On January 28, 2020, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a notice to help housing providers assess a tenant’s request for an animal as a reasonable accommodation (service animal or emotion support animal).
The notice states “…FHA complaints concerning denial of reasonable accommodation and disability access comprises almost 60% of all FHA complaints and those involving request for reasonable accommodations for assistance animals are significantly increasing.” It is very important for Landlords to understand their obligation to review reasonable accommodations from Tenants and the below notice from HUD helps guide you through assessing these requests.
This notice includes a step by step method to assess these requests and our office highly suggest that all Landlords read through this notice and use it moving forward when assessing a tenant’s requests for an animal.