Emotional support animal for permitted occupant

[John A.]

We have a tenant who wants us to allow them to add a new permitted occupant to their lease that has an emotional support dog. Since the permitted occupant is not our tenant what rules do we need to follow in this situation?  Any help is welcome.

[Nathan Gesner]

An emotional support animal has to be treated like any service animal, which means you can't discriminate against them any more than you could a wheelchair or crutches.

You could say, "I'm sorry but we don't allow pets." This is a tricky way of scaring off scammers because they won't know enough to push back and they will disappear. 

If the service animal is legit, the applicant will tell you, "This isn't a pet; it's a service animal." At that point, you can apologize for misunderstanding the situation and have them apply. You can still disqualify them for any reason you would normally disqualify someone (credit, criminal, lack of references, etc.).