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FLORIDA’S EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL STATUTE – PART ONE
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published April 5, 2021
Florida now has a statute that clarifies what associations
should and should not do when someone asks to have an emotional
support animal in a “no pet” community. We will try to answer a
lot of your questions over the next two or three weeks regarding
what you can and cannot do when an owner or renter asks to keep
an emotional support animal.
The statute is 760.27. It defines an “emotional support animal”
as follows:
(a) “Emotional support animal” means an animal that does not
require training to do work, perform tasks, provide assistance,
or provide therapeutic emotional support by virtue of its
presence which alleviates one or more identified symptoms or
effects of a person’s disability.
So, the big difference between a “service animal” and an
“emotional support”: animal is that the emotional support animal
needs no training whatsoever, while the service animal needs to
be trained to help the person with their disability. Florida
only recognizes two animals that are capable of being trained in
this fashion and those are dogs and small horses. Emotional
support animals can be any animal. That’s why we see emotional
support crocodiles, pigs, squirrels, hedgehogs, etc.
Can the Association Charge that person extra for having an
emotional support animal?
No. The statute states that:
such person may not be required to pay extra compensation for
such animal.
Suppose the animal is dangerous or becomes dangerous?
The statute states that the association may:
Deny a reasonable accommodation request for an emotional support
animal if such animal poses a direct threat to the safety or
health of others or poses a direct threat of physical damage to
the property of others, which threat cannot be reduced or
eliminated by another reasonable accommodation.
I
will tell you that if the animal is a properly trained service
dog, you will never have this problem.
So remember, even if after the Board approves the animal, the
animal barks, bites or otherwise becomes a nuisance, the
association can have the animal removed.
Nest week we will start with what the Board can do when an owner
makes a request for an emotional support animal.
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About
HOA & Condo Blog
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Eric Glazer graduated from
the University of Miami School of Law in 1992 after
receiving a B.A. from NYU. He has practiced community
association law for more than 2
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decades and is the owner of Glazer
and Sachs, P.A. a seven attorney law firm with offices in
Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and satellite offices in Naples,
Fort Myers and Tampa.
Since 2009, Eric has been the host
of Condo Craze and HOAs, a weekly one hour radio show that airs
at 11:00 a.m. each Sunday on 850 WFTL.
See:
www.condocrazeandhoas.com.
He is the first attorney in the
State of Florida that designed a course that certifies
condominium residents as eligible to serve on a condominium
Board of Directors and has now certified more than 10,000
Floridians all across the state. He is certified as a Circuit
Court Mediator by The Florida Supreme Court and has mediated
dozens of disputes between associations and unit owners. Eric
also devotes significant time to advancing legislation in the
best interest of Florida community association members.
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