HOW TO PUSH BACK ON FRAUDULENT ESA LETTERS
When dealing with clearly fraudulent letters, housing providers have recourse. Licensed healthcare providers must follow ethical standards and are subject to discipline by licensure boards. If you suspect fraud, one method is to document the process yourself—purchase a letter from the
same site and use that evidence to file a complaint. I have personally turned in Healthcare providers and was able to statistically prove one provider was writing over 1700 ESA letters per month, making over $1.5M per year as an LCSW. Providers get cited for unethical conduct and using methods of deceit to create fraud.
STAY COMPLIANT WITH HUD AND FAIR HOUSING GUIDELINES
Do Not Ask for Specifics About the Disability You are allowed to request documentation verifying the existence of a disability-related need for an ESA—but you cannot ask what the disability is or how severe it is. Let renters know upfront that you’re not requesting personal medical information, just clarification that there is a disability- related need for the animal.
Keep Records of All Communications
Don’t Let Others Cut in Line If an applicant meets all the qualifications but you're waiting on final verification of their ESA letter, don’t skip over them for the next person in line. Doing so could be viewed as discrimination.
Document every conversation about ESA requests. If you have a face-to- face discussion, follow up with an email summarizing what was said. When calling healthcare providers, always record the call (with their consent, depending on your state laws). This documentation protects you if a tenant later accuses you of misconduct.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Verifying an ESA letter needs to be done methodically and carefully. By implementing just a few of the topics discussed in this article, you will start to catch fraud. In a study that reviewed 3,967 ESA requests, it was found only 1549 of them were reliable according to the HUD guidelines. Unless housing providers take a stand, the spread of illegitimate online ESA letters will continue to undermine the integrity of legitimate accommodations and create more challenges for every housing provider.
LOGAN MILLER Co-Founder OurPetPolicy.com
Logan grew up in a small town in Eastern Idaho and bought his first duplex right after college, sparking his interest in residential real estate. After dealing with a tenant issue involving a fraudulent Emotional Support Animal letter, he began researching the problem more deeply. That experience led him to develop a verification process that later became the foundation for OurPetPolicy, which now helps housing providers manage assistance animal requests across the country.
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