A residential street in Hialeah, Florida
Hialeah · Inner Miami-Dade

Small buildings, landlords who live in them, and a rule almost nobody here has heard of

Our Miami page is about getting past a condominium board. Hialeah is a different city entirely: duplexes and small blocks, owned by individuals who often live on site, where the obstacle is rarely a process and almost always the fact that nobody involved knows the law exists.

Free screening

Free to complete, in your own time, and it can tell you to stop.

The housing here is small

Understanding the scale of the building you live in tells you most of what you need to know about how the conversation will go.

Most common

Duplexes and triplexes

Often with the owner in one unit. One person decides, immediately, and usually in conversation rather than in writing.

Very common

Four to eight unit blocks

Owned individually or by a family, managed without an agent. No forms, no portal, no process.

Common

Efficiencies and additions

Converted garages and rear units. Tenancies are frequently informal, sometimes without a written lease at all.

Less common

Larger apartment communities

Concentrated along the expressways, professionally managed, with the portals and forms familiar elsewhere in the county.

Growing

Newer condominium

Association review applies, following the pattern our Miami page sets out.

Worth noting

No written lease

An oral tenancy is still a tenancy. The absence of a lease does not remove your right to request an accommodation.

"I only own one small building, so this does not apply to me"

The exemption question, honestly

This is the single most common response we hear about from Hialeah, and it is the one place on this site where the honest answer is genuinely complicated rather than simply misunderstood.

Narrow exemptions from the federal Fair Housing Act do exist. They are much narrower than landlords believe, they are conditional, and Florida's own fair housing law has to be considered alongside them. Roughly, they concern:

Owner-occupied buildings of very few units

Where the owner actually lives in one of them and the building is small. Hialeah has a great many buildings that look like this.

Single-family homes let by the owner directly

Without an agent, without advertising, and where the owner holds only a small number of such properties.

Conditions that are easily broken

Using a letting agent, or advertising the unit, can take a landlord outside an exemption they assumed applied. Discriminatory advertising is prohibited regardless.

What this means for you practically: a landlord asserting an exemption is not automatically wrong, and neither are they automatically right. It is a question of fact about their particular circumstances, and it is worth taking advice on rather than conceding or arguing from a web page. Legal aid services in Miami-Dade look at questions like this without charge.

It is also worth knowing that most landlords who say this have not analysed anything. They have heard that small owners are exempt and assumed it covers them. A calm written request that sets out the position often produces a different answer without the exemption ever being tested.

Making the request in Spanish

A request written in Spanish is as valid as one written in English. Nothing in the law requires a particular language, and a landlord who reads Spanish is more likely to engage with a Spanish request than an English one. Where you are unsure who will read it, sending both is straightforward and costs nothing.

Wording that carries the same weight in either language
"Solicito una adaptación razonable para un animal de apoyo, conforme a la Ley de Vivienda Justa."
Naming the legal basis. Says at once that this is a formal request rather than a favour, which is what changes the tone of the reply.
"Adjunto la carta de un profesional con licencia en Florida, con su número de licencia."
Offering verification. The licence number is checkable against the state register, and volunteering it is the strongest signal that the documentation is genuine.
"La carta no incluye mi diagnóstico, porque la ley no se lo permite solicitar."
Heading off the usual follow-up. Stated as information rather than as a refusal, which lands better.
"Seguiré siendo responsable de cualquier daño que cause el animal."
Conceding the real worry. True, reasonable, and it removes the objection most owner-landlords actually have.
"Agradecería una respuesta por escrito antes del [fecha]."
Creating a record. A courteous date turns silence into something you can point to later.

The evaluation itself can be conducted with language support. Raise it at screening rather than during a consultation.

Free screening

What Hialeah landlords say, and what holds

"Aquí no se permiten animales."

A no-animals rule is a policy. An approved assistance animal is not a pet, and a policy is exactly what an accommodation departs from.

"Tiene que pagar el depósito por la mascota."

Pet deposits, pet fees and monthly pet charges do not apply once the animal is approved. Damage the animal causes remains yours.

