Animal therapy is proven helpful for anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. The government is supporting patients who want to enjoy the companionship of ESAs for managing their symptoms. An ESA letter NY allows you to fly and live with your support animal without paying extra fees or deposits.
In this post, we are going to discuss how to rent an apartment with your emotional support animal.
Get an Emotional Support Animal Letter
Getting an emotional support animal letter will help the ESA accommodation process go smoothly. It ensures that you are getting emotional support from your pet for managing a mental health condition, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.
An ESA letter NY should be signed by a licensed mental health professional. The letter must contain the contact details of the professional. Your landlord can ask you to show an emotional support animal letter, but can’t deny you housing because of an ESA.
Related- ESA Dogs – Why Should You Get Them Certified?
With telemedicine technology, it’s very easy to get an ESA letter-
- Fill a simple form
- Talk to a therapist through the HIPAA-compliant software
- Receive ESA letter in PDF format via email
Know Your Rights
Under the Fair Housing Act, tenants are allowed to live with their emotional support animals without paying extra pet deposits. In other words, the landlord’s pet-related policies don’t apply to an ESA, even in no-pet regions.
Additionally, you can fly with your emotional support animal under the Air Carrier Access Act. You don’t have to pay pet fees to travel with your ESA.
Tenants need to learn the ESA regulations so that they can get all the benefits of owning emotional support animals.
Talk to Your Landlord About Your ESA
After you get an emotional support animal letter and found an apartment for rent, next is to approach your landlord. Be transparent, and have an open discussion with them regarding your support animal. You can simply start by saying you live with your ESA for easing symptoms of your mental illness. Also, state other benefits you are getting from your animal.
Many landlords don’t have any problem with the tenants who want to live with their ESAs. If your landlord says they don’t allow ESAs, simply talk to them regarding the Fair Housing Act. Chances are more that they comply with their obligations under the federal rules. In case your landlord has any questions regarding your ESA, they can clear those by contacting you.
After you submit your ESA accommodation request, your landlord will respond promptly, within a few days. However, they can’t charge you anything for ESA requests.
Train Your Support Animal to Behave
Your landlord can ask you to show your ESA letter, but can’t deny you housing. However, they can deny your ESA accommodation request only in limited circumstances, such as safety risks to others. The landlord can also deny ESA in the case of physical damage to their property and others’ properties. So, it’s necessary to train your support animal to behave in public.
Related- The Latest Emotional Support Animal Training Trends
Important commands to teach your emotional support animal-
- Recall – to keep your pet safe from harmful situations
- Stay – based on three parameters – distance, duration, and distraction
- Sit – make your pet to go down into a sitting position
- Settle – settling your dog of their own accord
When training your ESA, use the “treat method” to promote positive behavior. Give a treat every time your pet obeys your commands. Train your pet only when you are feeling good and positive. Prefer splitting training sessions into 10-15 minutes rather than one 60-minute session.
Final Thoughts
Living with an ESA provides comfort and support for managing common mental illnesses, such as anxiety, depression, etc. Before renting an apartment, you should register your pet as an emotional support animal. You can do so by talking to a therapist online. Learn about your ESA rights, such as living and flying with an ESA. Talk to your landlord regarding ESA accommodation, and show the ESA letter if they ask for it. Give your ESA obedient training to reduce safety risks to other individuals.
Apply for your ESA letter NY to live with your support animal legally.