Assistance and service animals are becoming more common. You should know your rights as an owner, a landlord, or a business owner. 

What is an assistance animal and service animal?

The Illinois Assistance Animal Integrity Act covers rental properties such as apartments, condominiums, and co-ops. This law applies to any type of animal that provides assistance, performs tasks, or provides emotional support for a person with a disability.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service animal as any dog trained to provide assistance to a person with a disability. Service dogs can provide many services including: 

• Guiding blind or visually impaired people,
• Alerting deaf or hard of hearing people to sounds, 
• Picking up objects or helping those who are mobility impaired balance,
• Alerting others to oncoming seizures while keeping the person safe, and
• Reminding the person to take medication. This could be for depression, diabetes, etc.

Landlords cannot refuse housing because someone owns an assistance or service animal.

Everyone is entitled to the equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. This is the law. Housing providers and landlords must make reasonable accommodations. This includes rules, policies, practices, and services for people with disabilities. This includes their service animals or emotional support animals. 

There are only a few reasons a landlord may deny a request to allow an assistance animal:

• If accommodating the animal would be too expensive or burdensome.
• If the animal poses a direct threat to the safety of others.
• If the animal causes physical damage to property.
• If the animal has a pattern of out-of-control behavior.

You may ask a prospective or current tenant for written documentation of a disability that explains why they need an assistance animal. For example, a written note from a health care provider that describes a disability-related need for an assistance animal. A healthcare provider does not need to give a specific diagnosis. Note, if you already know about the disability, or if the disability is obvious, then they do not need to provide this information

You can’t ask your tenant to pay a pet deposit or fee for an assistance animal. This is true even if you already allow pets and require other tenants to pay a deposit or fee. You cannot require a tenant to get special insurance for an assistance animal. You can charge a tenant for the costs of repairs for damage that an animal causes. This does not include normal wear and tear.

How do animal service laws affect your business?

You may not discriminate against people with disabilities. This includes restaurants, hotels, and retail stores. It includes theaters, parks, concert halls and sports venues. These businesses must allow service animals. The animals can go where the public is generally allowed.

The service animal does not have to wear identification or a vest. Staff are not allowed to request any documentation. Staff cannot require that the animal perform a task. The staff cannot ask about the person’s disability. The staff may ask only two specific questions:  

• Is the animal a service animal required because of a disability? 
• What work or task has the animal been trained to perform? 

The business does not have to provide any care to the animal. It is up to the owner to provide any care that the animal may need.