AboutJonathan Dever, Esq Expertise Real Estate Law, Buying Selling, Investor, all types of acquiring property through "creative techniques" and fraud avoidance
Experience Super Lawyer by Law and Politics for the last three years, part of over 900 transactions in the last 6 years
Organizations Ohio Bar Assn
Greene County Bar Assn
Champaign County Bar Assn
Publications Personal web site and web articles
Education/Credentials JD - Capital University
MA - IU of Penn
BA - U of Cincinnati
Awards and Honors Super Lawyer 2005, 2006, 2007
Who is Who, Lawyers 2006, 2007
Question QUESTION: Oregon: We rented an apartment when our daughter was 18 but still at home. She moved out for about a year. Now she has a service dog (in training) and needs to move back home to same apartment. Landlord told us no pets but people living there before and moving in after have pets, mostly cats. Manager lives on-site and has large husky that is allowed to wander the grounds off-leash and unattended.
Our disabled son moved in months ago but landlord did not request application. Now they are asking for applications for both disabled adult children and want to talk about the "problem with the dog". The service dog is never off-leash and uses the barkdust rather than the lawn and is always cleaned up after.
We also have two very small dogs, under 6 lbs, that are litter box trained and never go outside. They are basically cats that bark rather than meow and don't spray or claw the moldings. My daughter is allergic to cats and these two dogs are emotional support animals.
We have valid prescriptions for the service dog and one of the emotional support dogs and can most likely get one for the other one because my under-age son has an anxiety disorder and his dog helps him, especially at night.
What rights do we have given the disabilities, prescriptions for the animals, and the fact that the daughter was originally on the lease as an adult?
Also, the landlord has arbitrarily singled us out to exclude us having any animals even though others are allowed small pets and the manager has a large dog of a breed considered potentially dangerous. Can they make us get rid of the small dogs or evict us for having them? If it matters, the service dog is 1/2 Keeshond and 1/2 Australian cattle dog weighing under 30 lbs. The two small dogs are Pomeranian/Chihuahua. All of them are 6 months old.
The size of the apartment is not at issue - 3 bedrooms.
ANSWER: A landlord can have a no dogs policy for his tenants, even if he lives there and has a dog himself. He owns it, he can have a dog if he wants.
Service Dog: a service dog exists for specific reasons and the ADA covers specific uses. If the use of the dog is covered under the ADA or your state equivalent, then the service dog would be excluded, and you could keep it. The rest of the dogs are not service oriented and can be removed. All dogs by default are for comfort. A service dog is for someone with a disability as defined by the ADA (blindness is a common example).
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QUESTION: Thank you for your reply. While I was waiting for your reply, I already found the answers regarding the dogs and the answer is that if they are emotional support dogs for a person with a disability and are prescribed by a service provider, the Fair Housing Law requires the landlord to allow them. Please review the information on the HUD website and see if that changes your answer on the dogs. If not, please explain where the difference is.
I was more wondering if they can require a new application on my daughter who was over 18 and on the original rental agreement just because she has been residing elsewhere for a couple years. You didn't respond to that part of the question.
You also didn't respond to the question of whether a landlord can arbitrarily, for no good cause, tell one tenant they can have a pet and tell another they can't.
Finally, the owner does not live here, his adult daughter and her husband manage the apartments for him and they have a dog. I am assuming that you meant that the owner can allow his daughter to have a dog even if he forbids his tenants from having one. If that is not true, please let me know.
Thanks for your help.
Michelle
Answer First, the ADA (American's With Disabilities Act) govern other state and federal laws relating to disabilities. I have a detailed policy in the leases I prepare for clients.
That is why I suggested you check your local state laws to see what they had to say on the matter.
Housing regulations mirror the ADA provisions and definitions as a general rule. But the ADA law is VERY COMPLICATED! You need the advice of an ADA attorney as it applies to housing because Title 24 Part 100, SubPart D mirrors ADA language and each case is fact specific.
I do not know what you were looking at on HUD's website and cannot contrast and compare statutes, especially without a specific link to the statute in question. The HUD website has many references to statutes, case law, and opinion letters.
The remaining questions are not at issue. If it bothers you that he made this decision, hire a local lawyer, pay the retainer fee and find out what the local law says about this as well.
