Emotional Support Animal - No Notice, not on Application

[Laurence V.]

Just a slight twist on the emotional support animal (ESA) question. I'm aware that I can't turn anyone down or charge a pet fee for an ESA. But what can or should I do if a tenant just moves in a ESA without telling me or mentioning it in the application? I think the answer might be 'just accept it and move on'.

Specifically here, I have a question on my application "What type(s) of animals do you have?" which the applicant indicated none. Now, less than a month after they moved in I found a cat on the property when I was making some minor repairs the tenant had requested. I told the tenant I would have to enforce the lease but gave her a couple options. She emailed me a few days later saying the cat is an ESA with a letter from a therapist. In this case I've already decided to accept it and move on, but I'm curious what everyone else's thoughts are. I suppose eviction for lying on the application is a potential response, but I don't see that going very well for the landlord in court.

[Steve Vaughan]

Originally posted by @Erik W.:

One question I would ask myself is "Which came first: the 'ESA' or the letter?"

It's a legitimate question of timing....

Lets' pretend you first saw the cat at the property on March 1st, and the letter head from the therapists office is date March 15th..  It would be clear then that the resident had a "pet" at one point, even if it is now an ESA, and thereby violated the lease agreement and used the letter is a bogus attempt to cover up a pet after the fact.  That's what I'd argue in court if it came to it.  I'm not a lawyer or a judge, though.

As others have said, probably not worth fighting it because the laws are still somewhat vague and have not been thoroughly scrutinized and fleshed out via court cases.  I'm a generous guy, but I don't feel obligated to spend money on an attorney defending myself to be the test case for whether this approach will or won't work.  Let the big boy mega-plex apartment owners chip in on a few lawsuits and get us some case law directives we can apply.  (wink)

Meanwhile, I think monthly inspections to check for damages are in order.  LLs are not required to keep animals (ESAs, service dogs, pets, etc) if they are destructive.  You can and should find, repair, bill for, and evict over damages that are not paid promptly.

Good news is airlines are starting to press for more stringent regulations to curb abuse of ESAs and other questionable service animals.  Hopefully some of their precedents will spill over into housing accommodations.

Along the airlines getting stricter... WA just passed a bill making it a civil offense, punishable with a $500 fine for basically falsifying that an animal is a service animal of some sort when it is not.  One of the bluest states around is cracking down!  It's effective 1/1/19 I think.  Should help us and more importantly, help protect the truly disabled.