14
Rental Housing Association of WA SUPPORT CENTER
Must I Allow Assistance Animals? Denise Myers |
Director of Education + Resources
| dmyers@RHAwa.org | (206) 905-0614
Under the Fair Housing fair housing complaint can Act and Washington State result in thousands of dollaw, residential tenants with lars in fines, attorney fees, disabilities have the right and other costs. to reasonable accommodations or modifications. If the disability or need for Common accommodation the accommodation is not requests include assistance obvious, the housing proanimals, additional occuvider can request a letter pants for caregiving, refrom the tenant's licensed Denise Myers served parking, or transfers. care provider (doctor, theraAssistance animals include pist, clergy, etc.) stating that any type of animal typically kept in they are disabled and need the specific households, require no training, and animal or other accommodation due to can be used to assist with any type of their disability. The housing provider disability from blindness to deprescan request specific documentation for sion. Modification requests include each animal or other accommodation permission to install wheelchair ramps, requested, but only if the need is not handrails and other physical changes obvious. to the rental property. These types of modifications are generally done at the If a request results in an unreasonable tenant's expense. financial or administrative burden or would change the nature of the housing Failure to process requests appropriprovider’s business, they must work ately is the cause for over 50% of all with the tenant to find a reasonable fair housing complaints, and most of alternative solution. If at any time a these are about assistance animals. A tenant requests an accommodation and
it becomes challenging to find a mutually acceptable solution, consider consulting an attorney before denying the request. The housing provider should think of the assistance animal as an extension of the tenant, like a wheelchair. Therefore, it follows that: • They are prohibited from applying any fees or special policies, with one exception. It is OK to require that the animal is in compliance with local laws, including any license/vaccination requirements. • If the animal disturbs other tenants, makes a mess, or damages property, they may serve notice to the tenant to comply with rules or vacate. • The tenant may be held liable for any damage the animal (or wheelchair) does to property or persons.
acceptable to explain that the animal's presence is due to a disability accommodation under the fair housing act, but do not share any details about the tenant or their disability. For detailed guidance on accommodating assistance animals, see U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Guidance Document, Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Fair Housing Act (FHEO Notice: FHEO-2020-01 issued January 28, 2020). Processing quests
Accommodation
Re-
When processing an accommodation or modification request from a tenant with a disability, the housing provider can take steps to confirm that there is a disability-related need and that the request is reasonable.
In a multifamily building, other tenants may complain about the presence of an animal in a no-pets building. It is
©2022 Rental Housing Association of Washington | www.RHAwa.org. This article was written and edited by RHAWA representatives and is intended for the use of RHAWA members only. Copyrighted members-only materials may not be further disseminated. Formal legal advice and review is recommended prior to selection and use of this information. RHAWA does not represent your selection or execution of this information as appropriate for your specific circumstance. The material contained and represented herein, although obtained from reliable sources, is not considered legal advice or to be used as a substitution for legal counsel.
