Service Dog for current tenant and what to ask for legally

[Jeff Payne]

Hello everyone, one of my renters in a suburb of Phoenix, AZ asked me about 3 months(6 months into a 2 year lease) ago if they could get a dog(its agreed to by both parties no pets)and i said "sorry, no"..  Then last week she texted me quote.........."good afternoon, hope your having a good day. not trying to sound like a pest but the dog situation....im wanting one for a service dog for me..... i have anxiety and i would be able to train it for my needs. im stay at home mom now and would be with the dog 24/7. so you wouldnt have to worry about the house being destroyed. please think about it and let me know. Unquote

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  May I request a letter from her Dr. with permission from my tenant for me to follow up? Medication proof?  I dont want to do or say anything that will get me into trouble.  THANK YOU!!

[Lynnette E.]

Tell her that you would need to amend the lease, but to start she needs to identify the doctor that is prescribing the support animal.  (It is not a service animal and that is a whole different program, and the dogs are actually trained...think of blind folks with a service dog.)  Tell her that you will need her to sign a release form for her doctor to release information to verify the prescription of a support animal.  Then you send a letter to the dr and ask is she a patient?  Did the dr prescribe a support animal?  What are the requirements for the animal, e.g. are there size, bread, species, number of animals, whatever is part of the prescription.  Verify the animal has up to date shots, through you writing a letter to the vet.  Verify the animal has a license if required in your area.  Then you amend the lease for the identified support animal.  Tell her of all the steps, but do one at a time, drag it out.  And let her know no pet until the lease is amended...and then support animal only.

And if there are other things to amend in the lease do it!  I would add where they are to walk the pet, immediate clean up of all feces, watering down any urine on the grass before it makes a yellow spot, etc.  And I would add mandatory renters insurance.  Or convert them to month to month so you can get rid of them if there are issues.

If she brings in a pet first, notice her then evict her.

Nothing in the process happens fast.  Hopefully the lease will be up before this comes to fruition.