Emotional Support Animals and Fair Housing Law
3
Can housing providers prohibit a tenant or resident from having an ESA?
Housing providers are allowed to have rules regarding pets, including prohibiting pets;
prohibiting certain types of pets, such as large or wild animals; or prohibiting nuisance activity
caused by pets, such as incessant barking.
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However, if a tenant or resident has a disability-
related need for an ESA, the housing provider must allow the person to have the animal as a
reasonable accommodation, unless the housing provider can show that an exception applies.
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4
What is a reasonable accommodation?
A reasonable accommodation is a necessary change to a housing provider’s rules or
policies that enables a person with a disability to have an equal opportunity to use and
enjoy housing. When a housing provider has rules limiting the kind, size, or number of
pets and a tenant or resident requests a reasonable accommodation to have an ESA, the
housing provider must either permit the ESA or promptly engage in what is known as the
“interactive process” with the tenant or resident to determine whether to permit the ESA.
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5
If someone requests a reasonable accommodation to have an ESA, what
kind of documentation can the housing provider request?
If the tenant’s or resident’s disability (or the need for the reasonable accommodation)
is not obvious or readily apparent, a housing provider may (but is not required to) ask
for documentation to support the person’s request for a reasonable accommodation to
have an ESA. However, the tenant or resident is not required to disclose their disability;
instead, they need only disclose enough information to document their disability-related
need for an ESA.
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Reliable documentation of an individual’s disability and/or their need
of a reasonable accommodation to have an ESA can include an individual’s own credible
statement or documentation of receipt of disability benefits. In addition, documentation
can come from any reliable third party who is in a position to know about the individual’s
disability or the disability-related need for the ESA, such as a health care provider,
therapist, social worker, non-medical service provider, member of a peer support group,
parent, child, or other relative.
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The determination of whether a third party is reliable is
determined on a case-by-case basis and may take into account how the third party is
familiar with the individual’s disability and/or the disability-related need for an ESA.
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Must an ESA be registered to qualify for a reasonable accommodation?
CRD-H12P-ENG / December 2022
No. There is no legal requirement that an animal must be “registered” or “certified”
in order for it to serve as an ESA. Businesses that claim to register or certify ESAs are
charging for a service that is unnecessary to establish the necessity of a reasonable
accommodation.
4 Several laws protect individuals’ ability to have pets in certain types of housing. For example, the California Pet Friendly
Housing Act (Health & Safety Code § 50466) requires properes nanced by the California Department of Housing and
Community Development in 2018 or later to generally allow residents to have pets. Similarly, federal law generally allows
residents to have pets in low-income “public” housing (42 U.S.C. § 1437z-3) and in federally-subsidized rental housing for the
elderly or people with disabilies (12 U.S.C. § 1701r-1 and 24 C.F.R. § 5.300 et seq.).
5 Cal. Code Regs., t. 2, §§ 12176 – 12180.
6 Cal. Code Regs., t. 2, §§ 12176 – 12180.
7 Cal. Code Regs., t. 2, § 12178.
8 Cal. Code Regs., t. 2, § 12178(a)-(e).
9 Cal. Code Regs., t. 2, § 12178(f)-(g).