No Pet Policy Know Your Rights!

Know Your Rights When Renting

If you have a medical recommendation letter for an emotional support animal it is important to know your rights of where you can and can’t take your ESA. Under the Fair Housing Act an ESA owner with a medical recommendation letter is allowed to have the pet even if there is a no pet policy. We highly recommend that having your emotional support dog go through basic training and good citizenship training will only help with access rights. The better behaved and response to commands will only help your access rights. It is important to understand that if your dog does not behave, acts aggressively and it can be documented, you can lose those access rights even if your dog is a service dog under ADA guidelines.

What if There is No Pet Policy?

Let’s say you are looking for a new rental with your ESA? If you’re considering renting a new apartment, is your landlord required to accept your emotional support animal when you move in? Here’s what you should know regarding landlords and your rights to an ESA. Emotional support animals, however, aren’t considered pets. They provide necessary assistance to people with physical or mental disabilities, so they must be allowed in all apartments under federal fair housing laws.

What is Required to have an Emotional Support Animal?

In order to have a legitimate emotional support animal, you are going to need a emotional support animal recommendation letter from a Doctor or Therapist. This letter will be provided to your landlord demonstrating the mental condition you have and the necessity for your emotional support animal. In many cases management companies will provide your with their own legal documents to be signed off on by Doctor or Therapist, this is their way of confirming it is a legitimate evaluation and is perfectly legal.

What Law is Protecting My Housing with ESA

It’s a violation of the federal law under the Fair Housing Act to discriminate against people with disabilities. People who require the services of an Emotional Support Animal are considered mentally disabled or have limitations due to their condition. This means that the landlord must make reasonable accommodations for the disabled individual. Among these reasonable accommodations is allowing the tenant to have an emotional support animal. ESAs are usually dogs, but the landlord must permit dogs, cats, or any other animal who has ESA certification.