Re: SERVICE ANIMALS - Landlord Forum thread 359177

Re: SERVICE ANIMALS by Garry on March 28, 2019 @09:31

First, June, you must get your terms right. A true "service animal" is a dog or minature horse that has went thru 1-2 years of training to eventually help seeing or hearing impaired people, or to detect when someone may be having a seizure. An "Emotional Support Animal---ESA" can be dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, etc. and do not need to be trained for anything. They are just there to give love and comfort to a disabled person.

Whether the animal was a service animal, or an ESA, they all must be friendly to all other humans, and be able to be totally controlled by the disabled person at all times. Yes, you can ask for the prospective tenant to provide you with a letter from a qualified doctor, social worker,counselor, therapist, psychiatrist, etc. saying that the ESA is needed. That letter must come from someone the T is seeing regularly in the area, not from someone several hundred mile away out of state.

You cannot charge extra rent or extra deposit for a service or ESA. I would say that you were being scammed, so the person would not have to pay any extra for the dog. Your local or state Civil Rights office will have all the info you need for this topic.

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Re: SERVICE ANIMALS by June on March 28, 2019 @23:10	[ Reply ]

Hi Garry, Thanks for the info. You are correct, she was trying to scam me so as not to pay the extra monthly rent for the giant dog. She also had bad credit and some other non-qualifying issues going on. Thankfully, she never came back. The dog was just a big old wild dog who never had a moment of any obedience training and definitely was not the Service Animal she claimed. I will contact the Civil Rights Office and get all the info I need as to how to deal with this issue. Thanks again Garry, your info was most helpful and appreciated! June