However reasonable your suspicions, it’s necessary to set them aside and handle the request as a request for a reasonable accommodation. Communities may enforce policies to ban or restrict pet ownership, but it’s unlawful to refuse reasonable and necessary accommodations to residents who need assistance animals to help them with their disabilities.
If in doubt about whether the resident has a disability-related need to keep an assistance animal, you should ask for more information so you can respond properly to the request. Rejecting it out of hand can only lead to fair housing trouble.
Example: In January 2015, HUD charged a Brooklyn cooperative community with discriminating against a veteran with a psychiatric disability for refusing to let him keep an emotional support animal. According to HUD, the community wrongfully denied the resident’s request for a reasonable accommodation even though he provided medical documentation verifying his condition and need for the dog and took steps to evict him and his wife in retaliation for filing a fair housing complaint. The case will be heard by an administrative judge unless either party takes the case to federal court [Secretary, HUD v. Trump Village Section IV Inc., January 2015].
If the resident qualifies for a reasonable accommodation to keep an assistance animal, then you’ll also have to waive any extra fees or deposits under your pet policy. According to federal guidelines, communities may not require individuals with disabilities to pay extra fees or security deposits as a condition of allowing them to keep an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation. If you insist that the resident must pay the pet fee to keep an assistance animal, then you could be hit with hefty penalties.
Example: In November 2014, the owners and manager of a Washington community agreed to pay $25,000 to resolve allegations that they refused to grant a reasonable accommodation to waive a $1,000 pet deposit for a resident with mental disabilities who needed a dog as an emotional support animal. Allegedly, they refused to grant the waiver despite numerous attempts by the resident to provide documentation of her disability and her need for the emotional support animal. The complaint also accused them of retaliating against her for filing a fair housing complaint with HUD [U.S. v. Barber, November 2014].
Though dogs are at the center of many fair housing cases, you should be prepared for requests to keep cats, birds, ferrets, reptiles, and other types of animals as assistance animals. According to HUD, species other than dogs, with or without training, and animals that provide emotional support have been recognized as necessary assistance animals under fair housing law.
