Renting to tenants with service animals

[Andy Sabisch]

We are renting one unit in a building we have and the person looking at it has a German Shepard that she said is a service animal.  We have a breed / weight limit on dogs based on our insurer (Steadily) which would negate our liability coverage.  We also charge a $200 non-refundable deposit for the dog and $25 / month additional on the rent.

We did a quick search and it looks like we can not exclude someone with a service animal nor charge for a deposit or extra rent.  We cant exclude the tenant based on breed or weight even though our insurer will cancel coverage.

Is this a correct interpretation of the law and have you run into this before.  We have a number of people interested in the apartment but wanted to know about this issue which can impact us both in terms of insurance and damage to the property.