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Landlord’s Guide to Pets, Service, and Companion Animals
September 3, 2021
Avoid Fair Housing Mistakes with Your Rental Home
Pets, service animals, and companion animals all have to be treated differently by landlords and San Francisco property managers. It’s been a pretty hot topic lately, and that’s because the definition of a service or companion animal seems to be expanded. If you have a tenant who has tried to move in with an emotional support snake, you know what we mean.
It’s easy to make a fair housing mistake when it comes to classifying and verifying these animals. If you try to charge pet rent on an emotional support animal or you reject a tenant who needs a Seeing Eye Dog, you could find yourself in a lot of legal trouble.
Here’s how we’re parsing the discussion for purposes of your San Francisco rental property:
- Pets and whether you should accept them
- Service animals and what they are
- Companion animals, which include emotional support animals and therapy animals
You need to know the difference and the particularities if you want to avoid potentially expensive conflicts and disputes.
WHEN IS A DOG NOT A PET?
The answer is this: when it’s a service animal. A good pet policy is essential in a rental property, but you have to remember that your pet policy does not apply to service and companion animals.
1. PET-FRIENDLY PROPERTIES MAKE FINANCIAL SENSE FOR INVESTORS AND OWNERS
You won’t find any laws on the local or federal level that instruct landlords to allow pets into their rental properties. You can say no pets and be done with it. However, we recommend that you consider allowing pets because we’ve found that pet-friendly properties rent faster. You can typically earn more money on pet rent and pet fees. Tenants with pets tend to stay longer too, because they don’t want to find another pet-friendly property and pay another pet deposit.
A solid pet policy and good property management will protect your property against the risk that comes with allowing pets. However, you don’t have to allow pets if you don’t want to.
The rules aren’t the same when we talk about service and companion animals.
2. GET TO KNOW THE FAIR HOUSING ACT AND THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
Service and companion animals are governed by two specific federal laws: the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Both of these laws protect people with physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities against discrimination, including discrimination that may occur when they’re looking for housing. According to these laws, you cannot deny a tenant the use of a service animal or a companion animal, which is most frequently an emotional support animal or a therapy animal.
As a landlord, you must allow those animals because they are accommodations, not pets. The law sees them the same way they see wheelchairs or braille signs or ramps.
When you allow pets in your property, you can charge a pet deposit or a pet fee. You can also charge extra rent every month and call it pet rent.
However, these additional charges are not permitted when your tenant has a service or companion animal.
3. SERVICE ANIMAL OR COMPANION ANIMAL? THERE’S A DIFFERENCE
Service animals are trained to help a person do a specific task. When a
San Francisco tenant needs a service animal for a physical or intellectual disability, it’s usually obvious what that animal is needed for, and therefore you can’t ask for details or specifics. You wouldn’t ask a person with a vision impediment why they need a Seeing Eye Dog. It’s inferred.
However, companion animals are not trained or certified in any way. They do support and comfort the person who owns them, and they’re acquired at the direction of a healthcare professional. You can ask for documentation if the disability is not immediately apparent and your tenant is requesting an emotional support animal or a companion animal.
What does this mean for your rental property?
Well, the bottom line is this: You don’t have to allow pets, but you should. You do have to allow service animals and companion animals because they are not considered pets - they’re accommodations.
SAN FRANCISCO PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CAN KEEP YOU COMPLIANT
If you’re worried about making what could potentially be a very expensive mistake, we understand. At BanCal Property Management, we’ve been protecting investments like yours since 1987. We keep up to date on all the laws and regulations pertaining to your property and things like pets and service animals.
Author - Kelli Smith
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