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  1. #1
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    The air carrier access act just says "thou shalt not discriminate against disabled passengers." The details (if anybody is intereted) are down in the FAA regulations 14 CFR 392.117. The FAA is pretty clear on the recency of the letter, who prepares it, and what it contains.


    (e) If a passenger seeks to travel with an animal that is used as an emotional support or psychiatric service animal, you are not required to accept the animal for transportation in the cabin unless the passenger provides you current documentation (i.e., no older than one year from the date of the passenger's scheduled initial flight) on the letterhead of a licensed mental health professional (e.g., psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, including a medical doctor specifically treating the passenger's mental or emotional disability) stating the following:

    (1) The passenger has a mental or emotional disability recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM IV);

    (2) The passenger needs the emotional support or psychiatric service animal as an accommodation for air travel and/or for activity at the passenger's destination;

    (3) The individual providing the assessment is a licensed mental health professional, and the passenger is under his or her professional care; and

    (4) The date and type of the mental health professional's license and the state or other jurisdiction in which it was issued.


    Note that "I get stressed" is not a DSM disorder. Stress is a part of life. The stress and anxiety disorders in the DSM are pretty detailed in that you have to have severe issues functioning as a result of them before the diagnosis can properly be made.

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    Quote Quoting flyingron
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    The air carrier access act just says "thou shalt not discriminate against disabled passengers."
    You are free to argue that the interpretation of that law is unnecessarily broad, but this thread is about housing, not airlines.

    Quote Quoting Tsm
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    ....it said the person with the ESA letter should request accommodation from the landlord once receiving the letter and that accommodation also includes changes to no-pet policies. Is this saying I do have to inform them ahead of time, or just that I should?
    If you never request accommodation, the landlord has no duty to accommodate you.

    Quote Quoting Mark47n
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    You can only ask two questions....
    You are again speaking about service animals and the ADA. This thread involves emotional support animals and the FHA.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    so are you saying I do have to inform them ahead of time and I’d be in the wrong if I do not?

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    Quote Quoting Tsm
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    so are you saying I do have to inform them ahead of time and I’d be in the wrong if I do not?
    Your landlord lacks psychic powers. If you fail to request accommodation, your landlord does not have to offer you accommodation.

    If you want to roll the dice and see what happens if you don't disclose your ESA or share your ESA letter with your landlord, as they say, it's your life. But your landlord does not have to accommodate your ESA unless and until you request the accommodation.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    Thanks so much. I was under the assumption they had some psychic powers for quite some time, but that clears things up ((:

    I just asked whether I have to inform them ahead of time of me bringing me ESA pet home, or not. The law states they have to honor my ESA, not that I need to give advanced notice of it or whether I may upon the landlords request if it comes up.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    Whether you tell him beforehand or after the fact, you still have to notify him. So what's the big deal? You're only going to be there thirty days - why is telling him ahead of time (the courteous thing) such a problem?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    Quote Quoting Tsm
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    Thanks so much. I was under the assumption they had some psychic powers for quite some time, but that clears things up ((:

    I just asked whether I have to inform them ahead of time of me bringing me ESA pet home, or not. The law states they have to honor my ESA, not that I need to give advanced notice of it or whether I may upon the landlords request if it comes up.
    The law does not require they honor anything they haven't been shown.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Emotional Support Animal Letter to Landlord

    Quote Quoting Tsm
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    The law states they have to honor my ESA, not that I need to give advanced notice of it or whether I may upon the landlords request if it comes up.
    The law (the FHA) says that they have to honor your properly documented request for an ESA as an accommodation of your disability. They have no obligation to accommodate you unless and until you (a) request accommodation and (b) document that you are entitled to the accommodation via your ESA letter. So if you make no request for accommodation, they are legally entitled to regard you as violating a no pets rule, with your having to try to retroactively correct their impression and belatedly request accommodation after you are caught violating that rule. It's simpler and easier to properly request an accommodation.

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