Most people arrive here holding something they paid for and quietly wondering whether it is genuine. This page takes a valid letter apart element by element so you can check yours against it, and shows you how to verify the author yourself in about two minutes.
Most people arrive holding something they paid for and quietly wondering whether it is genuine. Letter validity comes down to a handful of elements you can check yourself, and a licence you can verify in two minutes.
Element by element
Below is the shape a legitimate letter takes. The numbered notes explain why each element is there and what its absence tells you.
A checklist you can run now
Work through these in order. If any step stops you, that is your answer.
It should be printed, not implied. No number means nothing to check.
The deciding factor is where your home is, not the location of the practice or of the website that sold you something.
Every state publishes a lookup. Enter the name and the number and confirm the licence is current.
If your condition is named, the letter overshares. Ask for a corrected version.
Present and recent enough to describe you now. Missing dates are a defect, not a style choice.
A phone number or practice address that reaches a human is the last confirmation. A support ticket form is not the same thing.
Reading the result
Did the licence number check out against your state's public register?
Yes, and the state matches
Whatever else it lacks is cosmetic. Keep a copy outside any portal, note the date, and refresh it before a leasing office asks.
Yes, but the licence is for another state
This is the most common failure and it is not fraud. The author is real; their licence simply does not reach your tenancy. A fresh assessment with someone licensed locally is the fix.
No record found, or no number to search
Nothing verifiable underlies it. Ask the seller for licence details in writing, and treat a non-answer as the answer.
Two lists
Reading a letter against these two columns settles most doubts in under a minute.
What people ask when auditing one
One sheet of practice letterhead. It gives the clinician's name and credential, the licence and where it was issued, a date and a signature, and says that disability creates a need which this animal answers. No diagnosis, no serial number, no seal.
No, and a letter that does has told your landlord something they were never entitled to ask. A properly written one confirms the need without identifying what causes it.
Then the only thing that makes it checkable is missing. A licence number lets anyone confirm the author is real and currently registered, which is precisely why legitimate letters carry one and mills omit it.
It is neutral. Verification that points back to the seller's own website proves only that the seller has a website. A licence number checked against a state board is the verification that carries weight.
No. Notarisation confirms a signature was witnessed, which says nothing about whether the signer holds a licence or performed an assessment. It is decoration on this particular document.
Not automatically, but it is weaker. Letterhead ties the document to a practice a reader can look up. Without it, everything rests on the licence details, so check those carefully.
It matters a great deal. A certificate asserts a status that no body confers. If the document is titled that way, read it closely for what is actually being claimed and by whom.
Public lookups for mental health credentials are maintained by all fifty states. Search the name and number there. It takes two minutes and tells you what your landlord will find when they do the same.
Naming the animal is common and helps a landlord match the request to what is in the building. It is not essential, and its absence is not a defect.
Ask the seller for the clinician's licence details in writing. The response tells you what you have. Where nothing verifiable comes back, treat the money as spent and arrange a genuine assessment.
A real assessment produces a document that stands up to exactly the checks above. Begin at no cost and find out whether one is appropriate for you.
