Q: My daughter lives in a large apartment building in a western suburb of Chicago. She is allowed to have her emotional support animal as long as she has documentation from her doctor.

Now she is shopping around for a condominium. There is a unit that she really likes; however, the owner told her that no pets are allowed. We told her it is an emotional support animal. But she said the condo association will not allow it. Is that right?

A: There are pets and there are service animals. Emotional support animals fall into a category of their own.

There are laws in place under the Americans with Disabilities Act to protect people with disabilities and to prevent discrimination against these individuals. The ADA provides some guidance on the issue of a service animal. When it comes to emotional support animals, it is less clear whether these animals would rise to the level of a service animal and afford the owner the protections of the ADA.

Under the ADA, administered by the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, a service animal is defined as “a dog that has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability. The task(s) performed by the dog must be directly related to the person’s disability.” One of the clearest cases for a service animal is a person with a sight disability that uses a trained dog to assist them in getting around.

Under this same guidance, an emotional support animal is an animal that provides comfort to an owner but is not considered a service animal. There has also been quite a bit of pushback against some people who have emotional support animals of a more exotic nature. A few years ago, someone claimed their peacock was an emotional support animal. In the aftermath of that incident, airlines began to limit which animals would be allowed as an emotional support animal.

Condominium association board members can set the rules governing how the property is managed. Those rules can limit resident noise, smoking (tobacco and non-tobacco products) and pets. Pets can be regulated by size, quantity and type. Pet rules and regulations are a hot topic with many owners, simply because so many people have them.

Years ago, an owner of a potbellied pig living in a high-rise condominium in Chicago battled with their condominium association on whether the rules allowed the pig to live in the building. This battle led to many condominium associations updating or changing their rules to specifically list the kind of animals that would be allowed as pets in the building.

Around the same time, many buildings also instituted rules relating to service animals. In some instances, these rules also referred to emotional support animals. From the condominium association’s point of view, if they allow pets in the building, the issue of service and emotional support animals doesn’t matter.

However, in buildings that don’t allow pets, or restrict the type of pets allowed, the issue can be problematic for owners of service and emotional support animals. With service animals, those owners have the backing of the ADA. We believe that most condominium buildings have allowed service animals into their buildings.

Service animals are trained to work or perform certain tasks to specifically assist a person with a disability. The training of true service animals is extensive and often lasts for years.

While the ADA may not cover emotional support animals, your state laws, along with local ordinances, may provide some guidance on this issue. If not, know that a condominium association can restrict what pets, if any, are allowed to reside in their building.

Recently, Sam had a situation where a buyer had an emotional support animal and the building the buyer was moving into had a no-pet policy. However, the building does allow service animals and also considers allowing emotional support animals under certain circumstances, such as if the owner had a doctor’s note indicating that the animal was needed for the health and wellbeing of the doctor’s patient.

Has your daughter reached out to her doctor to see if she can get a note from the doctor? Perhaps, with this information, the building she wants to move into may reconsider. Have you checked to see if there are any local ordinances that require buildings to accept emotional support animals in your daughter’s situation?

You can check online to see if the town or city she is moving to has an ordinance that covers emotional support animals. If it does, she can see if the building would reconsider their no-pet policy to allow her and her emotional support animal to move in.

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(Ilyce Glink is the author of “100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask” (4th Edition). She is also the CEO of Best Money Moves, a financial wellness technology company. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her website, ThinkGlink.com.)

©2025 Ilyce R. Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.