Animals are used as therapy more and more often. The concept of an assistance animal has become widely used within the last few decades. These animals are often prescribed by doctors to help people with various disabilities and impairments. A service animal can be a great healing for people who suffer from chronic diseases, feel constrained by their physical inability, or are in a depressed mental state. Assistance animals are not pets. So, their freedoms are broader, including ones in housing.
Emotional support animal function
Emotional support animals grant the necessary psychological endorsement to people with psychic illnesses and disorders of the nervous system. Following the majority of specialists in mental health, these animals, for example, dogs, help overcome such ailments as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, social and anti-social personality disorders, eating disorders, and many others. They can also be helpful in relieving obsessive thoughts, suicidal tendencies, and helping a human become more open, outgoing, and amiable. Thanks to emotional support dogs, their owners often make new acquaintances, find new friends, and even significant others.
To qualify for an ESA an individual should visit his or her therapist or any licensed mental health professional to get a special ESA letter. This note is the main source of the rights of an emotional support animal. Thanks to the ESA letter, ESAs don’t qualify as pets, but as assistance animals. That’s why the laws apply to them differently, nevertheless, their freedoms are still bounded compared to service animals.
The laws and the ESA
The main law governing the rights of service animals and their handlers is the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, this act can be applied in relation to the ESA only partially because it doesn’t recognize these animals as assistance ones. For example, emotional support animals are not subject to pets policy, therefore their owners are not obliged to pay pet fees. At the same time, ESA may be restricted in access to public places where pets are prohibited, such as catering places or the cabin of a plane.
A federal law of the HUD, which is for sure applied to an emotional support animal, is the Fair Housing Act (FHA). The principles of this law greatly facilitate the process of accommodation for a man with a service animal.
Basic provisions of Fair Housing Act
First of all, the FHA was issued to avoid any manifestations of discrimination in the field of housing. Previously, it, primarily, concerning discrimination based on religion, race, and ethnicity. Now the act is more often used to protect the rights of people with inabilities. Thus, landlords, who refuse to provide reasonable accommodations for such tenants, may be subject to penalties.
If we are talking about assistance animals, housing laws also protect their rights. For instance, a landlord must allow pets that are qualified as an assistant for a person with a disability to lease a single-family house or apartment at no additional cost. Moreover, a tenant can require a reasonable accommodation for himself and the animal. The landlord cannot deny this demand.
Why should a pet owner pay a pet deposit?
Although housing providers cannot charge additional fees for the accommodation of a service animal, the landlords may still ask for a special deposit when concluding a residence contract. This deposit is a certain amount of money, which, if necessary, will cover the cost of repairing property damaged by animals.
Though a service dog undergoes special training, unintentional undue financial damage to the property of the landlord is not excluded. In addition, an animal, most often a dog, can pose a threat to other inhabitants of the house in an attempt to protect its owner. That is why the law not only does not prohibit but insists on the landlord taking a security deposit from the tenant. This money will be used only if necessary, and if such a need does not arise, it will be returned to the individual upon moving out.
The protection of emotional support animals’ rights
An emotional support animal is significantly disciplined to perform tasks and encourage a human with a psychical disability. They can supply a man with medical care. And in general, they significantly improve the well-being of the hander. Therefore, if a person feels that in connection with the presence of an emotional support animal, or any other assistance animal, his or her rights are violated, he or she can file a complaint with the appropriate authorities.
If a person has all the required documentation like a certificate from a doctor acknowledging his or her diagnosis and ESA letter, an individual may not worry about his or her safety and the safety of the animal. The laws will always be in their favor. This applies to all areas of life. However, the rights of other people are also being protected. For instance, a housing provider can move away an animal from his property with the help of legal proceedings. Nevertheless, it can be done only if harm or threat that an animal represents will be officially proven.
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