Verify Support Animal Letters: A Landlord’s Guide to Legitimate Documentation

Why Verification Matters for Housing Providers

Verifying a support animal letter is one of the most important steps a landlord or property manager can take. Done right, it protects your property, your other residents and your legal standing. Done wrong, it can expose you to fair housing complaints or disability discrimination claims.

Under the Fair Housing Act, housing providers must make reasonable accommodations for residents with disabilities who use support animals. That obligation is real and enforceable. But the law also gives you the right to request reliable documentation before granting that accommodation.

The challenge is that fraudulent letters are common. Some websites sell them for as little as $30 with no real clinical evaluation. Knowing how to verify support animal letters protects everyone involved, including tenants with genuine needs who deserve their rights respected.

What a Legitimate Support Animal Letter Contains

A valid support animal letter is not just a note on letterhead. It is a professional clinical document. When you review a letter, look for these specific elements.

Licensed clinician signature and credentials. The letter must be signed by a licensed mental health or medical professional. That includes licensed clinical psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors and licensed physicians. Their professional license number should appear on the document.

State of licensure. The clinician must be licensed in the state where the tenant resides. A license from another state does not automatically satisfy this requirement. This is one of the clearest signals of a legitimate versus fraudulent letter.

An established therapeutic relationship. The letter should reflect that the clinician has actually evaluated the tenant. It does not need to disclose the specific diagnosis, but it must state that a disability exists and that the support animal is recommended as part of the tenant’s treatment or mental health care.

Letterhead with contact information. A legitimate letter will include the clinician’s practice name, address, phone number and email. If contact information is missing or leads to a generic website, that is a problem.

The date of the letter. Letters should be current. A letter from several years ago is not automatically invalid, but HUD guidance suggests that housing providers may request updated documentation if there is a reason to doubt whether the disability-related need still exists.

How to Check a Clinician’s Licensing

Every U.S. state maintains a public database of licensed mental health and medical professionals. Checking the license of the clinician who signed a support animal letter takes about two minutes and is one of the most reliable verification steps available to you.

Go to your state’s professional licensing board website. Most states have a Department of Health or Department of Consumer Affairs that manages this. Search by the clinician’s name and license number as listed on the letter. Confirm that the license is active, in good standing and matches the state where your tenant lives.

If the license number does not appear in state records, or if it belongs to a different person entirely, the letter is not valid. You have legitimate grounds to request a replacement document before moving forward with the accommodation request.

You can also verify licensing through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains resources for understanding healthcare provider credentials and professional standards at the federal level.

Red Flags That Signal a Fraudulent Letter

After years of supporting housing providers in navigating these requests, our clinical team at TheraPetic® has seen the same patterns appear in fraudulent documentation. Here is what to watch for.

Online-only “approval” with no real evaluation. If a tenant mentions they received a letter within minutes of filling out an online form, that is a serious red flag. A legitimate support animal recommendation requires a clinical evaluation, not a quiz.

No state-specific license number. Many fraudulent letters include vague credentials like “PhD” or “LMHC” without an actual license number. A real clinician will always include their license number because it is required for professional practice.

Generic template language. Letters that use identical boilerplate language across multiple documents, or that do not reference any specific therapeutic context, are often purchased documents. Legitimate clinical letters reflect the clinician’s professional voice and the client’s actual situation.

Contact information that does not check out. Call the phone number on the letter. Search the practice address. If the number goes to a voicemail that is not set up, or the address is a PO box with no real practice behind it, that is a problem.

Letters from out-of-state clinicians with no telehealth explanation. While telehealth is legal and widely practiced, a clinician must still hold a license in the tenant’s state to provide mental health services there. An out-of-state license alone is not sufficient.

Verification Tools and Documentation Portals

Beyond checking state licensing boards manually, housing providers now have access to digital verification portals that streamline the process. These tools let you confirm that a document was issued through a legitimate clinical organization with verifiable credentials.

Our support animal documentation screening tool gives landlords and property managers a direct way to check whether a tenant’s TheraPetic® letter is on file and was issued through our Licensed Clinical Doctors. Each document includes a unique verification code that can be checked against our records in real time.

When a tenant presents TheraPetic® documentation, the letter will reference a verification portal at go.mypsd.org. You can enter the document ID there to confirm the letter’s authenticity, the issuing clinician’s credentials and the date of issuance. This process takes under a minute and removes ambiguity from the approval decision.

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit healthcare provider, TheraPetic® Healthcare Provider Group was built specifically to close the gap between clinical rigor and accessible documentation. Every letter issued through our organization is reviewed by a Licensed Clinical Doctor with an active, state-specific license.

What You Can and Cannot Ask a Tenant

This is where many housing providers make costly mistakes. The Fair Housing Act places clear limits on what you are permitted to request from a tenant seeking a support animal accommodation.

You CAN ask for documentation confirming a disability-related need. If the disability is not obvious or known to you, requesting a letter from a licensed healthcare provider is legally appropriate. This is the standard most landlords follow.

You CANNOT ask for the tenant’s diagnosis. A clinician’s letter only needs to confirm that a disability exists and that the support animal is part of the recommended care. The specific medical or psychiatric diagnosis is protected health information and you have no right to request it.

You CANNOT require a specific registry or certification. No federal law requires support animals to be registered with any organization. If a tenant has TheraPetic® documentation, that is a professional clinical letter. If they have a different legitimate letter from a licensed clinician, that is also valid. What you are evaluating is the quality and authenticity of the documentation, not the brand.

You CANNOT charge a pet deposit for a support animal. Under the Fair Housing Act, support animals are not pets. You may charge for actual damages caused by the animal after the tenancy ends, but not as a precondition for approval.

For a deeper look at your rights and obligations, our landlord resources page covers the specific language from HUD guidance on reasonable accommodations and support animal verification.

When to Approve or Deny a Support Animal Request

Once you have verified the documentation, the path forward is generally clear. Approve the accommodation unless there is a specific, legally recognized reason not to. Vague concerns about allergies among other residents or a general discomfort with animals are not legally sufficient grounds for denial.

Legitimate grounds for denial include situations where the specific animal poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others that cannot be reduced by reasonable modifications. This is a high legal standard. It requires individualized assessment of the specific animal, not breed assumptions or generalized fear.

If the documentation does not meet the standards outlined in this guide, you may request replacement documentation. Put that request in writing, explain what is missing and give the tenant a reasonable timeline to respond. Document every step of this process for your records.

Building a Consistent Verification Process

The most important thing a housing provider can do is apply the same process to every support animal request. Inconsistent handling creates legal risk and erodes tenant trust.

Create a written internal policy that outlines exactly what documentation you require, how you verify it and what timeline you follow for decisions. Train your leasing staff so they apply it uniformly. Keep copies of all submitted documentation and all correspondence related to accommodation requests.

If you manage multiple properties, standardize across your portfolio. A policy that varies by property or by manager creates liability. Consistency is your best defense in any fair housing review.

When you need to verify support animal letters quickly and confidently, our documentation screening portal gives you a direct line to verified TheraPetic® records. For questions about specific cases or documentation concerns, reach out to us at help@mypsd.org or call (800) 851-4390. Our team is here to support both housing providers and the tenants they serve.