The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has just released new guidelines on handling those reasonable accommodation requests to help landlords and property managers with those obligations.

The document indicates that the most HUD charges of discrimination are against housing providers denying reasonable accommodations. It goes on to say FHA complaints regarding denied reasonable accommodations are up 60% and are on the rise.

They anticipate that these new guidelines will help landlords understand their obligations and set best practices for addressing requests while reducing the number of discrimination claims and complaints. 

The new HUD guidelines cover how to assess a person’s request to have a service animal as a reasonable accommodation under the FHA and includes: 

• Understanding what is and isn’t an emotional support animal and/or service animal
• The two important (and ONLY) questions to ask someone requesting a service animal
• Request analysis for assistance animals other than service animals 
• Criteria for assessing whether to grant requested accommodations
• Types of animals including unique animals for unique circumstances
• Best practices for documenting an individual’s need for an assistance animal