How much is maintenance and preventative maintenance on that sort of house?

I would worry if the floors were out of kilter enough to prevent a normal person from standing up right or walking on the floor without falling.

If lots of crud was knocked into the pipes, that screen could very likely be clogged blocking any water flow to the washer.

Just imagine if there was no exemption, we'd have entities filling things out with "I don't know" all the way through and then people would argue that they did know or should have known and on and on, it would just clog up the courts even more and lower the prices even more. 

But I also don't want to pay a $225 service call to a plumber every time a toilet is clogged.

Way to go tenantresourcecenter...Check this out: https://www.rentprep.com/property-management/landlord-guide-assistance-animals/Regardless, I think one of the easiest ways to prevent the ESA lies is to just allow pets and have a very strong pet policy. 

I understand the spirit of preventing investors from using loans meant for owner-occs, but that argument doesn't fully explain this provision in my opinion.

But when your house is on fire and you see someone pouring gasoline on it, you suddenly become uninterested in who started the fire and more concerned with those preventing you from putting it out. 

We would just refund it to prevent any issues. 

I got to the point where I provided 3-4 very accurate comps to every appraiser, prior to the appraisal process, so they knew I understood the market should valuation come up short - that step went a long way in preventing issues!