Assistance/service animal policy

An assistance/service animal policy is a community’s written process for handling animal-related accommodation requests from residents or applicants with disabilities. It explains how teams distinguish assistance or service animals from ordinary pets, what verification steps may apply, and how pet rules, fees, vaccines, registration, or licensing requirements are handled. The goal is to apply requests consistently while following fair housing and disability-access requirements.

A resident says they are getting a dog to assist with a disability. Instead of treating the request as a standard pet application, the onsite team routes it through the community’s assistance/service animal verification process, pauses any pet-fee decision until the review is complete, and documents the outcome in the resident record.

For multifamily operations leaders, this policy reduces inconsistent decisions across sites and helps teams respond appropriately when residents ask about animals, pet rules, or accommodations. It also supports cleaner workflows for leasing, resident services, and pet screening by separating ordinary pet-policy enforcement from disability-related accommodation handling.