Tenant pulls service dog for Pitbull
Longview, TX · Member since 2018 · 38 posts · 12 votes
This is an ongoing problem for landlords. @Nathan Gesner is spot on.
It's important to have a procedure in place for addressing accommodation requests.
People who fraudulently attempt to bring their pets into their rental home, in the guise of being a legitimate assistance animal (service animal or emotional support animal), often will drop the attempt as soon as they see I'm not so easily fooled.
Those with real disabilities and a real need for an accommodation appreciate my approach and have no problem providing the necessary documentation and agreeing to the terms of our addendum.
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SERVICE/ASSISTANCE ANIMAL AGREEMENT
(Addendum to Rental Agreement)
The Month-To-Month Rental Agreement (the “Agreement”) dated_______________________ between ________________________________________________________________, as Landlord and ________________________________________________________________, as Tenant
of real property located at _______________________________________________________, is hereby amended to include the following terms and conditions:
The rental agreement specifically prohibits keeping pets and animals without Landlord permission; Tenant agrees to follow these terms and conditions in exchange for permission to keep a specific animal:
Conditions for keeping a service animal or assistance animal [tenant must initial]:
_____ Tenant attests he/she has a confirmed disability as documented by a qualified professional.
_____ Tenant attests that this service/assistance animal provides a necessary service/assistance specific to Tenant’s disability as documented by a qualified professional.
Name of animal: ______________________________________________________________________
Description of animal: ________________________________________________________ (type, breed, color, age)
Veterinarian: _________________________________________________________________________
Emergency Caretaker: __________________________________________________________________
Tenant agrees to:
1.Provide proper care for the animal in accordance with veterinary recommendations or ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) guidelines.See www.aspca.org.
2.Not to leave the animal unattended for any unreasonable periods of time.
3.Adhere to local ordinances, including leash, vaccination, and tag/licensing, requirements.
4.Clean up after the animal and dispose of animal waste properly and quickly.
5.Not to leave animal food or water outside the dwelling, as it could attract other animals.
6.Keep the animal from being noisy, aggressive, or from causing any annoyance or discomfort to others.
7.Immediately remedy any complaints that arise from animal behavior.
8.Immediately pay for any damage, loss, or expense caused to others by the animal.
9.Provide animal with regular health care, to include inoculations as recommended by a veterinarian.
10.Spay or neuter the animal when it becomes of age to do so.
11.Arrange for an emergency caretaker for the animal.
12.Maintain adequate insurance to cover claims resulting from damages or injury caused by pet.
Tenant agrees to indemnify, hold harmless and defend Landlord against all liability, judgments, expenses (including attorney fees), or claims by third parties for any injury to any person or damage to property caused by Tenant’s animal.
Landlord reserves the right to revoke permission to keep the animal should Tenant break this agreement or provide false or misleading information.
Landord ___________________________________________________Date __________
Tenant______________________________________________________Date __________
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Absolutely!
It can be mighty confusing and there's rampant fraud. Misleading information is abundant on internet sites that encourage pet owners to re-frame their pets as service animals or assistance animals. Of course their interest is in selling product.
The airline industry has the Air Carrier Access Act, but that wasn't enough to protect the interests of the airlines and their passengers. So recently, airlines have been establishing their own guidelines.
Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia have laws or regulations prohibiting the misrepresentation of service animals, with the full support of the disability community. Hopefully more states will follow suit.
However, the housing industry is woefully behind. Especially as it relates to assistance animals. We need a call to action!
When is the inherited lease up? If its not very long, you may be best suited to ride it out and not renew.
If not, I'm with Thomas...... the lease states NO PETS....... he already broke the lease and you have grounds to evict based on that alone. He's trying to bypass that AFTER the fact...he signed a lease stating no pets, then got multiple pets without prior notification or approval. He isn't requesting the ability to have a ESA/service animal and you are denying it...he already broke the lease and now is asking to modify it after the fact.
@Stephen Benson I would be careful, there is some misinformation in the post. If a professional attests that the tenant requires an emotional support animal, there is no training or certification required of the animal.
In ADA which applies to all businesses, only service animals are allowed but in housing (FHAA) and airlines (ACAA), the right is also extended to disabled persons that need animals that only provide emotional support.
The landlord does not have the right to choose the professional who writes the letter verifying that the tenant requires a service animal (including an esa). They can’t disregard it based on where the tenant found them- such as online. The tenant does not have to disclose prior to application approval that they require a service animal in order to prevent discrimination.
