NYC Condo Agrees to $125K Settlement for Allegedly Denying Requests for Emotional Support Animals

A 1,118-unit condominium community in New York City recently agreed to pay $125,000 to settle allegations of housing discrimination for allegedly refusing to allow three residents with psychiatric disabilities to live with emotional support dogs in their units.

In its complaint, the Justice Department alleged that the community had a no-pet policy and generally required residents requesting reasonable accommodations for assistance animals to submit notarized statements from two doctors, including in some cases, detailed information about their disabilities, and sometimes required residents or their doctors to answer a series of follow-up questions. If requests were rejected, the community allegedly did not provide any reasons for the rejection.

According to the complaint, each of the residents applied for emotional support animals and all the requests were denied. The residents filed disability discrimination complaints with HUD, which conducted an investigation and issued a charge of discrimination.

Under the settlement, the community agreed to pay a total of $125,000 in damages and civil penalties and to adopt a new reasonable accommodation policy.