Image credit to: Pixabay
In the past, many tenants who have a physical or mental disability have been the victim of discrimination from landlords. Still, according to the Fair Housing Act, Landlords who discriminate against people with any kind of disability are breaking the law. The Fair Housing Act is a federal law, effective in the United States of America, that states that discrimination against tenants with a disability is prohibited and against the law. The definition of disability is the mental or physical impairment that may prevent one from accomplishing one or more major life activities.
How is the Fair Housing Act related to the Emotional Support Animals? People owning emotional support animals are people going through distress; these animals are not pets; they are therapeutic; they are meant to support individuals suffering from mental health issues, or people with mental disability. So even though a landlord may prohibit pets and have pet rules, the same rules do not apply to Emotional Support Animals, because prohibiting the ESAs would mean that the landlord is breaking the Fair Housing Act.
Any person going through a mental situation and has emotional support animals has the right to bring their animals to any building, despite the pet rules applying in the building. If you have an emotional support animal, how would you prove to your landlord that what you are having is not a pet but an emotional support animal? Because few people would find it hard to distinguish. You need to have an ESA Letter for housing, which acts as a recommendation letter from a licensed healthcare professional.
How come Emotional Support Animals get the Special Treatment?
Image credit to: Pixabay
Looking at emotional support animals and pets, they are the same in terms of physicality, yet ESAs are protected by the law. In contrast, tenants with pets have to comply with pets rules and maybe pay pet deposits while moving into a building. Emotional Support Animals are meant to help people dealing with mental health disabilities cope with life, they are quite therapeutic, and they help calm down individuals with anxiety, and other mental health problems. Companionship offered by ESAs helps individuals dealing with mental disability cope with their stressful situations, they help these tenants live a healthy life, so prohibiting tenants from owning ESAs means that you are discriminating against their mental health disability. According to the Fair Housing Acts, discrimination of people with disabilities of any kind is breaking the law.
What Documents do you need to provide for Emotional Support Animals?
The landlord has the right to ask for proper documentation, according to the Fair Housing Act. Otherwise, how else will the landlord differentiate between a pet owner and a person who has a disability? The only documentation required is an ESA Letter from a licensed healthcare practitioner. These licensed healthcare practitioners may include Psychologists, Nurses and Nurse Practitioners, Physicians and Physician Assistants, Licensed therapists, licensed counselors, and Social workers. The law also requires that the letter should be specific, that the patient suffers from a mental or emotional impairment, and that the Emotional Support Animal helps alleviate the same symptoms.
Bottom Line
Emotional Support Animals are great companions for individuals suffering from mental and emotional impairment. Despite the fact that the Fair Housing Acts protects this group of tenants from landlord pet rules, some landlords may refuse to comply with the rule, and they will put up roadblocks to prevent tenants from living with animals within their premises. The first thing you should do as a tenant is to inform the landlord of the Fair Housing Act because most landlords refuse because they do not know of the rule. If the landlord refuses to comply, file the case in the department of housing office of fair housing and equal opportunity. The landlord will be charged for refusing to comply with the law, and in the future, more landlords will get to know about the rule.
