We charge a non refundable pet deposit of $350. and monthly pet rental fee.

Question 1. If a potential tenant state up front that they have an emotional support/service pet, does the fair housing laws state that we "are not" allowed to request a pet deposit of any sort?

Question 2. What if the prospective tenant moved in the unit with out a pet and state later on that they now have an emotional support/service pet and refuses to pay the pet deposit?

I communicate via text with prospective tenants- keep that in mind with my comments.

I text viewing instructions that reiterate basic information. When asked about pet policy, I text them No dangerous breeds as defined by insurer, $150 non refundable pet registration fee per animal, $35 per month per animal.

When they then reply that theirs is an ESA, I do not respond.

It is all a moot point until they decide they want to lease the house, determine their application will likely pass screening and then pay application fee, apply are approved, have ESA documents in order.

Landlord should remain in control of dialogue so as to avoid hashing out an ESA before prospect has committed to lease unit.

I suspect the bogus ESAers get a rookie LL back on their heels and take charge of the dialogue- wasting everyones time.

Having a tenant state they have an ESA doesn't mean it is a ESA. Have they given you the necessary documents for you to evaluate the validity of their claim? It's a pet until otherwise proven.

To have an animal be considered in your rental application as an assistance animal, you

must include the following with your filled-out application:

1. A written request for an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation.

2. Evidence from your healthcare provider of a disability and that you have a disability-related need for an assistance animal.

If they actually bother to go through all that then yes your probably will have to accept the ESA for the term of their lease.

Doesn't mean you can't terminate their tenancy after the lease is finished.

Question 1. If the people are accepted then yes the ESA has to be accepted.

Question 2. See my first post. It's a pet until they prove otherwise.

No need for me on this one -- it has been properly answered above. :)

U E,

First, there is no such thing as a non-refundable deposit. A “depsoit” is refundable no matter what other words you add.

Mine is a $150 Non-Refundable Animal Registration Fee per animal and $35 per month per animal.

Notice I never said PET.

Next, there is only one document that proves a legit service or support animal - LMN Letter of Medical Necessity from a medical professional. MY Fair Housing director says the pro must be local and have a history with that patient. Nothing online qualifies. She says we can call her on any suspicious or if we’re not sure. Let HER decide.

There is no such thing as a service dog registry. It’s a scam.

Go check out those online registrations so you recognize them.

My suggestion is what we now do. If they claim service or support send them to petscreening.com. (Thanks WMH!) It is a free service to screen for service/support legitimacy. If not legit PETSCREENING denies the animal, not you.

(There is a fee to screen PETS and set up a pet profile)

BRAD

So, since we clearly have a newbie asking the question here, I feel the need to post this in response to Brad's post... My normal stuff when he posts:

1. Brad is extremely knowledgeable about almost all things related to landlording. He's a great resource here and is well liked. But I think his responses to handling Service and Emotional Support Animals are one of his few "poor information" posts.

2. Brad bases almost everything related to this off of what some local housing guy tells him. This often does NOT appear to line up to state or federal laws. So, be wary about statements that basically go "my local yocal says this, so I base my entire business on that."

3. I personally think that a "non-refundable animal registration fee" would not hold up in court if some blind guy was charged that for his seeing-eye dog. So, I'd be very careful with such things.

4. A Letter of Medical Necessity is not required, by federal law, for a Service Animal. For an ESA yes, but not for a Service Animal in many situations. Brad tends to treat all SAs and ESAs exactly the same -- when the law clearly does not.

5. Such letters absolutely CAN be online in most areas. The fact that Brad's local yocal says that "nothing online qualifies" is really odd unless there is some LOCAL law that overrides federal and/or state law -- which seems really unlikely. Again, I would not follow this advice.

6. A lot of people here push petscreening.com. Note that that site requires that you ALLOW PETS. It looks like you do, so you should be fine to use it. Just note that you need to send ALL of your tenants with animals there -- not just the ones that you want to screen because they are an ESA or SA. Otherwise, their terms state that they can suddenly charge you a pretty decent chunk of change to "screen" these animals.

