Legal Corner

Questions & Answers

By C. tyler greer, esq. the duringer law grouP, PlC

I have been hearing a lot of different things regarding pets. Some people call them support animals, but I have heard others refer to them as service animals. What’s the difference between the two terms?

There are significant differences between animals classified as emotional support animals and service animals. Emotional support animals do not require any specific training or certification, while service animals are those that have professional training and certifications. Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of the things service dogs do include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. On the other hand, emotional support animals can essentially be a household pet that is used to comfort a person with a verifiable disability. Unfortunately, there is a lot confusion between the two terms and while the terms are different, service and support are often incorrectly used interchangeably. In short, remember service animals are highly trained animals that perform work, and emotional support animals do not require any training or certification.

I know many of the Covid-19 restrictions are no longer in effect and the statewide emergency order will be expiring at the end of the year, but where does this leave our industry? Are there any remaining restrictions in the greater Orange County area that I need to be worried about?

Since April of this year, when the statewide Covid-19 restrictions began relaxing, we have been cautiously optimistic that eventually it would return to prepandemic normal. For the most part, that has come true, and the industry has returned to a pre-pandemic normal. But, as always, there are few caveats. As covered in detail in the May 2022 Legal Corner, as of June 30, 2022, AB 2179 expired and starting July 1, 2022, there was no Covid-19 restrictions on rent-based evictions. Also, there was no further requirement for housing providers to apply for rental assistance. For the last half year, while the Covid19 restrictions have passed, there have been some changes in the way the court is processing evictions, and there has been an alarming increase in legal aid and other public law offices requesting jury trials. First, due to the pandemic, the Orange County Superior Court consolidated all unlawful detainer cases to the central Santa Ana courthouse and specifically two courtrooms. Pre-pandemic there were multiple courthouses and courtrooms hearing unlawful detainer cases. What this means from a practical standpoint is that cases are taking longer. A typical unlawful detainer currently takes two-to-three months (to lockout), and can be much longer if the tenant aggressively contests the case. While this is much faster than cases were moving during the pandemic, it is still taking longer than pre-pandemic. This is something to be aware of when starting the eviction process. Lastly, we are seeing an alarming rate of tenants requesting jury trials. This is likely due to certain tenant organizations advising tenants to request jury trials. This was something that we had normally seen confined to organizations in Los Angeles, but now the trend of always requesting a jury trial has made it to Orange County. While it is not clear whether this is trend was caused by the relaxing of the Covid-19 restrictions as another way to prolong unlawful detainer matters, it is certainly a trend that housing providers need to be aware of. The way to combat this trend is to make sure that you, as a housing provider, are up to date with the current laws and that you are taking precautionary steps with good tenant screening to prevent the problem before it starts. If you are faced with a jury trial, however, strong, aggressive legal representation is a must.

This article is presented in a general nature to address typical landlord tenant legal issues. Specific inquiries regarding a