Service Dogs in Louisville

Service Animals and Your LeaseService Animals and Your Lease

Many citizens with handicaps or health care challenges usually rely on service dogs for help with their every day lives. Service dogs improve the quality of living for a lot of citizens with handicaps.

Property owners that keep up a no cat plan may not decline to rent or stop a physically challenged tenant from owning a service pet within the rental grounds. Federal law enforcement does not make it a requirement for the pet that gives the help to be a dog; even though generally service dogs seem to be. There are 3 valuable points to think about whilst renting to a physically challenged party with a service pet.

1. Service dogs, therapy dogs, or pet aides all fall into the same class under government law.

2. Service dogs are not pets and therefore can not be deemed as such. Property owners who have strict no cat guidelines may not enforce them in regards to service dogs.

3. Assistance dogs are going to be covered under the Fair Housing Amendments Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehab Act Section 504. Get familiar with these legalities!

Under the Fair Housing Act, personnel with handicaps who are accompanied by a service pet are a covered group. To be an human being covered under the Fair Housing Act; that tenant must have a handicap as outlined by the act; the service pet must have a direct function related to the person’s physical challenge and the demand to maintain the service pet must be agreeable.

According to 43 U.S.C. – 4568 (c)(4)(C), a property owner should make adequate accommodations for a physically challenged renter to be able to make use of and take pleasure in a rental building on an equivalent basis with occupants who are not physically challenged. For example, if a renter desires to have safety bars built in the bath-tub, a property owner may not refuse to make these kinds of accommodations.

What can a property owner do to avoid non physically challenged people from using the law to house an ordinary house cat? However, there is no law or directive that gives information on what the property owner may or may not do. Only a court decision could actually conclude whether a property owner should allow a particular pet.

A property owner may ask for evidence that a service pet is just that but a property owner must be very careful in how the renter is questioned. By no means ask a renter whether he/she is physically challenged, what kind of handicap he has or how serious the handicap is. There can clearly be no discrimination ever! All people with a handicap who require a service pet must be allowed to have that pet no matter what race, color, religion, sex, familial status, or national origin under the Fair Housing Act.

Author: Stirling Gardner

Stirling Gardner (The Hollywood Landlord) is a writer and property management expert. He consults for ezLandlordForms and loves it. EZLandlordForms.com has your state’s specific Rental Agreement and free rental applications as well as every other landlord form you could ever need. He highly recommends you check out the site when you get an opportunity. It will save you countless hours, dollars and headaches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stirling_Gardner

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