Q: Are they allowed to take damages out of a pet deposit when the pet is a certified therapy animal/
The pet was certified a therapy animal in 2016 but i never was charged a deposit until i moved here. I moved in in June but they acted like they didn't know i had a cat and waited until December to charge me the deposit. By then since they pretended they didn't know I had a cat, I only had 2 weeks to come up with the money for her or i had to lose her. So I forgot to check on laws about companion animals and now that i have proven she is a therapy animal, they still want to keep the deposit I gave them "in case of damages". Can they do that?
A:
There are two categories of pets that are exempt from pet deposits as a matter of federal housing laws that protect disabled persons from housing discrimination: service animals (which are specially trained dogs like seeing-eye dogs for the blind) and emotional support animals ESAs (which can be any species).
You do have to have a disability as defined by the statute and your health care provider does need to certify that your pet is necessary for your particular disability.
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