Do Landlords Have to Accept Emotional Support Animals?

Landlords may create a “no pet” policy in their apartment or other community for a wide array of different reasons, all of which are perfectly understandable. Sometimes they feel like pets are too noisy and they want to create a quiet environment for everyone. Other times they may feel like pets are just too much to clean up after and they dread the modifications that will need to be made to an apartment when the tenant finally moves out. Some people just don’t like pets at all and that’s perfectly okay, too.

But absolutely all of this changes the minute someone comes into a rental office and says that they’re going to be bringing an emotional support animal along with them.

All of this begs the question: is an emotional support animal like a dog, a cat, or even a miniature horse subject to the same “no pet” policy that other animals would be? Can a landlord legally reject an emotional support animal, or do they have to accept them no matter what? Thankfully, the answers to these questions all have straightforward answers – they just require you to keep a few key things in mind about the situation at hand.

What Are Emotional Support Animals?

Maybe the most important thing for you to understand about emotional support animals is that you can’t just declare your existing pet one and expect everything to go okay. According to the American Kennel Club, emotional support animals (also commonly referred to as ESAs for short) are actually formally prescribed by mental health professionals, similar to the way one might prescribe medication to treat an underlying condition.

Because of that, ESAs are commonly granted certain housing (more on that in a bit) and air travel accommodations under the law. But again, nobody has to just “take your word for it” that yours is an actual emotional support animal. Legal documentation will be required for you to prove this status under most circumstances.

In general, an emotional support animal (like a dog) is exactly what it sounds like – one that intended to not only provide emotional support but to comfort their owners on a daily basis. A lot of people assume that emotional support animals and service animals are the same things, but they’re actually two totally different concepts. A service animal is one that has been trained to perform specific tasks for individuals.

An example of this might be a dog who is trained to sense when his or her owner’s blood sugar is low, thus alerting them to this fact so that they can take corrective action immediately. A “Seeing Eye Dog” is also a classic example of a service animal because the dog helps its blind or visually impaired owner navigate around in public safely. Because of the potentially life-saving nature of this job, service animals are usually allowed to go anywhere their owner goes.

Emotional support dogs, on the other hand, do NOT require any type of specific training. Because of that, they’re not necessarily going to be allowed in the same places that a service animal would – like restaurants, malls, or other types of retail stores and locations.

With regards to emotional support animals being able to do things and go places that regular pets can’t, it is notable that ESAs can absolutely accompany their owners in the cabin of a plane thanks to the Air Carrier Access Act. You can fly with a “regular” pet, but in most situations, they’ll be created and stored in a very specific location below deck.

It’s also important to note that not only is it totally unethical to misrepresent your pet as an emotional service animal, but it’s also actually illegal in some states.

Landlords and Emotional Support Animals: Everything You Need to Know

Based on all of the above, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that even if a house or apartment has a strict no-pet policy, this absolutely does not apply to service animals. However, emotional support animals absolutely fall under that umbrella too, all thanks to the Fair Housing Act.

Also commonly referred to as the FHA, the Fair Housing Act was first adopted into law all the way back in 1968. In 1988, it was further amended to specifically prevent discrimination against families or people with disabilities and similar conditions.

The reason why landlords have to accept emotional support animals is because an ESA is not considered a “pet” in the strictest sense of the term. Under the Fair Housing Act, it’s looked at as more of an assistive device designed to help someone with a disability. A landlord wouldn’t be able to prevent a disabled tenant from using a walker or a wheelchair to get around, for example. Under the same logic, they can’t deny the presence of an emotional support animal either (again, provided that it has been formally prescribed by someone like a psychiatrist or other medical professional).

It’s also worth pointing out that because of the FHA, a landlord can’t charge any type of a pet deposit for an ESA or add any additional amount of money on top of the agreed-upon monthly rent.

Additional Considerations About Landlords and ESAs

However, there IS actually a way for a landlord to refuse to accept an emotional support animal from one of their tenants – however, it’s certainly a lot easier said than done. If the animal in question poses a “direct threat to the health or safety of other people,” that can absolutely be grounds for refusing to allow a tenant to have one in the first place. The caveat here is that the landlord will need to be able to prove that the animal in question is a threat. They’re not allowed to simply write off the animal simply because of its size, or if it were a breed of dog with a particularly bad reputation.

It’s also important to understand that there are a few types of properties that are actually exempt from these types of laws and if yours is one of them, your landlord could very easily reject an ESA and there wouldn’t be much the tenant could do about it. These include situations like:

• When the building in question has four or fewer living units, and one of them is occupied by the landlord in question. A duplex would be a classic example of this.
• A single-family home with a room being rented out when the owner did not use a real estate agent to buy or rent the property. This is only true, however, if the owner owns three or fewer single-family homes.
• Housing situations that are A) owned by organizations or private clubs, that B) are used exclusively for members.

Similarly, a memo from the Department of Housing and Urban Development also complicates things a bit when it comes to the subject of reasonable requests, ESAs, and landlords. Keep in mind that a reasonable request only rises to that level if it’s easy to grant – meaning that it doesn’t cost the landlord huge amounts of money or time.

In 2006, HUD essentially stated that if a landlord’s insurance carrier would cancel or “substantially increase” the cost of their insurance policy because certain breeds of dog or a specific type of animal are present on the property, the request is no longer reasonable and that ESA can be rejected. Therefore, if a landlord rejects an emotional support animal on the grounds of their insurance policy, there really wouldn’t be much (if anything) the tenant would be able to do about it.

From the point of view of landlords, it’s important to note that tenants aren’t actually required to disclose that they’re bringing an ESA along with them during the application process – so keep that in mind moving forward. Likewise, you don’t necessarily want to ask any mental health-related follow-up questions when you do learn of the animal’s existence because wading into this subject and asking the wrong question absolutely invites a lawsuit later on – especially if the tenant’s application is eventually rejected for any reason.

Finally, landlords should know that they do have the right to require the tenant in question clean up after their emotional support animal (or service animal, for that matter). All of the other tenants (and other neighbors in the community) have the right to a sanitary and safe environment and if the tenant absolutely refuses to clean up after their animal, it could be grounds for eviction regardless of the ESA’s status.

Regardless, it’s clear that emotional support animals absolutely have an important role to play in someone’s life – particularly when it comes to their mental health. Their use has long been supported by medical professionals, and with good reason – they can help dramatically improve someone’s quality of life in a way that even certain types of medications wouldn’t be able to match.

But those animals (and their owners) have to live somewhere, and the chances are high that this could easily be an apartment or other housing environment owned by a landlord.

But provided that landlord in question knows the laws governing emotional support animals, and that both the landlord and the tenant are willing to work with one another, it’ll be a satisfying situation that none of the involved parties have to worry about.

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