Do landlords have to accept emotional support animals?

The short answer is yes.

Landlords must allow a tenant with a valid Emotional Support Animal letter to rent with no consideration for the pet. The only reason the tenant can be denied is if there is proven evidence that the animal “constitutes a direct threat to the health or safety of others (i.e., a significant risk of bodily harm) or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others.”

In this article, I am going to discuss:

Please know that this is not legal advice, this is only to make you aware you may want to contact an attorney for further information.

You have a rental unit, and a potential tenant puts in an application. It’s a home run, the tenant screening comes back perfect, their income is 4x the rent, and they have money in the bank. Their previous management company loves them, it’s just the home was put on the market. Then… you find out they have an emotional support animal that is a 150 lbs pit bull. What can you do?

If the tenant has a valid Emotional Support Animal (ESA) letter, then you must allow the tenant to rent the unit with the animal. Landlords can deny a tenant’s request to live with an ESA if the animal “constitutes a direct threat to the health or safety of others (i.e., a significant risk of bodily harm) or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others.” The housing provider’s finding must rely on objective evidence about the animal’s actual conduct. You can not deny them based on breed or size.

There is one other gray area, if your home insurance increases your rate or denies you based on the dog being an excluded breed, then this could be a reasonable accommodation that constitutes an undue burden upon the owner.

The tenant swears that the pit bull is an ESA. You are not allowed to ask them why they need an ESA, but you can require them to produce an ESA letter. Per AB 468 to be a valid ESA letter, it must come from a licensed healthcare practitioner with all the following criteria:

For the tenant’s ESA Letter to be official, it must include the tenant’s name, diagnosis details, and a recommendation for an ESA to help treat their mental or emotional disability. It needs to be written and signed by a mental health professional who is licensed to practice in your state.

If the tenant fraudulently represents an animal identified as, a guide, signal, or service dog with a certificate, identification, tag, vest, leash, or harness, then they are guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by:

Since ESAs fall under medical privacy laws, an owner or manager must be careful about how they question the validity of an ESA letter. One of the easiest and safest ways to validate an ESA animal is to hire a third-party screening company. Yes, there are pet screening companies that have all of this figured out for you. PetScreening.com claims that 60% of the ESAs that they review are found to not meet federal guidelines.

In the case of the pit bull, if the tenant can produce a valid ESA letter, the animal is good-natured, and it does not cause the property owner undue burden for reasonable accommodation, then the tenant is legally good to move in.

If you would like to read the bill in its entirety, please visit:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB468