Weekly Training Tip: Assistance Animals are not Pets

Grace Hill Training Tip of the Week

A Mantra Worth Repeating: Assistance Animals are not Pets

HUD recently announced a Conciliation Agreement between two Nevada real estate companies and a prospective resident to resolve a claim that the companies denied the prospective resident’s request to have an assistance animal live with her in her apartment home. Read the agreement here. 

The prospective resident reported that she provided documentation from her doctor showing she needed the assistance animal because of her disability. According to the complaint, a leasing agent told her that the owner did not allow pets because hardwood floors had recently been installed. At that point, the prospective resident did not continue trying to lease the apartment.

Under the agreement, the two companies must pay the prospective resident $6,000, take fair housing training and adopt policies that handle reasonable accommodation requests on a timely way and maintain records related to the accommodation requests.

Remember, to remove barriers that people with disabilities often face when searching for and living in rental homes, it may be necessary to make changes to community rules, policies, procedures, or services. These kinds of changes are called reasonable accommodations. If the requests are reasonable and would not cause undue hardship to your community’s business operations, fair housing laws require you to make accommodations for people with disabilities.

One of the most common accommodation requests is to have an animal that would otherwise be restricted by a community’s rules. In these cases, it is important to understand that service and assistance animals are not pets. Rather, they provide an important service to people with disabilities. You must know how to handle these accommodation requests in compliance with the law.

Here are some important points to remember:

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  Under the FHA and Section 504, individuals with a disability may be entitled to an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation in housing that otherwise restricts or prohibits animals. Assistance animals include service, companion, and emotional support animals. Assistance animals may be any type of animal, and no training is required.

• There are strict guidelines for what you may ask a person requesting a reasonable accommodation. Not following them puts you at risk of committing disability discrimination.
• Never ask for specifics about a person’s disability. All that’s required is reliable documentation of a disability and that the animal provides disability-related assistance or emotional support.
• If you doubt the credibility of documentation related to an accommodation request, you can ask for more information. Be sure to proceed carefully and consult your legal counsel.

If you have doubts about how to proceed with any request related to assistance animals, reach out to your supervisor or legal counsel for help.  Not doing so may cost you and your company dearly.