What are Emotional Support Animals?

If you’re selling or renting property, you may have tenants or possible future residents who have an emotional support animal or ESA. You may be wondering whether or not you have to accommodate them—is an ESA even a “real thing?”

Only for Housing

The first thing to remember is that ESAs largely have to do with living accommodations. The requirements for actual service animals in public places, or in the workplace, are different kinds of animals, under different kinds of laws, and those laws tend to be much stricter.

ESAs are Not Service Animals

ESAs do not require any training, the way that actual service animals may require. They don’t have to do any specific task, or perform any specific function, the way that service animals do. ESAs often help with people who have emotional or mental disabilities, such as anxiety or depression or bipolarity, or even panic attacks, but those people don’t need any specific service done by the animal—the animal’s mere presence is the service.

ESAs also do not directly assist with psychiatric illness. For example, an actual service animal may help someone with seizure disorders, or assist people with rage or anger or temper issues. ESAs can do those things as well, but they don’t have to in order to be an ESA.

Because ESAs have fewer requirements and require no specialized training, they aren’t allowed in the same places as actual service animals, so someone who has an ESA for housing can’t necessarily bring that animal to a restaurant or on a plane, for example.

Getting Documentation

Any medical provider can document a disability warranting an ESA, so long as the provider has actual experience and familiarity with the patient and provides proof on the provider’s letterhead.

For housing, things can get difficult—on the one hand, there is no shortage of “get your dog certified in a day” websites that do little diagnosing, as compared to real, bona fide ESA prescribed by a provider who actually knows the patient.

Liability Issues

The problem for property owners is liability should the property owner challenge the ESA too much.

Many medical providers are wary of divulging confidential medical information, and keep these letters very vague—so vague that a property owner may not know if the ESA request is legitimate or not.

However, while some clarification can be requested, property owners are not entitled to know the entirety of someone’s diagnosis, or inquire as to their medical history. And you also cannot deny someone an ESA accommodation because they didn’t provide you with an exact diagnosis. General questions like what kind of support the animal provides may be asked.

Obviously, even with an ESA, property owners are allowed to deny a dog that may be dangerous to others, or which may be a nuisance.

Questions about housing laws, or staying in compliance with government laws? Call the West Palm Beach commercial litigation attorneys at Pike & Lustig to help you with your business contracts.

Sources:

hud.gov/sites/dfiles/PA/documents/HUDAsstAnimalNC1-28-2020.pdf

psychiatry.org/getattachment/3d42da2a-9a4d-4479-869f-4dd1718f1815/Resource-Document-Emotional-Support-Animals.pdf