Committees, calendars and covenants
Assistance animals and HOA or condo boards
An association is a housing provider and carries the same obligation as any landlord, whatever its governing documents say. What makes these requests different is not the law but the machinery: a committee of volunteers that meets monthly, works from a written pack, and defers anything it is unsure about.
What this page covers
- Why CC&Rs do not settle the question
- The agenda cut-off nobody tells you about
- Board versus managing agent, and who does what
- How to write a request a board pack can carry
HOA and condo board requests
An association that controls housing carries the same obligation as any landlord, whatever its governing documents say. What makes these different is a committee of volunteers meeting monthly and working from a written pack.
- Why CC&Rs do not settle it
- The agenda cut-off nobody mentions
- Board against managing agent
Governing documents bind owners. They do not displace an accommodation obligation the association carries anyway.
Timing
The meeting cycle governs everything
Grasping this does more for an association request than anything else, and hardly anyone builds their timing around it.
- Week 0
You submit
To the managing agent, in writing, asking for confirmation it will reach the board.
- Agenda cut-off
Usually 7-14 days before
The board pack is compiled ahead of the meeting. Miss this and you have missed the meeting, not the deadline.
- Meeting
Monthly or quarterly
Your request is considered alongside everything else. Boards sometimes defer for more information rather than deciding.
- After
Minutes and notification
The decision reaches you via the agent, occasionally weeks later. Ask for it in writing rather than waiting for minutes.
- Summer
The gap nobody mentions
Many boards do not meet in July or August. A June submission can wait until September without anybody intending it.
The core point
Why governing documents do not settle it
The argument boards most often make
CC&Rs are a contract, and they do not displace an accommodation obligation
Associations tend to treat their governing documents as the final word, and within their own sphere that instinct is sound - they are binding on owners and boards are elected to enforce them. What they cannot do is contract out of an obligation that exists independently of them. A covenant prohibiting animals over a certain weight, or of a certain breed, or at all, governs pets kept under that covenant. Once approved, the animal no longer sits under that covenant. This is why quoting the CC&Rs back at a requester answers nothing, and why a board that does so has not yet engaged with what was actually asked.
What the documents do govern
Pets, and every owner keeping one under the covenant.
What they cannot govern
Whether an accommodation obligation applies to the association at all.
What a board should do
Consider the request on its own footing and record the reasoning.
Ordered by what works
How to get a decision out of a board
Boards are volunteers, usually well intentioned, and generally unfamiliar with this. Everything below assumes that rather than hostility.
- Most effective
Find the agenda cut-off date
Ask the managing agent when the board pack is compiled. Submitting the day before the meeting is submitting for next month, and almost nobody realises.
- Very effective
Make the request self-contained
The board reads a pack, not a conversation. Everything they need should be on the page: the request, the assessment, your undertaking on damage, and a date.
- Useful
Offer to answer questions in writing
Boards defer requests when they are unsure. An explicit offer to clarify anything before the meeting removes the easiest reason to postpone.
- Do not
Escalate at the first delay
A board that has not met yet has not refused you. Treating a calendar as hostility turns a routine item into a contested one, in a community you live in.
Know which you have
Two different counterparties
The board
- Decides, collectively, at a meeting
- Volunteers, usually your neighbours
- Bound by the accommodation obligation
- Works from a written pack, not conversations
- May defer if anything is unclear
The managing agent
- Administers, and does not decide
- Paid professionals, often familiar with the framework
- Compiles the pack the board reads
- Your route in, and your source for dates
- Cannot approve, but can stop it stalling
Ten answers
Association questions
Does an HOA have to allow an emotional support animal?
Where an association governs housing it counts as a provider of it, and the obligation attaches to the association just as it would to anyone else. Governing documents, however strictly written, do not override an accommodation obligation.
My HOA says the CC&Rs prohibit dogs over 25 pounds.
Weight limits are pet rules. Granting the request takes the animal outside those provisions altogether, so the weight limit is what you are seeking relief from.
Who do I send the request to?
The board, through the managing agent, in writing. Agents prepare the board pack, so a request the agent holds is a request the board actually sees.
How long does a board take?
It depends entirely on their meeting calendar. Boards commonly meet monthly, sometimes quarterly, and often skip a summer month. Submitting a week after a meeting can cost you six weeks by itself.
Can the board make me appear at a meeting?
They may invite you and attending can help. Requiring you to present in person before considering a written request adds a hurdle that the accommodation process does not contemplate.
Can they fine me while the request is pending?
Fines levied for the animal's presence while an accommodation request sits undecided are worth challenging in writing immediately, and worth documenting carefully whatever happens next.
What if a neighbour objects?
Objections are considered but do not decide the matter. Claims of allergy or genuine fear get examined instead of taken as read, and what normally follows is a workable arrangement rather than a no.
Does it matter that I own rather than rent?
Not for the obligation. Owning changes who your counterparty is - the association rather than a landlord - but the framework applying to them is the same.
Can they require insurance for the animal?
Any condition applied purely on account of that status falls outside what may be demanded. A rule applying to every owner in the community equally is a different matter.
What if the board simply never replies?
Sitting on a request for an unreasonable period is read as meaningful on its own. Write to the agent asking for the date your request will be considered, and keep every message; a chronology built as you go is far stronger than one assembled later.
Give the board something complete.
Boards defer what they cannot decide from the page in front of them. Everything turns on an up-to-date assessment written by a professional holding a licence in this state.
