The Fair Housing Act protects a person with an emotional support animal and allows them to live in homes, apartments, condos, etc. where pets are not allowed. A person cannot be legally charged a deposit or other fee for their ESA.
Because the presence of an emotional support animal pet is what is effective to help a person with an emotional disability, the pet is not required to have any specific training.
It's not difficult to qualify for an emotional support animal. A licensed mental health professional (therapist, psychiatrist, MD, etc.) must determine that your anxiety, depression, PTSD experience, or other emotional challenge is disabling.
If you don't have a therapist or your therapist is unwilling to write an animal emotional support letter, we offer a NO-RISK emotional support animal letter assessment.
Even if a property has a cats-only policy, the landlord must accept your emotional support animal if it is a dog.
If the property has a policy that only allows dogs that weigh no more than 30 pounds and the emotional support animal weighs 75 pounds, the property manager must accommodate you and your pet. If the property accepts all dogs except pit bulls and your ESA is a pit bull, the property manager must allow your pit bull to live with you.
Under the Fair Housing Act, property managers/landlords are NOT required to make a reasonable accommodation for ESAs or service dogs in these cases: