Question about emotional support animal with existing tenants

[Fred Lutes]

Our tenants have been renting our house (single family-3 bdrm, 2 bath, 2 car garage) for about the past 18 months. We rent it at slightly below the market (we are renting it at $1450 per month and the market is $1500-$1550 per month, but we are also providing lawn care at a cost of about $1200 per year. I bring this up to illustrate that we believe our tenants are getting a very fair deal.)

Their first 12 months was a 1 year lease and after one year, we signed a new lease, but changed it to a month to month lease so at this time they are in a month to month lease with us. Our original lease and our new month to month lease stated that there were no pets and they agreed with this. About 5 months into their tenancy, they approached us and asked if we would change our mind and allow them to get a dog? (They said they used to own a Golden Lab Retriever and said that is what they would like to get.) We sympathized with them but said that we would not allow them to have a dog at this house. I told them at the time that I understood how important a dog is to many people (We also have dogs so we get it, and we have also seen how destructive dogs can be.) and we would allow them to break the remainder of their one year lease without penalty and move to a place where they could have a dog. At that time, they decided not to get a dog.

Fast forward to today: They met with us and said that their 17 year old son (They also have a 21 year old son at home.) has been 'acting out' and had many difficulties. They related that he is currently under therapy and his therapist has recommended that an emotional support animal may be helpful. They said that they have not pursued getting a dog because they wanted to talk with us first. We told them that we were not enthusiastic about changing our mind and allowing dogs. They said that they thought that a Golden Lab Retriever would make an ideal emotional support animal. They brought up possibly paying a larger deposit and spoke with me to try to isolate our objections to see what could be done to change our mind. I also mentioned that there may be other places they could live that would welcome pets and they said that they didn't want to move and changing their son's environment would not be good for him. We left our meeting on good terms with me communicating that we were not inclined to agree with the idea but would consider what they said and get back to them in the next several days.

These tenants have paid on time and been somewhat demanding but take decent care of the home. We have had a fairly positive relationship with them, but our bottom line is that we don't want to allow pets at this house. We would be sorry to have these folks move out but would far rather have them move out than allow them to have a dog.

We are located in Washington State and I have done some studying of the laws concerning service animals and a little bit concerning emotional support animals and we're not sure of our rights with existing tenants. We realize that our options as landlords may be limited. We are members of the local rental owners association and plan to check with their hotline number for advice and also plan to get recommendations for a local attorney and plan to buy an hour or two of their time for advice.

Has anyone here ran into this issue with existing tenants?

Any additional or alternative suggestions on how me might proceed?

Thanks for your help!