Inspections and assistance animals
Answers
Ordinary inspections apply to you. A special schedule because of the animal does not.
The distinction
A provider may inspect on the terms in the lease and under state law, with proper notice, applied to everybody. What they may not do is impose a different regime on you because of a disability-related accommodation, which is what a monthly animal-damage inspection in a building that otherwise inspects annually amounts to.
What state law gives you regardless
- Notice, usually 24 to 48 hours, in almost every state.
- Entry at reasonable hours, for a stated purpose.
- Limits on frequency where the lease or statute sets them.
- No entry without notice except in a genuine emergency.
If it has already started
Write and ask what the inspection schedule is for the building generally, and ask for the reason yours differs. That question is usually enough, because a provider who has singled you out will not want to put the reason in writing. Keep the answer either way.
A single inspection after a specific, genuine complaint is a different thing from a standing schedule, and is generally reasonable.
Common questions
- Can they inspect to check the animal is behaving?
- Responding to a specific complaint is reasonable. A standing programme of animal inspections applied only to accommodated tenants is not.