Should Housing Providers Accept Pets in their Rentals?

Should Housing Providers Accepts Pets In Their Rentals?

By: Adrianne Angel, Pro Property Management, Owner / Broker

First, Housing Providers need to better understand the difference between a pet and an assistance animal. Per HUD, an assistance animal is an animal that works, provides assistance, or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or that provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified effects of a person’s disability. An assistance animal is NOT a pet. For many years, special accommodation requests were abused by Pet Owners. On January 28, 2020 HUD provided Housing Providers, Pet Owners and Medical Providers additional guidance to help with this issue. The new HUD FHEO-2020-01 Assistance Animal Notice now requires Pet Owners to provide a connection between the disability and the need for the animal. Assistance animals must now fall within three HUD defined categories. Below are the categories and a brief description. • Service – No proof needed, must have a disability and animal must be trained for a needed task. Only Dogs qualify for this category (except in CA). • Support – Proof needed, must be for a disability related need, no-training required and domesticated animals only. • Unique – Reasonable accommodation may be necessary when the need for a unique animal involves unique circumstances, such as task that can not be performed by a dog or allergies prevent the person from using a dog.

If the proper documentation is not provided to the Housing Provider, the request for the accommodation may be denied. Certificates, registrations, licensing documents from the internet are no longer sufficient documentation. Letters from a legitimate, licensed health care professional are reliable only if the professional has personal knowledge of the individual requesting the accommodation. HUD advised Medical Providers to provide in their accommodation letters information about their relationship with the patient, type of animal, disability related information and need for the animal.

Pets Equal More Profit

On average 60% of residents have a pet/ assistance animal. Of those households, only 9% are an assistance animal so 91% are traditional Pet Owners. With COVID it seems

like many people became first time Pet Owners so that percentage will only increase. By not renting to Pet Owners, you are losing out on a large percentage of potential qualified applicants which may lead to longer vacancy time. Pet Owners are usually willing to pay more to have their pet which increases your revenue and tend to stay longer which decreases your turnover expense. When considering the cost vs. the benefit of renting to a Pet Owner, you should consider ways you can mitigate the risk associated with pets. You can charge a pet fee based on the level of risk (charge more for a big dog than for a cat). You can charge the Pet Owner for a mid-lease pet inspection to catch any issues early. You can add into your lease fees associated with not cleaning up after their pet. You can require extra pet insurance to reduce your risk of the pet biting someone. As you can see there are many creative ways you can rent to Pet Owners in the future, while mitigating your risk and making a bigger profit.

Pet Screening Protection

Many Housing Providers do not have the time or the knowledge to accurately assess and document these type of accommodation requests. Professional Property Managers have access to an exclusive professional pet screening tool that was designed in accordance to HUDs guidance. This can take the stress out of the evaluation for the Housing Provider. Having a consistent Pet Policy and properly documenting the results of the screening will also reduce your risk of being sued for not following the appropriate reasonable accommodation laws for assistance animals.

In conclusion, know the current laws that protect Residents with assistance animals, follow the new HUD guidelines, hire a Professional Property Manager if you do not have the time to do the proper pet screening/ documentation and consider implementing pet policies that allow you to accept pets while reducing your risk and increasing the profitability of your investment.