Emotional Support Dog California Housing

The term assistance animal or assistive animal refers to an animal that a person with a disability needs in order to use and enjoy the housing.

Emotional support dog california housing.

Attorney katie holt writes. The fair housing act and emotional support animals. An assistance animal can be either a service animal or an emotional support animal. As a result the laws protecting service dogs do not similarly cover emotional support animals.

For more on the basic difference between service dogs and support animals see nolo s article on service dogs and support animals how california protects service dogs in public areas. Housing laws protecting your service animal or emotional support animal fall under one of three federal laws fair housing act ada act 1990 and rehab act. Under the fair housing act an emotional support animal is considered a tool for aiding an individual with a disability therefore excluding esas from no pets policies and certain other pet related property rules. California law guarantees people who use trained service dogs full and equal access to.

In california tenants have the right to bring their service dogs and emotional support animals to live with them in many circumstances. 382 27 c 2010 california state law csl. A service animal is a dog or miniature horse that is trained to perform disability related work or tasks. An emotional support animal is a reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability under hud s fair housing act fha.

However the law does not consider emotional support animals to be the same as service dogs for disabled persons. An emotional support animal is not a pet rather it is a companion animal that provides therapeutic benefit to an individual with a disability which. Landlords and other housing providers in california may not refuse to make reasonable accommodations in their rules or policies if such accommodations are necessary to afford a person with a disability the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a house or. Under california s fair employment and housing act a landlord is required to allow an emotional support animal to live with their owner in a rented home.

The use of emotional support animals is emerging as a popular way for coping with mental and emotional conditions such as stress anxiety and depression. Check out this article to get information and resources about your rights for your emotional support animal in california. Landlords cannot evict or restrict a renter because they have an emotional support animal.