In this era of an ever-increasing number of service and/or emotional support animal requests received by professional apartment leasing offices, three of my clients have faced the same issue recently. Here is a common fact pattern: our resident submits a request for an emotional support animal. That request has a medical verification letter or certificate attesting that Rover or Fluffy is “certified” as an assistance animal. Upon review, however, it seems pretty clear that the medical verification was simply purchased over the internet and did not involve any analysis concerning the disability of the resident nor any nexus (link) between the disability and the animal. Management sends a letter noting carefully that while we will absolutely continue to engage with the resident concerning the accommodation request, based on the materials submitted, we cannot approve the animal. What happens next is typically one of three paths: (a) the resident recognizes he/she does not actually need a service animal and drops the request; (b) the resident goes to a health care professional and gets the appropriate diagnosis and letter; or (c) the resident gets angry (sometimes getting a lawyer involved) and declares the leasing office is violating HIPPA (the health care information privacy law) by seeking detailed medical records. And then I get called.

So there is no misunderstanding on this point, management does not seek medical records for our disabled residents. We are not attempting to obtain confidential health care information. We are, however, attempting to just confirm that the resident is actually disabled, that the request is necessary, and related to the disability. Buying a purported verification letter off a web site from a company or individual who promises to “certify” the animal does not meet the test.  Coincidently, as I was writing this post, another client sent me records that a therapist sent to the leasing office about a resident along with the verification form. We had not, of course, requested the records. They will be returned.

Again, we do not want medical records. I don’t want my clients to violate HIPPA.  But I do want residents to appropriately certify their service or emotional support animal requests when their disability is not obvious.

Just A Thought.