Again, Brad normally knows his stuff -- but when a newbie asks about the law and Brad's reply, in my opinion, seems to ignore the law, I feel like a warning is appropriate.

- John...

A note about service animals (I am a service dog partner).

For a person with a disability who has a service dog (NOT an ESA) I would not supply a letter of medical necessity. I would supply a letter stating that I am a person with a disability. My physician will have no issue in writing me a letter stating I have a disability. They will not state what the disability is. The letter MIGHT state how my disability prevents me from doing certain things.

I can then state, in writing, how my disability affects me and prevents me from doing A, B, C tasks, and how my trained service dog can do X, Y and Z tasks to help mitigate my disability.

For an ESA, the treating mental health provider is supposed to state that the person has a mental health disability and needs the animal for emotional support.

Hopefully you see the difference.

A property manager CAN ask for a letter from a provider certifying that a service dog partner has a disability, if that disability is not obvious. You'd never ask for a letter if the person is in a wheelchair, blind or deaf, since it would be obvious. Since I'm usually not in a WC (though I have one and use it occasionally) it would be permitted to ask for one from me. If I showed up in the WC, however, it would then be obvious I needed assistance and the letter would not be needed.

Very thorough and diplomatic, John.

My take on the matter is this:

1) Know the Law.

2) Follow the Law.

3) When in reasonable doubt, err on the side of caution.

Animals normally do 2 things for my business: bring in more money and bring in more tenants. Over 70% of applicants have critters. I don't want the ones with bad critters. I do want the ones with good critters.

ESAs, service animals, etc. put a kink in the "bring in more money" side of things, but that is it.

I do not have to allow a destructive or filthy ESA, service animal, etc. So said animal must be up to standard. If not, I can deny based on the animal causing damage to property.

How will I know, though? Easy. I do the 2-minute in home inspection. I go to the tenant's CURRENT home and look, listen, and smell. Poop all over the yard? Mini-blinds destroyed? Dirty paw prints all over the doors and floors? Aggressive behavior toward me? Incessant barking? Inability of tenant to control animal?

Every single one of those is a 100% legal NO GO if properly documented.

Tenant comes from out of town? No worries. Call the floor agent at any real estate company in their town and offer $50 for the floor agent to go screen after they get off duty. Floor agents are usually the starving newbies eager for $$$ so they can eat. Do this only AFTER you have verified all other references and you want this tenant. Don't want to pay fees for marginal prospects: only the best! Use Paypal or Venmo to send the money to the agent after receiving back a copy of a checklist you provide regarding what you want them to look for at the tenant's home.

Tenant has no current home? I require land lord history or a double security deposit and all other references squeaky clean. That has nothing to do with animals. It's land lord history: pure and simple.

What's the point of all this?

You absolutely must know and follow the law, and there are at least 100 ways not to have to allow an animal on your property that will cause any problems regardless of what the tenant says it is. No need for a website to screen. No need to ask for "papers". No need for an extra deposit.

Just use your brain and you'll sleep peacefully knowing you got rid of a bad animal owner or rented to a good animal owner.

U E,

To clarify, you cannot charge any extra fees for legit service or support animals so the question is "How do they prove it is a legit service or support animal?"

I listed our prices to help you correct your wording and make more money.

Just like ya gotta know YOUR judge, ya gotta know YOUR local Fair Housing people. The local person will be the decision maker on a Fair Housing complaint against you. Whatever they say goes.

Our local director recently spoke to our LL assoc about animals, answered a ton of questions from LLs, and those are HER policies and interpretation of the federal laws. She had recently attended a conference on animals. She passed out printouts from the latest federal laws on animals.

As with all things govt, OPINION does not matter. The govt official has the final say.

BRAD

That all sounded good up to your last line. You ARE following the OPINION of your local housing guy. What if that person gets replaced next month?

I must more agree with Sid -- you FOLLOW THE LAW and ERROR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION. Not ignore the law because your local friend interprets it differently than almost every other housing place in the USA...

- John...