DESCRIPTION
NEWS FLASH – HUD has issued long awaited guidance on animals as a reasonable accommodation, on emotional support animals, and on online verification vendors.
The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) affords individuals with disabilities protections, one of those rights is the ability to request a reasonable accommodation and, according to the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a request for a disability-related aid animal in a pet-restricted or no-pets property is among the most common accommodation requests made.
This is an area of fair housing law that has been confusing for everyone, including:
- Terminology – "What is a ‘service animal?’ How’s that different from an ‘assistance animal?’ Do we have to accommodate ‘companion animals?’”
- Best practices – “How do we go about verifying a requested accommodation? What questions can we ask? What can’t we ask?”
- Who can act as a verifier – “And, oh BTW, do we have to accept online verification vendors as legit?”
In this webinar we’ll review accommodations basics with an eye on animal accommodations specifically.
- We’ll demystify the differences between service animals, assistance animals, pets, and other critter classifications.
- We’ll talk about when and how requests may be made as well as the verification process and who can do the verifying.
- We’ll discuss what’s “reasonable” and legal reasons for denying along with common mistakes that could land you in legal jeopardy.
- And, then we’ll take a deep dive into HUD’s 19-page memo issued on January 28th and the guidance it provides. We’ll also look at two earlier, momentous announcements – one from HUD on January 22nd, and another from the Dept. of Transportation late last year.
This webinar will provide you the knowledge to:
- Review current assistance animal accommodation policies and practices for compliance
- Craft or revise policies and rules based on official guidance and specific language offered by HUD
- Respond to accommodation requests promptly and appropriately
- Recognize the differences (and legal distinctions) between service animals, assistance animals, pets, and other critter sub-classifications such as emotional support animals.
Learning Objectives:
- Definition of disability
- Trio of disability protections
- Fundamental principles of disability-related accommodation under the federal Fair Housing Act, including:
- Residents / prospects’ right to ask (how, when)
- Your obligation and your rights
- What’s “reasonable” and legal reasons for denying
- What you should know about the verification process
- Assistance animals as an accommodation:
- The differences between “pets,” “service animals,” “assistance animals,” “companion animals,” “emotional support animals,” etc.
- Again, what’s “reasonable” in terms of disability aid animals?
- What’s okay vs. no-no’s regarding fees, deposits, animal rent, damage charges, etc.
- And, in addition to this background and review, a thorough walk through of HUD’s newly-released guidance specific to animal accommodations in housing and online verifiers!
Who Will Benefit:
- Leasing managers
- On-site managers
- Portfolio managers
- Compliance officers
- Resident services coordinators (in affordable housing communities)
- Maintenance and service technicians
- Community concierges (in high-end housing communities)
- Independent landlords or small operators
