergic to dogs or cats or emotional support peacocks, or more importantly smoke whether it is legal for them or not. It doesn't matter if you can't have any trace amount of cannabis in your system as a condition of employment. This is your out! If your potential tenants take issue with it tell them to Google it.