Do Vets Make Letters For Service Animals

Concluding Updated: 1970-01-01

When managing a rental property, whether it is pet-friendly or not, y'all volition nigh probable meet tenants with service dogs. Equally a landlord, you are permitted to ask your tenant for specific documentation. However, yous must ever keep accessibility and fair housing laws in heed. Continue reading to acquire about landlord-tenant rights regarding service dogs and the kind of proof that you are allowed to ask for.

Types of Service Dogs

Information technology'south essential to understand the differences betwixt the types of service dogs people can have. Not all of these dogs take the same skills or rights. Here are the iii chief kinds of service dogs and their specifications:

So, in theory, the two types of dogs that you'll be encountering are service dogs and emotional support animals (ESA). (Keep in listen that a tenant may have an emotional support animate being that is not a dog.) There are a variety of subsets of service dogs that are trained to help people with unique disabilities. For instance, some service dogs may specialize in guiding individuals who are blind or alerting their owners of dangerously high or low levels of blood carbohydrate.

Service dogs take special training to aid their possessor with their particular disability. An emotional back up dog, on the other hand, does not take whatsoever special training. This is simply an animate being that provides comfort and companionship to an private with mental health problems. A licensed therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist volition usually write an ESA letter to verify that the patient needs the domestic dog to improve their status.

Reasonable Accommodations

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

• An attainable route into and through the unit.
• Accessible lite switches, electric outlets, thermostats, and other ecology controls.
• Reinforced bathroom walls to permit subsequently installation of grab bars.
• Kitchens and bathrooms that tin can be used by people in wheelchairs.

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

Landlords are NOT required to make a reasonable adaptation under the Fair Housing Act 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 broker
• Hotels and motels are not considered dwellings under the Off-white Housing Act merely are considered places of public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Individual clubs

General Landlord Requirements

In general, a landlord:

• Tin can not require a pet eolith for a service dog or emotional support animal. However, the possessor of the service animal is liable for any damages, across wear and tear, that may be caused past the canis familiaris. This includes teeth marks on trim, carpeting torn by a dog's excavation, and carpeting soiled past canis familiaris waste material 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 beast or emotional support animal verified past a licensed mental wellness professional.
• Is permitted to exclude a dog, including a trained, certified service dog, if the presence of the animal poses a directly threat to the safety of those located on or nearly the premises. The canis familiaris may as well exist banned from the property if it interferes with the covenant of tranquillity enjoyment of other tenants or neighbors. However, the landlord may choose to allow the tenant to stay, equally long equally the dog is no longer nowadays.

Kinds of Documentation You tin can Ask For

Here is the kind of documentation you are allowed to ask for if your tenant claims to have a service dog or emotional back up dog. Service dogs and ESAs are not the aforementioned and they are treated differently under federal police force. Landlords may require medical documentation for ESAs, simply not for service dogs.

• A letter of the alphabet from the tenant'south licensed therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist stating that they need the domestic dog to assistance alleviate their symptoms. The letter should be an official document with the letterhead of the mental health professional along with their contact data, telephone number, and email accost. The letter should also include the professional's license number. Every bit a landlord, you can verify the letter in a number of ways. Keep in mind, however, that yous may non, for whatever reason, have direct contact with your tenant's therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist. Present, it's very easy to produce fake ESA messages. Y'all can verify your tenant's letter by:
  • Politely talk to the tenant and ask them well-nigh the letter. Remember non to be accusatory; your tenant has called to disclose to yous that they demand special accommodations, so e'er be considerate.
  • Looking up the mental wellness professional's license number and verifying its validity. You can do this past visiting the country website for their clinical discipline and entering their license number. If you have problem, your tenant should be able to obtain a screenshot of their counselor's or md'due south license verification by contacting them. Notice the link to your state'due south license bureau here
  • Asking the tenant to accept their mental wellness professional fill out a reasonable accommodation form. Hither is an example of the document constitute online.
• Identification of the service dog, such as a photo.
• Verification from the tenant (or their family member/caretaker), in writing, stating (1) that the tenant or a member of his or her family is a person with a disability; (ii) the need for the brute to aid the person with that specific inability; and (3) that the animal actually assists the person with a disability.
• Copies of the animate being's medical records to ensure they are in good health, parasite-gratuitous and immunized/vaccinated.

What You Tin Not Enquire For

The post-obit items are the kinds of proof you lot are not allowed to ask for:

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

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

Refusing Service Dogs

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

Some domestic dog breeds are considered "dangerous" and many insurance companies change policies because of the supposed higher risk involved. The dogs believed to accept a propensity for violence are Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, Chows, Akitas, Alaskan Malamutes, German language Shepherds, Siberian Huskies, St. Bernards, and Wolf Hybrids. It also 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 adios a tenant because of the domestic dog:

• The tenant is not legally disabled or cannot evidence it in writing via a health care professional.
• The aid beast is non prescribed for the treatment of the tenant's specific disability or no nexus is demonstrated or backed up in writing past a health care professional.
• The assistance animal would create an undue burden.
• The assistance animal is illegal or otherwise non allowed co-ordinate to country or municipal law.
• The beast is a directly threat to the wellness and safety of other tenants which cannot exist reduced or eliminated.
• The presence of the animal "fundamentally alters the nature of the housing provider's operations."
• The tenant won't accept responsibility for the creature, such every bit cleaning upward waste material, letting information technology run free, or resolving dissonance problems.

No matter what, you should ever be aware of your state laws, the Fair Housing Act, and your requirements for accessibility.

Source: https://ipropertymanagement.com/blog/service-dog-documentation

Posted by: frostdescear.blogspot.com

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