If it would cause a hardship and your insurance may get cancelled, HUD expects you to look elsewhere for insurance. If you can prove that you did without success, you may have a stance. Keep in mind that Hud has filed discrimination lawsuits on other landlords who have refused to take pit bull emotional support animals. Actually, there have been many lawsuits filed with different outcomes. I hope we have more reasonable solutions and clarity soon. The landlord cannot require that the service animal be neutered. I don't know if it is legal to require insurance but I would get legal advice first.
With all of that being said, we have seen so many people lie about a disability in an attempt to use this as a loophole to get landlords to take vicious breed dogs. Not only is this dangerous since many of these dog breeds have the highest fatality rates in attacks on people, but it is also extremely unfair to disabled individuals who are truly in need of service animals.
I am sorry to have to post this. It is extremely frustrating for landlords and is hard to swallow but this is my understanding from extensive research.
@Stephen Benson the online letter isn't legitimate. It is like buying prescription pain pills on the dark web. Only a medical professional that is treating the tenant for a medical condition can "prescribe" emotional support animals.
Ask him to provide the name, phone number and address of the local medical professional that prescribed the animal. Tell him you have a form that you will mail to the medical professional and they need to return it signed. The tenant cannot provide the letter directly for the obvious reason that they can forge a document or buy a fake letter online. Send a request to the medical professional and ask them to sign the document stating the breed and number of animals required to treat the tenants condition. "I Dr. Smith attest under penalty of perjury that Tenant Anderson is under my medical care and requires two pit bulls for his medical treatment." Most likely no medical professional is going to put that in writing. Let's be real here. If those pit bull harm someone in the future, that letter could implicate the medical professional for liability by forcing you to accept the animals. Who would want to take that risk? It is doubtful you will get a letter.
If the tenant refuses to provide the name of a local medical professional, I would proceed with eviction. If you go to court, simply argue that the online certificate is illegitimate. Prior to court, I would visit the same website and other websites to get letters made in my name. Bring those to court and show the judge that you had the letters created within 5 minutes without any medical professional involved.
As a secondary argument, you can show a copy of your insurance policy where it states restricted breeds. You can argue to the court that you would lose your insurance, which is an undue burden for a landlord.
As a secondary (possibly easier) option, you may choose to not renew their lease on the grounds that you are going to rehab the property. Or maybe due to market changes, rent needs to increase $300 a month. Smile and tell them you love pit bulls and he has a letter, so of course this has nothing to do with that.
When a landlord is afraid to deal with issues like this head on, having a fill understanding of the law and is of the opinion a tenant is scamming the system, stop complaining and live with it. It is a simply fight or flight situation.
This subject has been flogged to death many times. The question always comes down to …..do I ignore the issue or do I challenge. Assess the situation, determine in your opinion whether the tenant is lying or not and if so decide if you have the stones to enforce your lease. If you are afraid to enforce your lease then live with it. That is the advice many will prescribe but only a fool would have language in their lease they are not prepared to enforce.
If you do not see this as black and white then open your doors and accept all pets, including dangerous breed dogs, with open arms. Manage your property or let your tenants manage it. If you are afraid to take action then remove all restrictions from your lease you will not enforce and you will never again have to face a problem decision.
You know we have all these landlord associations to join and they tout all this BS about political pacts and legal assistance. This is the leading topic of injustice to our profession but they only give some advice (just parroted from other publications) pretending they are helping us. I am in Texas, almost east Texas (Pit bull capital of the world) the apartment association over here is plain spineless and full of BS so the landlords are then weak and spineless but I am not. I installed cameras and let the people know we may very well challenge and sue them with recorded evidence even after they move in. Basically, you need to learn to talk tough, back it up and know how not to cross the line. I wish that line was not so foggy.
I would go the insurance route as noted above. There is little chance that your insurance provider will cover a pit bull under your current policy. But they can quote you a policy for coverage for a million dollar liability on that pit bull. However, you will not be able to afford the rates.
So, there is the undue burden on you as the landlord. that allows you to say you can not make accommodations for such an animal.
It is the same as if a person applied for an apartment on the second floor and after being accepted stated they were in a wheel chair and since the apartment is on the second floor you as the landlord must install a ramp or lift that makes the second floor handicapped accessible. That would be an undue burden and allow you to not rent to the potential tenant.
I like that Micheal Jones that is the best advice so far. However, I think we have to let the tenant have the option of paying the additional rates
Another way of looking at it, why the pit bull ? tell them sure ESA dog are no problem but you need tell their shrink to get them a different animal since Hud says they are not your pet any way.