Eliminate fake Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) on your property

[Greg Scott]

The department of Housing and Urban Development is the only governmental agency that recognizes Emotional Support Animals (ESA) and HUD requires that landlords provide reasonable accommodations to residents that need and request an ESA. Unfortunately, this has created a problem of systemic abuse by tenants that simply want to avoid paying pet fees or want to own a breed-restricted animal such as a pitbull. An entire cottage industry has sprung up to help tenants acquire fake ESA documentation. To make a point, I once registered my couch as an ESA on this site: https://usaservicedogs.org/

Many landlords feel they have their hands tied and simply accept all ESA requests. In 2020 HUD published guidelines on support animals. You can read the guidelines here: https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfil...   Let's start using the tools HUD has now given us.

Based on these guidelines, we developed a process for our apartments to manage ESA requests. Any request for an ESA accommodation must come from a healthcare provider licensed in our state. If the evidence does not meet those two criteria* we simply provide them a letter saying their evidence did not meet the threshold for qualifying for an ESA accommodation. We do not provide any further guidance. We are not in the business of teaching them how to skirt the rules. Also, if an animal with correct ESA documentation later exhibits any aggressive behavior, following HUD guidelines, you no longer need to provide an accommodation for that animal. They and/or their owner can be removed from the property.

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*Note: There is a potential third criteria. HUD recognizes that some healthcare providers are selling ESA letters over the internet without any real diagnosis. HUD says that the healthcare provider must have "a personal knowledge of the individual" but it is not clear how that is defined. Some states are trying to fill the void. The State of Indiana, for example says that the healthcare provider must have an ongoing relationship with the patient.  However, I understand there have been no legal challenges yet to see if that law would survive if it went up against HUDs Federal regulations.