In the last few years, employers, education institutions, and places of public accommodation (e.g., airports, grocery stores, and hotels) have seen an increase in individuals who want to bring their Assistance Animal, Service...more
Laws regarding service and emotional support animals can be confusing to property owners—and guidance can vary depending upon the type of animal and its function. For example, recently, the Department of Housing and Urban...more
Recently, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a charge of discrimination claiming (Charge) claiming Missouri landlord Dahms Investments, L.L.C. (Dahms) violated the FHA by requiring a prospective...more
A handful of helpful reminders today in response to questions sent in by blog readers: 1. If you are going to draft community rules and policies (indeed, a best practice in my view) please remember not to single out...more
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on Jan. 28, issued new guidance on requests for reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act (FHA) relative to “assistance animals” in various...more
Your humble Fair Housing Defense blog editor appreciated hearing from a number of you concerning the new HUD guidance addressing reasonable accommodation requests for animals under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). In response to...more
In another helpful development for the professional apartment management industry, last week the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) issued a long-awaited guidance document concerning use of an animal as a...more
Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued its new guidance, “Assessing a Person’s Request to Have an Animal as a Reasonable Accommodation under the Fair Housing Act.” In the...more
In a statement issued at the end of last week, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) announced it resolved a disability discrimination Fair Housing Act (FHA) case in California asserting that various...more
In a press release issued last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reported that a condominium association in New Jersey agreed to pay $30,000 to resolve allegations under the Fair Housing Act...more
When I do fair housing training, I always say to my audience that if one of you has a question, I am willing to bet another person in the room has the same question....more
In a press release dated yesterday, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) stated that it charged a residential property owner (and an agent) in Maine with violating the Fair Housing Act (FHA) related to an...more
Dogs can bring us companionship, a sense of purpose and enhanced health. Fortunately, courts (and landlords) are increasingly recognizing that an emotional support dog may be a reasonable accommodation of a disability under...more
Loyal Fair Housing Defense blog readers (thank you very much) know that I defend (and report on) what seems like a never ending stream of emotional support animal (ESA) housing discrimination cases these days. The typical run...more
On October 24, 2018, Governor Wolf signed HB 2049 into law as Act 118. The Assistance and Service Animal Integrity Act (“ASAIA”), is Pennsylvania’s initial legislative response to the growing concern among property managers,...more
Late last month, the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) charged a condominium association in New Jersey with disability discrimination in violation of the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA). According to HUD,...more
A little housing policy inside baseball today. Those of us in the multifamily housing space are waiting for our friends at HUD to act on two matters of interest: First, as previously noted, HUD issued an advance notice of...more
On October 11, 2018, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that a disability discrimination claim from California settled for $8,500. The agreement resolved a complaint filed by a resident with...more
There are many local jurisdictions around the country which have adopted what are referred to as a Breed Specific Law (BSL). As might be expected from its name, a BSL prohibits certain dog breeds (and/or breed mixes) from...more
I have had a handful of reasonable accommodation requests come across my desk over the last month with the same issue: when the leasing office gets a medical verification, the health care provider identifies that the resident...more
Last month the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) approved a settlement agreement concluding an assistance animal Fair Housing Act (FHA) discrimination case from Nevada. An applicant submitted a reasonable...more
A couple of assistance animal related questions have hit my desk recently. At properties which have pools, can assistance animals accompany residents into the pool area? How about into the pool? No, I am not making that...more
...Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), “Service Animals” are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. This means the dog must be trained to take a...more
I have used this space (and elsewhere) to discuss various issues involving service and emotional support animals for apartment community residents. Included in that, of course, is that management must make a reasonable...more
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...more