Emotional Support Animal Letters in Monroeville, PA

A Municipality of Planned Developments

Monroeville counted about 27,966 residents in the 2024 Census Bureau estimate, and 31.3% of its households rent — close to Pennsylvania’s 30.7% statewide share, across roughly 4,000 renter households.

East of Pittsburgh, its housing runs to planned developments and condominium buildings. A renter there typically deals with a unit owner for the lease and an association for everything about the building, which raises the first question a tenant has to answer: who is actually being asked?

Both of Them, and Both Are Bound

Section 5(h)(3.2) of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act is the operative provision. A reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services cannot lawfully be refused where it may be necessary for a person to have equal opportunity to use and enjoy a housing accommodation.

That language follows the conduct rather than the title. A board writing house rules, a management company applying them and an owner signing a lease are all capable of refusing an accommodation in rules or policies, and the duty reaches whichever of them does.

Act 118 of 2018 supplies the definition that makes the request concrete: an assistance animal is one qualifying as a reasonable accommodation, and the term expressly includes an emotional support animal on that basis.

Send It to Both, at Once

The practical error is sequencing. A tenant asks the owner, waits three weeks, is told it is a matter for the board, and then waits for a monthly meeting — two months gone before anyone has considered the merits.

Sending the same written request to the owner and the association together avoids that, and it produces two dated records rather than one.

Deferral, Not Refusal

Act 118 sets no deadline for a housing provider’s decision. Boards can defer an item from meeting to meeting indefinitely without ever refusing anything, and a tenant who is waiting politely can watch a six-month window close without a single “no” being written down.

Date each submission. Keep any acknowledgment. Note each deferral as it happens. Where a decision has been deferred twice, that is the point to take advice rather than to wait for a third meeting — § 9(h) of the Human Relations Act allows 180 days from the alleged act of discrimination, and a pattern of deferral is part of what a complaint describes.

What a Board May Ask For

Section 3(a) permits a documentation request only where the disability or the disability-related need is not readily apparent or known. Where a request is proper, § 3(b) requires the documentation to be written, reliable and based on direct knowledge, and to describe the disability-related need for the animal.

Board packets that ask for a diagnosis, a notarized signature or a specific template are asking beyond that list. So is a demand that the letter be dated within a certain number of months.

Fees, Assessments and the Deposit

An approved assistance animal is not a pet, which removes both a landlord’s pet rent and an association’s animal assessment. The tenant remains responsible for damage the animal causes, including in common areas.

The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 caps the deposit itself: two months’ rent for a lease’s first year, one month’s rent from then on. Within thirty days of a tenant vacating, the itemised damages and the balance both have to be delivered, and double damages follow where a landlord does not comply.

Common Areas and Amenities

The accommodation concerns the dwelling. Clubhouses, pools and fitness rooms follow the community’s ordinary rules unless a separate accommodation is requested for them.

Naming the scope in the request is worth doing, because boards frequently answer a broader claim than the tenant made — refusing general access when what was sought was permission to keep an animal in a unit.

The Federal Regulation

24 C.F.R. § 100.204 treats a refusal to accommodate in rules, policies, practices, or services as unlawful where the accommodation may be needed to give a person with a handicap equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit — common use areas expressly included. The reference to common use areas is worth noting in a condominium setting.

No Credential Exists

Pennsylvania issues no ESA registration and no certificate. Section 6 of Act 118 goes further and reaches the gear itself: a harness, collar, vest or sign fitted to an animal that does not qualify is a summary offense, with a fine reaching $1,000. Where a board asks for certification, the answer is that the Commonwealth does not issue one.

Asking After Years in the Unit

Nothing in Act 118 or the Human Relations Act limits when a resident may ask. A request raised after several years in a unit is assessed on the documentation submitted with it, and a board’s observation that the building has managed without the animal until now is not an answer under either statute.

Where an animal fee has been charged in the meantime, it stops once the accommodation is approved; whether earlier payments can be recovered is a question for a legal aid provider on the specific facts.

Before Signing a Condominium Lease

Nothing obliges an applicant to raise an assistance animal while an application is being assessed, and a disability is not a proper screening criterion. Applying on the ordinary terms and then submitting the request in writing after approval keeps the two decisions apart.

In a condominium it does something else useful: it gives the board a clean, dated document to consider at its next meeting rather than a second-hand account from an owner.

Getting an Answer Out of a Board

Where a board neither approves nor refuses, a short written question at the next interval usually forces the issue: is documentation being sought under § 3(a), and if so what specifically is considered not readily apparent?

That question is difficult to defer twice. Either the board identifies what it wants, which the tenant can supply, or it has no basis for the delay — and either outcome is more useful than another month of silence.

Keep the owner copied on every exchange with the association. Owners have their own interest in a resolved tenancy, and a copied owner is often the fastest route to a board that has stopped replying.

What the Resident Remains Responsible For

The accommodation takes away charges tied to the animal. It does not take away responsibility for damage, including damage in corridors, lobbies or grounds, which is chargeable on the same basis as damage caused by any other resident.

Making that explicit in the request tends to shorten board discussion, since the concern driving most objections is liability rather than the animal.

Help East of Pittsburgh

Neighborhood Legal Services covers Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties and handles landlord-tenant defense, wrongful eviction, subsidized housing denials and security deposit matters. Disability Rights Pennsylvania works statewide, and the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network can confirm coverage for a specific address.

Complaints go to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. Our guide to landlord denials explains how a refusal is weighed, and the Pennsylvania ESA law overview sets out the statewide rules.