Tenant forged ESA letter from doctor

[Justin Harrison]

In a nutshell, two tenants didn’t disclose a pet until confronted a month into tenancy, said they were finishing up paperwork to register it as an emotional support animal (ESA), and then sent in a forged signature from a local MD. This forgery was verified by contacting that doctor’s office directly (because tenant provided an incorrect number) and providing them with a copy of the document.

The fact that they didn’t tell us about the pet prior to signing and now have presented us with fake documents to avoid pet fees, we feel like we don’t want that type of tenant living in our property.

The catch that we want to be cautious of is ESA’s are protected by fair housing and even though this pet may be “registered” on a website, there is no licensed doctor or therapist backing it. What suggestions do you all have and what rights do I have at this point? If I had my choice, I’d ask them to leave because I don’t want to deal with this type of dishonesty but I don’t want to get hit with a discrimination law suit if we were to go that direction.

[Greg Scott]

I just recently posted detailed information on ESAs for landlords here https://www.biggerpockets.com/...  You have very little to worry about here unless you have a landlord-hating judge in your jurisdiction.

You should give them a notice that the information they provided was insufficient to be categorized as and ESA and that they need to start paying pet rent.  (DO NOT go into any detail on forged signatures, or any of that.  Keep that all to yourself.)  If you do not allow pets or it is a restricted breed, the letter should indicate they need to remove the animal within X days.  (something like 2 weeks)  If they do not, you simply file for eviction for a lease violation.  If they remove the animal before the time limit, you have no grounds for eviction.

I would not say anything at this time about non-renewing them. You can decide later as their lease is nearer the end.