Service Animals, what's an owner to do?

[Kim Meredith Hampton]

I manage real estate for investors, and wanted to hear from the insurance brokers as to what your feel is for the growing number of "service Animals" in rental properties. The biggest concern that I have is that we can't ask anything from applicants with a dog or miniature horse as their service animal, even if the dog is one of the vicious breeds not covered under insurance. What happens if the dog bites the neighbors kid, etc.... would the owner be covered?

[Joe Splitrock]

@Kim Meredith Hampton there is lots of mis-information being provided in this thread. I am sure people have good intentions, but it can be confusing.

First of all is the confusion between Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals. The DOJ has clearly defined that under the ADA Service Animals to only include any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. They also specifically state that Emotional Support Animals do not qualify as Service Animals under the ADA. The good thing about he ADA Service Animals is that they have been professionally trained and behave better than most of your tenants. You can only ask two questions of a Service Animal. For a service animal you can only ask two questions. Is it an animal that is required for a disability and what specific work has the animal been trained to perform. Be careful because perspective tenants will call their animal a Service Animal when in fact it is an Emotional Support Animal. 

Emotional Support Animals also known as Assistance Animals are covered under FHA (not ADA). They require no training and although they are typically dogs, they theoretically could be a cat, pig, horse, snake, etc. They generally treat some type of mental disorder, but realistically most anyone can say they are depressed and qualify. I recommend a doctors form instead of note. By using a doctors form, you control the content and can ensure it is only completed by a trained mental health professional. In other words, no buying letters off the internet. You send the form to the mental health professional and they send it back to you - never entering the tenants hands. You do have to accept these animals without extra deposit or extra pet rent. People claim that you need to accept dangerous breeds, but there is precedence that says you don't have to. If the animal poses a direct threat to the safety of others, you do not need to accept it. There is also legal precedence through court cases that if your insurance doesn't accept the breed, it would be an unreasonable burden to have you accept the animal. Obviously if your insurance will drop you, how can you accept the animal?

@Cody Barrett you can legally ask only two questions for Service Animals covered under the ADA per the DOJ per policy from 2013. The court case you referenced predates this DOJ ruling. The other thing I would point out is that the animal in that case doesn't appear to have been trained, so it wasn't a Service Animal, but as actually an Emotional Support Animal. I am not a legal expert but I think some of the questions you are proposing could be illegal to ask:

https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=servanimals_ntcfheo2013-01.pdf