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12 Naples REALTOR® | Spring 2015

F OROPENERS

nimal owners shopping for a condo to buy or rent may discover that their beloved Fido or

Fluffy are not welcome, which can have a significant impact on the decision to purchase or lease a property. Among the rules set by homeowners or condo associations, one of the most common prohibitions relates to pets, especially when it comes to having multiple or larger dogs.

There is one gray area, though: comfort or support animals that are exempt from the bylaws of residential associations. And, according to anecdotal evidence, some pet owners use that exemption—whether valid or not—to bring along their four-legged friends to the new home.

“For example, it would not be permissible to have a provision in the bylaws or declaration of covenants prohibiting someone who had a sight disability from having a seeing-eye dog,” says attorney Christopher Davies of law firm Cohen & Grigsby, which has extensive experience in representing condominiums and HOAs in this matter.

According to Davies, service

animals should not even be referred to as pets, no matter how many physical and emotional attributes they have in common with a family dog or cat. And to bind this difference, the law has enshrined a service animal’s status as being different from that of a pet.

“What the law requires is that, regardless of bylaws and declarations, the association makes reasonable accommodation for service animals or therapeutic animals to accommodate their owner’s disability,” Davies says.

The Americans with Disabilities Act defines both physical and emotional challenges, so it is not as simple as allowing seeing-eye dogs and nothing else. Harley Conrad, NABOR® vice president and manager of VIP Realty Group in Naples, knows of a situation in which an owner with a hearing aid required her dog to alert her of any issues at times when the hearing aid might have been turned off—such as at night, while she slept.

The crucial factor here, and in other cases even of emotional support (such as clinical depression, which can be alleviated by an animal) is that

a medical professional has prescribed the dog—or other animal—with the prescription linked directly to the disability.

The fact that some disabilities can be harder to see than others can cause significant problems for both the individual and the condo or homeowners association, with complaints from other residents about perceived preferential treatment for certain neighbors who are allowed to have animals, while others are not.

However, if the issue is a genuine one, the owner should always be able to keep their animal—even if they must make an extra effort.

“First, the owner has to prove that he or she has a disability,” Davies says. “Then they need to prove that their animal alleviates some of the symptoms of that disability. There are a lot of illnesses and disabilities where it would be impossible for an outsider to tell if they have them or not.

“As lawyers who represent dozens of associations, we have a questionnaire for board of directors, who can pass it on to anyone requesting accommodation for their support animal,” Davies says.

A

DOGGONE IT!Rules that put some pet owners at odds with condo or homeowners associations.

Spring 2015 | Naples REALTOR® 13

NABOR® TRANSACTIONS*: Third Quarter 2014 compared with Third Quarter 2013

*Naples Beach, North Naples, Central Naples, South Naples, East Naples, Immokalee/Ave MariaSource: Southwest Florida MLS® Visit naplesarea.com for a complete analysis of third-quarter market statistics.

The trouble is that there is no definitive certification for service animals, and while Davies has heard of “scurrilous” situations where people have bought ID tags or documents on the Internet “proving” their animal’s bona fides, the reality is that those “certifications” are meaningless.

“There’s no label that allows you the right to bring an animal in,” he says. “There needs to be some language in the prescription that ties a specific disability to the need for the service animal.”

“For example, an M.D.’s letter that says: ‘I think it would be nice for my patient to have a service animal’ is not enough. But a letter stating, for example, ‘I’ve been treating my patient for an autoimmune disease accompanied by advanced depression, and this animal allows her to experience a calmer state, with reduced blood pressure’ probably would suffice,” Davies says.

Of course, identifying the problem in the

event of a bogus claim is one thing—dealing with it can be quite another.

“The legal recourse can be quite a challenge for associations,” Davies says. “The person who needs accommodation can easily file a complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations, and the commission is obliged to investigate.

“And the homeowner doesn’t need a lawyer to do that.”

The commission can follow up with a letter stating that the owner has been discriminated against because the association has not made legal accommodation, in which case there will be no other recourse but to hire a lawyer, which can be expensive, with no guarantees of success.

“To some degree, the process is stacked in favor of the owner, and against the association, with the association being limited in the inquiries it is allowed to make,” Davies says. “Nevertheless, there is nothing

in the law which says that the association has to be a doormat and roll over.”

Indeed, it could be argued that it is important for associations to robustly follow up on those who look to exploit the system in their favor, and to the detriment of the other owners in their condo association—especially those who require a comfort, support or service animal.

“The sad thing is that the people who don’t have disability, but who are taking advantage of the law, are doing this to the detriment of those who have disabilities,” Davies says.

Which is unfortunate, considering the availability of condominiums that allow for pets—if only the buyer or renter had asked their REALTOR® to find one for them.

—Dave Boland

19%Overall condo closed price

13%Overall median

closed price

9%Overall

inventory

26%Single-family closed

sales $2 million and higher

10%Overall

pending sales

11%Overall

closed sales

36%Condo closed sales

$1 million to $2 million

15%Single-family home inventory $300,000

to $500,000

Among the rules set by homeowners or condo associations, one of the most common prohibitions relates to pets, especially

when it comes to having multiple or larger dogs.