Key Takeaways

• Landlords Must Make Reasonable Accommodations for Service Animals: Under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), landlords are legally required to allow service and emotional support animals, even if their rental property has a “no pets” policy.
• Know the Difference Between Service and Companion Animals: Service animals are trained dogs that assist with specific disabilities, while companion or emotional support animals provide comfort without specialized training. Both may qualify for reasonable accommodation under federal law.
• Understand What You Can and Cannot Do Legally: Landlords cannot charge pet deposits or fees, impose breed or size restrictions, or deny a qualified applicant due to a service animal. However, they may request documentation, require repairs for property damage, or take action if the animal poses a threat or disturbance.

As a rental property owner, you have the right to create your own pet policies. You can restrict the type, number, and breed of pet a resident can keep, for instance. 

Be that as it may, there are certain exemptions that must be made from such a policy, and that is residents who have a service dog or an emotional support animal.

This is because “disability” is one of the protected classes under the Federal Fair Housing Act (FHA). Residents with disabilities are also protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

These laws require landlords to provide disabled residents with reasonable accommodations, including allowing the resident to keep a service animal even when the rental policy doesn’t allow pets. 

In this blog by Specialized Property Management Oklahoma City, you’ll learn what you can and cannot do when renting to tenants with service animals. This should help clear up any ambiguity regarding a landlord’s responsibility for accommodating service animals on rented premises. 

What is an Assistance Animal? 

As a landlord, you may find yourself in a situation where you need to provide reasonable accommodation for assistance animals. When that time comes, you’ll want to ensure that you stay compliant to prevent any potential conflicts or misunderstandings with the resident. 

An assistance animal is a working animal that has been trained to assist persons with disability. There are two types of assistance animals: service animals and companion animals. 

Service Animals

A service animal is a dog that has been trained to assist a disabled owner. The task that the dog performs must be directly related to the disability the person has. 

The following are some examples of dogs that qualify to be service animals per the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

• A dog that alerts someone with diabetes about low blood sugar. 
• A dog that has specialized training to alert the owner about when to take medication. 
• A dog that detects when the owner who has epilepsy is at the onset of a seizure. 

Essentially, the difference between a pet and a service animal is the latter’s training and certification. They also usually have the appropriate license, and usually wear an identification collar on collar or harness. 

Companion Animals  

The other types of assistance animals are companion animals, therapy animals, or emotional support animals. All these terms are used to describe animals that provide their owners with comfort just by being there. 

These types of animals are common with people who suffer from conditions such as depression, anxiety, autism, or post-traumatic stress. 

Unlike service animals, companion animals don’t require any specialized training. A doctor’s approval usually suffices. 

What Legal Protections Do People with Assistance Animals Have? 

As a landlord, you have a legal obligation to accept assistance animals on your property. This is regardless of whatever restriction you may have on the rental agreement regarding pets. 

Other examples of accommodations you may need to make include assigning an accessible parking space close to the disabled resident’s unit, adjusting the rent payment schedule to match when the disabled resident gets their income assistance checks, or allowing a resident to transfer to the ground floor unit for easier access. 

Another legal responsibility landlords have regarding assistance animals is allowing reasonable modifications to the unit, usually at the resident’s expense. 

These might include installing grab bars in the bathroom or a ramp at the entrance of the unit, widening doorways, or lowering kitchen countertops. 

What Qualifies as a Disability under FHA and ADA? 

Per the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disability Act, a person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity may qualify for reasonable accommodations for disabilities. Examples of such activities include seeing, walking, cleaning, working, and dressing. 

What a Landlord Can and Cannot Do Regarding Assistance Animals

Landlords can require the resident to provide written verification from a qualified health care professional that they are qualified to keep a service animal. Landlords may also request copies of the animal’s health records. 

A landlord may evict a resident whose assistance animal poses a threat to others, disturbs others, or causes serious damage to the unit. In this case, you can also require a resident to revert any changes they have made to the unit before they can move out. 

However, a landlord may not collect a pet deposit or require the resident to pay a fee for having a service animal or enforce weight or breed restrictions for service animals.

It is unlawful to discriminate against a resident based on their disability or reject a resident’s request for reasonable accommodations or modifications to the unit. 

Bottom Line

Tenants with service animals enjoy certain special protections under both the FHA and ADA. You may also want to check for any additional protections at the local level for utmost compliance. 

If you have a question or need expert property management services, look no further than Specialized Property Management Oklahoma City. We have over 35 years of property management experience in the Oklahoma rental market. We can help you reduce stress and maximize your ROI. Contact us today to learn more!