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Service Animal question

6,618 Views | 40 Replies | Last: 5 yr ago by Diggity
evestor1
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I was liberal with the "service animal" vs emotional support animal.

Never had anyone apply to my rentals with a bone fide service animal, but I've had several with "service animal" that turned out to be just dogs with no papers or training.

Best story was a mom of a 13 year old boy needing a service animal for something emotional. During the showing the boy would hide around every corner and pretend to shoot me with a machine gun until I walked past him. His animal was a border collie.

In the end she was mad I would not give discounted rent and never called back.


We should really have a thread about crazy tenant applicants sometime. I've had everything from selfies from girls to people screaming at me for not lowering rent for them. (I use Craigslist a lot obviously!)
Aggiemike96
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AG
As a fellow residential renter, this has been an interesting read.

But, in truth, I'd rather eliminate kids from my rentals rather than service animals. Those little suckers can destroy the bottom 3 feet of walls better than a dog can!
dallasiteinsa02
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As someone that has dealt with lawsuit fishing for the last 15 years, be careful. There are quite a few people out there that make their income off being discriminated against. The closer to Austin you are the worse it gets. I had a blind guy throw a fit because we didn't have a braille version of our marketing materials. I also got a nasty letter from an attorney because our answer machine was not able to accommodate a hearing impaired person using some system. The hearing impaired person calls a number that they are able to type messages that are read by someone to the person on the other end. The middle man apparently can't press one to leave a message because of the system. They wanted a payment of $1000 or they would press the issue. We didn't pay them a dime.
Diggity
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AG
Probably a little late for the OP but TAR had a seminar about this very topic recently:

Mucho austin
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AG
https://www.petscreening.com/for_manager

Website someone passed along to me this week.

Haven't had a chance to look through it yet, but I do have a tenant who after applying, being accepted, and paying the first months rent decided it would be a good time to tell us that they will be bringing an emotional support animal. Red flags go up since this seems like something that's should be one of the first things they would bring up when asked about pets. No idea what type of "support animal" this is yet as they haven't responded yet. I'm fully expecting a goat or a ferret or something crazy.
schwack schwack
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AG
Thank, Diggity, for the post. Interesting conversation. Luckily we never heard back from that person after I told her I needed to research the process.

Pretty sure there are crazy times ahead for all of us in the rental biz.
Diggity
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AG
here's an example of the nitwits you deal with in these situations:

Quote:

Adams testified in federal court Tuesday that she believes she wasn't required to tell Chen about Waffles, instead saying that it was her "right" to have the dog.

Former pro wrestler sues Houston landlord over 'emotional support dog' eviction
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