[NAGDU] Housing bill pertaining to Service animals

[Julie Johnson]

My understanding of Federal law has been that you cannot exclude someone on the basis of what their service dog might do. It has to be something the dog has actually done and the owner has not taken preventative action. There is already provision for damages as the responisbility of the handler, so I could see that being mirrored in the state housing law. Probably that already exists though. Every rental agreement I've ever known says that I'm responsible for damages I or anyone in my home has caused. Then there is the issue of additing additional burden onto the service dog handler. This is a super sticky area and though. It has been determinded that local municipalities can charge for a dog license which is a tax. Then we have the recent air line fiasco requiring additional paperwork and hoops, so there is now precident for requiring additional paperwork. There is, of course, the added layer of complexity that airlines, public accomodations and housing are all different law groupings.  Still in the case of recent airline paperwork, there were definitely lots of looking at the ADA for reference when the ACAA regulations were updated.

It's a super mess and I don't see things getting any sort of better in the very near future.

Julie


Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 19, 2024, at 9:40 AM, Cindy Ray via NAGDU <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> The Iowa Senate is debating a bill pertaining to the right of landlords to refuse accommodation to people with service animals if it would cost too much to pay for any property damage. A person would basically have to have a prescription from a doctor, and they would have to be authorized annually. They say this is in line with Federal law. Really!
> Cindy Lou Ray
> Sent from my iPhone
> _______________________________________________
> NAGDU mailing list
> NAGDU at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for NAGDU:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/julielj402%40gmail.com