Some Guidelines On Obtaining Verifications Related To Reasonable Accommodation Requests

Happy New Year Fair Housing Defense Blog readers.  Your humble editor starts another year with a question related to a reasonable accommodation request.  Specifically, what can or should apartment management do to verify an accommodation request?  Here are some simple guidelines:

1. If a person's disability is obvious or known (and the need for the requested accommodation is also known), then management should not ask for any more information.  For example, if a resident in a wheelchair submits a reasonable accommodation request seeking a handicapped parking spot, no further verification is needed.
2. If the disability is obvious or known (but the need for the accommodation is not known), then management should seek only information required to verify the need for the accommodation.  To illustrate, if an individual with a mobility impairment requests a service animal, management may be entitled to confirm the disability-related need for the service animal.