"Necesito ver el registro del animal."

No register exists in Florida or nationally. The document that counts is a letter from a licensed practitioner.

"Ese perro es muy grande."

A pet policy's limits on how big an animal may be simply do not apply here. What the animal has done is the only question.

"Yo vivo aquí también, no tengo que hacerlo."

Sometimes a real point and usually not. Owner-occupied exemptions are narrow and conditional — worth advice rather than assumption, in either direction.

"Enséñeme sus papeles del médico."

A landlord may see confirmation that a disability-related need exists. Your records and your diagnosis are not theirs to ask for.

When your landlord is also your neighbour

Rarely discussed and, in a city of owner-occupied duplexes, the thing that actually stops people asking. You are not writing to a management company in another state. You are writing to someone whose car is in the driveway.

Put it in writing anyway

Even where you speak every day. A conversation over the fence leaves no record, and the record is what protects you if the relationship later sours.

Hand it over in person, then send it

A message or email after the conversation keeps the warmth and creates the date. "As we discussed this morning" is a perfectly good opening.

Do not explain your condition

Proximity creates pressure to justify yourself. You are not required to, and a neighbour-landlord is entitled to no more information than a distant one.

Address the real concern first

Noise, damage, the shared yard. Saying plainly how you will handle those resolves more of these than any citation of the statute does.

Expect a delay, not a refusal

Individual owners often want to think, or to ask a relative. A courteous date in the request gives them room to do that without it drifting.

Keep it separate from everything else

Do not bundle the request with a complaint about the plumbing. One subject, one message, one answer to point at later.

Conditions assessed in inner Miami-Dade

Anxiety and panic disorders

Including presentations tied to housing insecurity and overcrowding. Detail →

Depressive disorders

Both episodic and long-running. Detail →

Trauma-related conditions

Including trauma carried from before arrival in the United States. Detail →

Older residents

Hialeah has one of the oldest median populations in the county. Seniors →

How the assessment runs

First

Screening

Free, completed at your pace, and capable of advising against continuing.

Then

A Florida practitioner

Handled by someone licensed here, whose number a landlord can look up.

If needed

Consultation

By telehealth, with language support arranged where it helps.

Finally

Determination

A decision with reasons, and documentation if approved.

Hialeah questions

My landlord lives in the building. Is he exempt?
Possibly, and possibly not. Owner-occupied exemptions exist but are narrow and depend on the specific facts — how many units, whether he lives there, whether an agent was used, whether the unit was advertised. It is not something to concede on his say-so or to argue from a web page. Miami-Dade legal aid organisations will look at the question without charge, and that is the right place to settle it.
I have no written lease. Can I still ask?
Yes. An oral tenancy is a tenancy, and the right to request a reasonable accommodation attaches to occupying the dwelling rather than to holding a signed document. Put the request itself in writing even if the tenancy is not, because that is the only record either of you will have.
Can I write to my landlord in Spanish?
Yes, and it is often the sensible choice here. No law requires English, and a request the landlord reads comfortably is a request more likely to be understood and granted. If you are unsure who will end up reading it, send both versions in the same message.
Does the evaluation have to be in English?
Language support can be arranged. Clinically, the thing that counts is an accurate account of your symptoms and how you are managing day to day — difficult to give in a second language while the clock runs. Say so at screening so it is sorted before a consultation rather than during one.
Will any of this affect my immigration status?
A housing accommodation request is a matter between you and your landlord, and a clinical assessment is a private medical matter. Neither is reported to immigration authorities. If you have concerns specific to your circumstances, an immigration attorney rather than a housing service is the right person to ask — and asking does not require you to give up the housing question.
Is there a Hialeah or Miami-Dade ESA registry?
Nothing of the sort exists municipally, at county level, statewide or federally. Miami-Dade does license animals — a vaccination and ownership record applying to all of them, and carrying no weight here. What registry websites actually sell →

Start the free screening

Nothing to pay and no obligation. At the end you will know whether there is a case worth making to your landlord.

Free screening