Can You Legally Deny an ESA? Understanding HUD's New Enforcement Approach

Aug 27	01:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM CT / 11:00 AM MT / 10:00 AM PT
	Duration: 60 minutes	Speaker: Doug Chasick

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ABOUT THE EVENT

On May 22, 2026, HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity quietly rewrote two decades of federal ESA enforcement — and most property management teams are still operating on outdated assumptions. HUD permanently rescinded its 2013 and 2020 guidance on emotional support animals and adopted a new enforcement posture that applies the narrower ADA "individually trained" service animal standard to fair housing accommodation requests.

For the first time since 2013, FHEO will no longer treat denial of an untrained ESA as a Fair Housing Act violation — a reversal that has left leasing offices, regional managers, and even attorneys divided on what's actually safe to do at the property level.

But here's the catch every on-site team needs to understand: this is an enforcement change, not a legal one. The memo does not change the underlying body of case law, and it is not itself a regulation. Residents whose ESA requests are denied can still sue, and private litigation doesn't require a prior HUD finding first.

State and local laws are completely unaffected, meaning a policy that's defensible in one state could trigger real liability in another. Meanwhile, HUD has signaled it intends to pursue formal rulemaking to permanently align its regulations with the ADA — so this landscape is still moving.

Join us as we cover pet fee waivers, breed and weight restrictions, documentation review, and how to handle the resident who shows up with a 2020-era ESA letter today.

Areas Covered

What do I do now that HUD has withdrawn its guidance about assistive animals?
What questions may be asked,
What documentation may be reviewed,
What standards may be applied,
How to handle requests for multiple animals,
When accommodation requests may be denied,
How to communicate decisions appropriately.
The ten most common assistance animal-related mistakes and how to avoid them

Learning Objectives

Distinguish between service animals, assistance animals, and emotional support animals under fair housing laws
Evaluate internet-generated ESA letters and third-party documentation appropriately
Apply the “readily apparent” standard correctly
Determine what information housing providers may legally request—and what they may not
Recognize common compliance failures properties make when handling accommodation requests
Respond appropriately when assistance animals create operational issues

Who Should Attend

Community Manager/Director, Multi-site Manager (Area, Regional), Leasing Managers, Training, Compliance and HR Professionals.

Handouts & Reference Material

A PDF copy of the presentation will be available for download.

Speaker(s)

Doug Chasick

Doug Chasick, CPM®, CAPS, Adv. RAM, SLE, That Fair Housing Guy™, is the former President of the Fair Housing Institute, Inc. With more than 46 years of investment real estate experience, he began as the Resident Manager of a 524-unit apartment property and has been the President or CEO of five real estate companies, responsible for portfolios of over 28,000 apartments. Doug was awarded his CPM® in 1979 and was a member of the IREM National Faculty for eight years. A Senior Instructor member of the NAAEI Faculty, he leads the Advanced Facilitator Training course, is the co-author of “Outstanding Facilitation Techniques”, and a co-author of the joint IREM & NAAEI “Fair Housing and Beyond” course. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker in Florida, a licensed Expert Fair Housing Instructor in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the recipient of the NAAEI Apartment Career & Education award.

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