Potential tenant and ESA pet question

[Doug Crockett]

Good morning all I have a little issue we are dealing with on a potential tenant.  Showed the house before we were ready to because her mother is a neighbor and was looking for her daughter, Short story is she loved it and it was close to her mother which is where she wanted to be.  The issue is when we were walking the house she disclosed she had 2 dogs (and also a cat which was forgotten about until the next day).  The pets are not a problem as people have pets and we understand and have terms outlining the pet rules.  The issue is when we said rent was going to be higher due to the pets now all of a sudden one of them is an ESA and she "doesn't know how that works with rents".  I feel she knows exactly how that works and played us all the way up until she disclosed this information.

Everything has been just a verbal conversation and a few texts back and forth.  There has been no application filled out or money accepted to begin any screening process.  I know what I should do but am curious as to what experiences others have had with "ESA" pets.