Applicant did not disclose their emotional dog

[Violet Lisa]

I guess my situation is a little unusual - I have a potential tenant who has filled out applications but did not disclose they have an emotional support dog until we mentioned there will be a pet deposit since there will be a dog living on the property as well. I am okay with the pet situation but I feel it's a bit odd they told us the dog is emotional support right after my property manager let them know about the pet deposit instead of just being upfront about it. I don't feel comfortable with the situation, and I think this is dishonest. Can I deny the applicant at this point? I would appreciate any advise, thank you.

[Sam Leon]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

Originally posted by @Violet Lisa:

I guess my situation is a little unusual - I have a potential tenant who has filled out applications but did not disclose they have an emotional support dog until we mentioned there will be a pet deposit since there will be a dog living on the property as well. I am okay with the pet situation but I feel it's a bit odd they told us the dog is emotional support right after my property manager let them know about the pet deposit instead of just being upfront about it. I don't feel comfortable with the situation, and I think this is dishonest. Can I deny the applicant at this point? I would appreciate any advise, thank you.

 I was at a seminar and the word was that "emotional support" animals is a made up term. There are "Service Animals" used for blind, and other legitimate needs.

It's a scam and I wouldn't rent to them since they tried to hide their intent (to avoid paying a fee or deposit). Who knows what other trick they will try in the future.

https://adata.org/publication/service-animals-book...

II. Service Animal Defined by Title II and Title III of the ADA

A service animal means any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. Tasks performed can include, among other things, pulling a wheelchair, retrieving dropped items, alerting a person to a sound, reminding a person to take medication, or pressing an elevator button.

Emotional support animals, comfort animals, and therapy dogs are not service animals under Title II and Title III of the ADA.

For rental properties, ADA does not apply.  ADA is more about public places like restaurants, libraries, clubs, schools etc...

The relevant federal regulations is HUD's Fair Housing Act, and Emotional Support Animals are covered and protected under that. If you reject ESA, you will violate FHA.

As far as I can tell there are four classifications.

Service Animals - those are trained animals that provides a specific need to their owners such as seeing eye dogs, medical alerts etc...there are online companies that one can order a vest for $20 and people put on their dogs to disguise them as SAs, when they are not.  You cannot deny someone with an SA.

Emotional Support Amimals - any animals that is prescribed by a LMHP to ease anxiety of it's owner.  Many online web sites will provide a letter of certification for a fee so this is a very easy vehicle for someone to get their pets certified as ESAs to be able to fly with their pets and to be able to move into no pet rentals.  A significant number of those are scams but the problem is it's very difficult to prove it's a scam.

Therapy dogs - those are dogs trained to comfort elderly or terminally ill people at hospices, hospital, nursing homes, those are not specifically linked to an owner and are not protected by reasonable accommodation.

Working dogs - those are police K9, trained to sniff bombs, track and retrieve, guard etc...and also are not protected by reasonable accommodation.

Technically, IMO, you can't say they lied by not disclosing their pet or dog because they can say they don't think of it as a pet or regular dog, it's an ESA.  You should have had an application that ask if they have any animals, not pets.  You also should have something in the lease that require your approval if they have to move any animal in.  In the case of a SA or ESA, you as the landlord has the right to verify the SA or ESA, by request to see documentation and call to verify with the provider to make sure the certification is legit, valid, active and current, and wellness documentation that the animal is in good health, free of parasite, flea, ticks, vaccinated etc...