An audit of the questions

Indiana: almost everything turns on what you are asked

Indiana disputes rarely concern whether an exception should be granted. They concern the questionnaire that arrived afterwards. Knowing exactly where the permitted enquiry stops is worth more here than any other single piece of knowledge.

The Indianapolis skyline reflected in the canal at night
Two questions are permitted. There is no third.

Everything beyond them — the diagnosis, the chart, the proprietary form, the notary, the annual renewal — sits outside what any Indiana housing provider may insist upon.

Photo: Miyin2, CC BY-SA 4.0

The boundary, itemised

Compare what you were asked against these two columns.

Inside the permitted enquiry

  1. Are you disabled? A yes suffices. No elaboration is owed.
  2. How does this animal relate to that? One or two sentences answers it.
  3. Who is confirming this, and how do we reach them? Only where nothing is already apparent.
  4. When was that written? Recent enough to describe your present circumstances.

Beyond the permitted enquiry

  1. Name the condition. The label is not theirs to have.
  2. Send your medical file. Records are wholly out of bounds.
  3. Use our form only. A template may be offered, never imposed as a gate.
  4. Have it notarised, and pay our fee. Neither is a lawful precondition.
  5. Renew it every year. Difficult to justify for a permanent impairment.
  6. Show us the training certificate. No such credential is required at home.

Declining an over-broad demand, in one line

You do not owe an argument. A short, courteous refusal is stronger than a long one.

They write “Before we can process this we need your doctor to state the diagnosis on our verification form, notarised, along with records from the past two years.”
You reply “I have supplied confirmation that I am disabled and that the animal relates to that, from someone who treats me. The diagnosis, my records, a notarised form and a specific template are outside what may be required, so I will not be providing those. Please let me have your decision by the 20th.”
They write “Understood. Approved — note that you remain responsible for any damage.”

That last line is correct and worth agreeing with. Liability for harm the animal causes is untouched by any of this, and conceding it early removes the objection most owners actually hold.

Where the friction concentrates

Indianapolis The bulk of the state's managed apartment stock, running uniform screening scripts. The over-broad questionnaire is very often a corporate template rather than a local decision.
Fort Wayne and Evansville Mid-sized markets mixing regional operators with private owners. Denials split evenly between policy and plain unfamiliarity.
Bloomington and West Lafayette University towns where tenancies last nine months. Turnover means over-reaching questionnaires go unchallenged year after year.
Rural counties Individual owners who have never encountered the question. A plainly worded note usually settles matters without any agency involvement.

If the questioning does not stop

An over-broad demand is itself worth complaining about, separately from the outcome.

Commission
Indiana Civil Rights Commission
National venue
Region V - Chicago
Time limit
One year from the incident
Price
Free, either way

Hold on to the form they sent. Investigators read the demand and your reply side by side, and a written request for records is close to self-proving in a way that a disputed conversation never is.

Note also that a matter can be pursued even if you were eventually approved. Surrendering a medical label that was never theirs to demand constitutes an injury by itself, and complaining is what forces such forms out of circulation for future tenants.

Heading it off before it starts

The questionnaire usually appears because the first message was vague. A message merely expressing a wish for a dog triggers a vetting exercise; one declaring outright that an impairment exists, that the creature addresses it, and which regulation should give way usually draws a straight reply.

Where nothing about your situation is visibly apparent, include the short confirming note with the very first message rather than waiting to be asked. It removes the pretext for a wider enquiry before anyone drafts one.

And set a date for the answer in that first message. Requests without a deadline are the ones that sit in an inbox while a lease renewal comes and goes.

Questions from Indiana

They telephoned my therapist. Is that allowed?
Confirming a note is genuine is acceptable. Using the call to ask what your condition is, or to seek a second opinion, is not — the call may verify authorship, nothing more.
What if nothing about my situation is visible?
Then a short confirming note is reasonable to ask for. That is the one circumstance where the enquiry legitimately extends past the first question.
I already sent my records before reading this.
It does not weaken your position. You cannot unsend them, but you can say in writing that you consider them outside scope and ask that they be destroyed rather than retained on file.
Can they refuse because my animal is large?
Poundage restrictions are simply building policy, and building policy is what an application like yours asks to be lifted. A rejection has to cite something the creature actually did, not the number on a scale.

Indiana Civil Rights Commission

The state agency that receives and investigates housing discrimination complaints in Indiana, alongside HUD.

Agency guidance

42 U.S.C. §§ 3601-3619

The federal statute prohibiting housing discrimination, including on the basis of disability. Refusing a reasonable accommodation that a person with a disability needs to use and enjoy a dwelling is a form of discrimination under this Act.

Federal law

24 CFR § 100.204

HUD's regulation implementing the reasonable accommodation duty, including the example of waiving a no-pets rule for a person who needs an assistance animal.

Federal law

24 CFR § 100.202

Sets out the general prohibitions on disability discrimination in housing and limits inquiries into whether a person has a disability.

Federal law

HUD Notice FHEO-2020-01

HUD's central guidance on assistance animals in housing: the difference between a service animal and a support animal, what information a housing provider may request, and how requests should be assessed.

Federal law