The Assistance Dog, the Breed Ban, and the Five-Person Family
Landlord owns a four-unit building in Omaha and runs an ad reading 'Quiet building - NO PETS, NO EXCEPTIONS, adults preferred.' Applicant Renee has a documented disability and uses a 60-pound mixed-breed assistance dog; she supplies a letter from her physician. The landlord says his insurer bans 'aggressive breeds' that include the dog's mix, and asks for a $300 pet deposit, $35 per month pet rent, and a copy of Renee's complete medical records. Separately, a family with two adults and three children ages 4, 7, and 9 applies for the 2-bedroom unit; the landlord says 'two per bedroom max, so five is too many,' then asks whether the children are 'well behaved.'
1. Must the landlord grant Renee's request, and what may the landlord charge or demand?
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Yes - this is a reasonable accommodation request, and the animal is not a pet.
- An assistance animal used for a disability is not subject to a no-pet policy. The landlord may not charge a pet deposit or pet rent for it; the landlord may charge for actual damage caused, applied to all tenants equally.
- Documentation: the landlord may require reliable confirmation of the disability and the disability-related need where the need is not obvious. A physician's letter is sufficient. Full medical records are overreach and expose the landlord to a privacy and discrimination claim.
- The breed restriction and insurance concern do not defeat the request. The insurer's exclusion is a problem for the landlord to solve through underwriting or a different carrier; it is not a lawful basis to deny an accommodation.
- Denial must be evaluated case by case; an automatic 'no exceptions' answer is the violation.
Licensee role: do not run or defend the ad as written, put the accommodation request and the landlord's response in writing, and advise the owner to consult counsel before denying.
2. Can the landlord refuse the family of five based on two persons per bedroom?
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Only if the standard is genuinely reasonable, applied uniformly, and documented - and the follow-up question is itself a problem.
- Two persons per bedroom is the commonly used safe harbor, so a five-person household in a two-bedroom unit exceeds it. But the safe harbor is not a blanket license to exclude families; the landlord would need to show the limit is tied to legitimate factors such as square footage or local health code capacity and is applied to all applicants.
- Asking whether the children are 'well behaved' signals different treatment based on familial status and should never be asked. The same occupancy and conduct standards must apply to adults and children alike.
- Steering the family to a different unit or building, or quoting different terms, compounds the exposure.
Better practice: adopt a written occupancy standard with a stated basis, apply it neutrally to every applicant, and document the reason for any denial in objective terms.
3. What should the licensee do about the advertising and the client relationship?
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Refuse to participate and document the refusal.
- 'Adults preferred' is a familial status problem; HUD advertising guidance treats adults-only and similar phrasing as discriminatory. 'No pets, no exceptions' is not illegal by itself, but combined with the other language it signals a policy the landlord intends to apply unlawfully to assistance animals.
- The small-building exemption does not save this: a four-unit building qualifies only if the owner occupies one of the units, and even then the exemption does not cover discriminatory conduct carried out through a real estate licensee.
- Advise the owner in writing, recommend fair housing counsel, decline to place or promote the ad as written, and offer compliant alternatives.
- Nebraska's fair housing law parallels the federal statute, and local ordinances may add protected classes; check before advising.
Bottom line: the licensee's obligation is to counsel, not to carry out a discriminatory instruction, and the file should show the advice given.