Get an ESA Letter in South Carolina

With a valid letter

• ✓refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to give a person with a handicap an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: S.C. Code Ann. § 31-21-70(G)(2), and 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) federally
• ✓treat a no-pets policy as the end of the conversation. A no-pets policy is a rule, and rules are what § 31-21-70(G)(2) requires be adjusted where an accommodation may be necessary
• ✓dismiss documentation that establishes a disability and a disability-related need. Under § 31-21-70(N)(2) such documentation "shall be deemed sufficient", the statute settles the question rather than leaving it to the landlord's taste
• ✓demand that the animal be registered, certified, or wearing a vest. South Carolina's own 2019 Act recorded in its preamble that no vest, marking or documentation is required for an animal to qualify, and that such things are not "a reliable indication" of anything
• ✓charge pet rent, a pet deposit or a pet fee for an approved assistance animal, because the accommodation is a change to a rule rather than permission to keep a pet
• ✓threaten a tenant with § 47-3-980 for making a housing request. That section penalises misrepresenting an animal as a service animal, expressly "does not constitute a criminal offense," and does not describe an emotional-support accommodation request under Title 31
• ✓coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant for exercising a right under the Fair Housing Law. § 31-21-80, with the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act's own § 27-40-910 alongside it

Still applies

• ·ask the two questions § 31-21-70(N)(1) sets out: whether the person seeking to live with the animal has a disability that substantially limits a major life activity, and whether they have a disability-related need for the animal
• ·request documentation verifying the answers to those two questions, § 31-21-70(N)(2). What it may not do is keep asking after documentation that meets the statutory standard has arrived
• ·decline where the specific animal would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others. 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(d), assessed on that animal's actual conduct and history rather than its breed or weight. Note the authority: South Carolina's own threat clause at § 31-21-70(E) is written only against § 31-21-40(1) and (2), the two subdivisions that omit handicap, so it does not by its terms answer an assistance-animal request
• ·set the security deposit at any amount, because South Carolina caps none, but must itemise every deduction in writing within thirty days under § 27-40-410, on pain of treble damages
• ·fall outside §§ 31-21-40 and 31-21-60 entirely if the building holds no more than four families and the owner actually lives in one of them, § 31-21-70(A). The federal Fair Housing Act still applies on its own terms