How To Ask If A Dog Is A Service Dog

Last Updated: 1970-01-01

When managing a rental belongings, whether it is pet-friendly or not, you lot will nearly likely encounter tenants with service dogs. As a landlord, you are permitted to ask your tenant for specific documentation. However, you must ever keep accessibility and fair housing laws in mind. Keep reading to learn about landlord-tenant rights regarding service dogs and the kind of proof that you are allowed to enquire for.

Types of Service Dogs

It's essential to empathize the differences between the types of service dogs people can have. Not all of these dogs have the same skills or rights. Here are the three principal kinds of service dogs and their specifications:

Types of Service Dogs

So, in theory, the two types of dogs that you'll exist encountering are service dogs and emotional support animals (ESA). (Continue in heed that a tenant may have an emotional support animal that is not a dog.) There are a variety of subsets of service dogs that are trained to assistance people with unique disabilities. For instance, some service dogs may specialize in guiding individuals who are bullheaded or alerting their owners of dangerously loftier or depression levels of blood saccharide.

Service dogs have special grooming to assist their owner with their particular disability. An emotional back up dog, on the other manus, does not have any special grooming. This is simply an animal that provides comfort and companionship to an individual with mental health issues. A licensed therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist will commonly write an ESA letter to verify that the patient needs the dog to improve their condition.

Reasonable Accommodations

If your tenant has a disability, they are able to request reasonable accommodations for their condition. Reasonable accommodations are changes in property rules, policies, or practices and so that a person with a disability tin can live in or utilize a housing unit. Note that at that place are certain requirements all units must meet regardless of the presence of a tenant with a disability. All rental units must have:

An accessible route into and through the unit.
Attainable light switches, electric outlets, thermostats, and other environmental controls.
Reinforced bathroom walls to allow later installation of grab bars.
Kitchens and bathrooms that can be used past people in wheelchairs.

Reasonable accommodations include waiving a "no pets" policy for someone who requires an aid animate being.

Landlords are Non required to make a reasonable accommodation nether the Off-white Housing Human activity for service dogs in these cases:

Buildings with 4 or fewer units where the landlord occupies one of the units
Single-family housing sold or rented without a real manor banker
Hotels and motels are not considered dwellings under the Off-white Housing Human action but are considered places of public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Private clubs

General Landlord Requirements

In full general, a landlord:

Can non require a pet deposit for a service dog or emotional support animal. However, the owner of the service beast is liable for any damages, beyond wear and tear, that may be caused by the canis familiaris. This includes teeth marks on trim, carpet torn by a canis familiaris's digging, and carpet soiled by dog waste or vomit.
May require some sort of proof of disability as a status of accommodation, and some sort of proof the animal in question is a trained service brute or emotional support animal verified by a licensed mental health professional.
Is permitted to exclude a domestic dog, including a trained, certified service domestic dog, if the presence of the animate being poses a straight threat to the safe of those located on or near the premises. The domestic dog may also be banned from the property if it interferes with the covenant of quiet enjoyment of other tenants or neighbors. Nevertheless, the landlord may cull to allow the tenant to stay, every bit long as the dog is no longer present.

Kinds of Documentation You tin Inquire For

Here is the kind of documentation y'all are allowed to ask for if your tenant claims to have a service dog or emotional support dog. Service dogs and ESAs are not the same and they are treated differently under federal law. Landlords may crave medical documentation for ESAs, just not for service dogs.

A letter from the tenant's licensed therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist stating that they need the dog to help alleviate their symptoms. The letter should exist an official certificate with the letterhead of the mental health professional along with their contact information, phone number, and email address. The letter should as well include the professional's license number. As a landlord, you can verify the letter in a number of ways. Keep in heed, however, that you may not, for any reason, have direct contact with your tenant'south therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist. Nowadays, it's very easy to produce fake ESA letters. You can verify your tenant'due south letter by:
- Politely talk to the tenant and ask them about the letter of the alphabet. Remember non to be accusatory; your tenant has chosen to disclose to yous that they need special accommodations, and then always be considerate.
- Looking upwards the mental health professional'southward license number and verifying its validity. You lot can do this past visiting the state website for their clinical discipline and entering their license number. If you have trouble, your tenant should be able to obtain a screenshot of their counselor'south or doctor's license verification by contacting them. Notice the link to your country's license bureau here
- Asking the tenant to take their mental health professional fill out a reasonable adaptation class. Here is an example of the document institute online.
Identification of the service dog, such as a photograph.
Verification from the tenant (or their family unit fellow member/caretaker), in writing, stating (1) that the tenant or a fellow member of his or her family is a person with a disability; (ii) the need for the brute to assistance the person with that specific disability; and (iii) that the creature actually assists the person with a disability.
Copies of the animal's medical records to ensure they are in skillful health, parasite-free and immunized/vaccinated.

What You Can Not Ask For

The following items are the kinds of proof you are not allowed to ask for:

A service dog's certification or training papers. While you are immune to enquire for some sort of proof of a canis familiaris's role as a service dog, you are not necessarily immune to inquire to see certification. This is because of the rules outlined by the ADA utilize to housing likewise.
Access to a tenant's medical records.
Specific information about the tenant's disabilities. You are non allowed to ask any questions like:
- "Do y'all have a disability?"
- "How severe is your inability?"
- "May I have permission to see your medical records?"
- "Take you ever been hospitalized considering of a mental disability?"
- "Have yous always been in a drug rehabilitation program?"
- "Do you take medications?"
- "How long have you been in therapy?"
- "How many sessions accept yous had with your therapist?"

You should never harass or accuse your tenant of lying. If you ask your tenant any of these personal questions, your actions may be considered discriminatory and in violation of the Fair Housing Human action.

Refusing Service Dogs

In rare cases, it may be possible to restrict a tenant from having a service domestic dog. A landlord is permitted to refuse adaptation for a service animal based on breed if allowing the animal would be unreasonable. For example, if your insurance carrier drops your coverage because of a restricted brood on the premises, you may exist able to refuse the service domestic dog.

Some canis familiaris breeds are considered "dangerous" and many insurance companies modify policies considering of the supposed higher risk involved. The dogs believed to have a propensity for violence are Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Chows, Akitas, Alaskan Malamutes, German Shepherds, Siberian Huskies, St. Bernards, and Wolf Hybrids. Information technology as well includes any mix of the dog breeds listed.

Here are some other reasons where you may have the right to deny a service dog or evict a tenant because of the dog:

The tenant is non legally disabled or cannot prove it in writing via a health intendance professional.
The assistance animal is not prescribed for the treatment of the tenant'south specific disability or no nexus is demonstrated or backed up in writing by a health intendance professional.
The aid animal would create an undue burden.
The assistance animal is illegal or otherwise not allowed according to state or municipal law.
The animate being is a direct threat to the health and prophylactic of other tenants which cannot be reduced or eliminated.
The presence of the fauna "fundamentally alters the nature of the housing provider's operations."
The tenant won't take responsibility for the animal, such as cleaning up waste matter, letting it run free, or resolving dissonance problems.

No matter what, y'all should always exist aware of your state laws, the Fair Housing Deed, and your requirements for accessibility.