The Property Management Shop
by Marc Wilson
Q. I own a pair of flats in the Mission District. Last year I approved a new subsequent occupant. This occupant had submitted his employment and rental history and signed a 6.14 Notice. A couple of months ago, I noticed the subsequent occupant entering the apartment with a large dog. I immediately sent the original tenant a letter, indicating that he was in breach of his rental agreement, which specifically states that dogs are not allowed at the property. The subsequent occupant then sent me a letter from his doctor indicating that he was disabled and that the dog is a comfort animal. The subsequent occupant claims that the law requires me to permit him to keep a dog because he is disabled. I don’t want dogs at the property. What should I do?
A. Do you want to know how easy it is to get your doctor to qualify you as disabled? Simply go to any area of downtown San Francisco where parking is either nonexistent or horribly expensive. Check out the parking meters in and around the Embarcadero Center. You will notice that two out of three cars parked at parking meters around the Embarcadero Center have disabled parking placards. Why? Because anyone can have free all-day parking by obtaining a blue disabled parking placard. All the tenant has to do is get the doctor to write a letter indicating the nature of the tenant’s disability. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) does not do anything about this abuse, because they are addicted to the fees that the placard users pay for their placards. You see, the DMV gets these fees for the placards, since it does not receive any parking meter income—and the doctors could care less. The result is that the doctors are writing disabled letters for virtually anyone who asks, and the DMV is giving disabled placards to everyone who presents letters from their doctors. High blood pressure? You’re disabled. Elderly? You’re disabled. Morbidly obese? You’re disabled. Are you getting the picture? This is a classic case of an abuse of the system, not at all unlike your tenant’s insistence on living with a dog in violation of your rental agreement.
This is not about a blind person who requests a seeing-eye dog. This is not about a paraplegic who requests a monkey that is trained to work the can opener. This is about a subsequent occupant who has no regard for your rental agreement or for your rights. This is about abusing the system. You need, however, to be careful with this particular set of facts. Ultimately, you must determine if the tenant is making a relatively harmless play to get a dog or if you are dealing with some kind of SPCA-loving, tree-hugging wing nut with nothing better to do than take this issue to the Supreme Court. The state and federal laws regarding service animals, comfort animals and who does and who does not qualify as disabled are sufficiently vague and inconsistent as to render uncertain the outcome of an all-out legal donnybrook. You and your attorney need to research the facts and make a decision. You must determine the extent of the tenant’s disability and the legitimacy of his reliance on a service comfort animal. I personally will move for the eviction of any tenant who insists on a comfort dog that is contrary to my rental agreement. A comfort dog is a dog that performs no other task for the tenant other than to look cute. Obviously, a service dog is a different animal. Service dogs help blind people cross the street, deaf people answer the phone, disabled people recover dropped items—in short, they perform a real and necessary service. Talk with your attorney. I would not, however, tolerate this obvious abuse of the system, and I have a good feeling that a San Francisco jury would not either.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Marc Wilson has been managing and selling San Francisco apartment buildings for 20 years. Please send your questions concerning property management issues to Marc Wilson at 1699 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109. He can be reached at 415-229-1275. Copyright © 2004 by the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. All rights reserved.