Don’t Go There: Asking Condo/HOA Owners to Reapply for Their Emotional Support Animal
HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - January 12,
2024
In this week's tip, we discuss the concept of a board ultimately telling an owner: "Hey, you've had your dog for a year. It's time for the dog to go!"
That's potentially what could happen at the end of a process asked about by an HOAleader.com reader. Our reader wonders if you can require that letters for emotional support animals be renewed annually. The experts we reached out to all say this is not permissible. It's also potentially unkind to both people and
animals.
As you surely know, the Fair Housing Act requires your condo or HOA to make reasonable accommodations for those with disabilities, and that has grown to include approval for emotional support animals. And as our reader notes, it's
not always visibly apparent that someone has a disability, so the law permits HOAs to ask basic questions to verify that a disability exists.
"Obviously, the FHA incorporates a wide range of disabilities, including mental illnesses, and
sometimes the board may not know what those illnesses are," explains Bree Anne Stopera, an associate at Makower Abbate Guerra Wegner Vollmer PLLC in Farmington Hills, Mich., whose firm represents more than 2,000 community associations throughout the state.
"The FHA does allow boards to ask for information from the folks requesting the emotional support animal to verify that the person needs the animal under the act's definition of a disability," she adds. "So boards may seek information that verifies the need for whatever the animal is and what that animal provides for the person.
"But I don't believe boards can ask for that information on a continuing basis," says Stopera. "The FHA says specifically in its guidelines that when a disability is obvious or otherwise known to the provider—which here would be the board—and the need is already known—in the reader's question, meaning they've already received this information and established the owner can have
this animal—the board can't request any additional information.
"So I believe the FHA would say no, you probably couldn't request that information again," she states. "I also think this could be considered adding an undue burden on the
person making the request, which the law prohibits."
That's also the opinion of Alessandra Stivelman, who is board-certified in condo and planned development law and a partner at Eisinger Law in Hollywood, Fla. "My position—and I looked and
I don't believe the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has anything specific on this actual question—is that unless there's an obvious or visual change in circumstance, you can't require reapproval or reapplication," she explains.