Assistance Animal

An assistance animal is an animal that helps a person with a disability by doing work, performing tasks, providing assistance, or offering emotional support that lessens disability-related effects. It is not considered a pet in housing decisions. Residents may request an assistance animal as a reasonable accommodation to a property’s pet rules, including no-pet policies or pet fees.

A resident at a no-pets community submits a reasonable accommodation request to keep an assistance animal in their apartment. The property team routes the request through its documented review process, verifies what information may be requested, and avoids applying standard pet fees while the accommodation is evaluated.

Assistance animal requests affect compliance, leasing, renewals, fee practices, and onsite team consistency. Clear procedures help teams respond fairly, document decisions, and avoid treating disability-related accommodation requests like ordinary pet-policy exceptions.