Landlord Question and Answer Forum

what information can I ask the tenant to provide for support his dog is a service animal? Tenant provided a California service assist tag and documention to support the tag. Can I ask him to provide something from his doctor stating he requires a service animal?

An actual service dog cannot be denied due to the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). Even if you don't allow pets, service dogs are not considered "pets" as they are medically necessary. You can be sued and pay penalties not only to the tenant but also to the government to the tune of several thousand dollars if you discriminate based on medical need. A service animal must perform a function or task that is directly related to a need the disabled person requires assistance with. Owners have the responsibility of keeping their service animals well-behaved. The owners must keep their service animals under control at all times. A service animal is required to be on a leash unless the leash prevents the animal from performing its duties. If the service animal is not leashed, the owner must keep it under control using other methods such as voice commands or hand signals. Establishments are not required to care for service animals. Owners must provide all care for and cleanup after the service animals. The ADA allows establishments to ask owners of service dogs only two questions. The two allowed questions are: 1) Is the animal a service animal needed for a disability? 2) What function or task is the service animal trained to do? An establishment cannot ask any additional questions, cannot require medical documentation, cannot ask for training documentation for the service animal and cannot ask the owner to have the service animal demonstrate tasks or functions. The ADA is a federal act. Federal law trumps state and city laws. A state or city can impose its own service animal laws as long as the laws do not go against the federal ADA.

Posted by Dawn A, WI on Sunday, December 23, 2012

I have a prospective tenant that has 2 service dogs. Can I limit a tenant to 1 service animal? Can I charge additional pet deposit for each dog?

Posted by TIMOTHY A, CA on Wednesday, October 24, 2018