It is clear that just about all (if not all) of the federal, state, and local fair housing agencies are dealing with the exponential growth of online medical verifications for emotional support animals (ESA’s). I have addressed any number of ESA issues in this space. Professional apartment management companies continue to look for the appropriate sweet spot of ensuring that everyone with a legitimate disability is granted the accommodation they need, while at the same time raising appropriate questions about medical verifications that appear to have been purchased online after a few clicks of a computer mouse (or now just on a smart phone) and a $69.99 charge on a credit card (or perhaps $125 if you need the letter overnight).
Many of my clients now seek supplemental information whey they receive what appear to be the online ESA form letters. I have a drawer full of the same letter, signed by some of the same online providers. In return, I get nasty grams from the online providers concluding my clients are violating the fair housing laws because they did not simply accept their verification as presented. I don’t mind taking the heat, but it is always good when a governmental entity blesses our efforts to confirm that medical verifications are legitimate.
To that end, the Virginia Real Estate Board and Fair Housing Board issued a Guidance Document evaluating Reasonable Accommodation Requests for Assistance Animals. Addressing the reliable medical verification concern, the guidance provides that professional apartment management “should not be daunted by the prospect of potential litigation into accepting dubious verifications limited to vague statements of how an assistance animal would benefit the requester, but rather should insist on supplemental credible confirmation of [an] underlying disability. As with any other reasonable accommodation request, housing providers are absolutely within their rights to focus first on establishing the legitimacy of the requesting party’s disability status as defined by fair housing law.” That is all we want.
The Guidance further confirms that housing providers “may request that verifiers authenticate all or some of the following information to help evaluate their reliability and knowledge of the requester’s disability.” As such, I continue to believe we are well within our rights to continue to seek information concerning the:
*General location of where the care was provided as well as the duration of the care (such as the number of in-person sessions within the preceding year);
*Whether the verifier is accountable to or subject to any regulatory body or professional entity for acts of misconduct;
*Whether the verifier is trained in any field or specialty related to persons with disabilities or the particular impairment cited; and/or
*Whether the verifier is recognized by consumers, peers, or the public as a credible provider of therapeutic care.
Will guidance like this stop the highly questionable ESA medical verifications? No. But let’s hope our efforts to seek supplemental information when something looks like it has been purchased online continue to be validated.
Just A Thought.
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