Renovation, relocation and your animal
Answers
Displacement is where accommodations get lost, because nobody writes anything down.
The accommodation goes with you
If a provider relocates you within their portfolio, the accommodation applies to the replacement unit. You should not have to make a fresh request to be housed temporarily by the same landlord who granted the original.
Where it goes wrong
- Replacement housing arranged through a third party with its own no-pets rule, and nobody having raised it.
- A hotel, which is a public accommodation under the ADA rather than a dwelling, so the analysis is genuinely different and worse.
- Boarding being offered instead of housing that takes the animal, which is not an equivalent accommodation.
- A right to return that comes back with a new pet policy attached.
What to do before you move
- Raise the animal as soon as relocation is mentioned, in writing.
- Ask for confirmation that the temporary unit accepts the animal and that the accommodation continues on return.
- Get the right to return in writing, including the rent on return.
- Keep the original request and approval with the relocation paperwork.
Where the works are a pretext for ending a tenancy, timing is evidence, particularly if the plan appeared shortly after an accommodation dispute. Many jurisdictions regulate renovation-related displacement specifically and require relocation payments.
Common questions
- They offered to board my animal during the works.
- That is not equivalent, and separating somebody from an assistance animal is the opposite of what the accommodation exists for. Ask for housing that takes the animal.