The Page the Landlord Never Read
On page 3, paragraph 11, in print so small I had to hold it at arm’s length, was the sentence: No animals of any kind may be kept on the premises without the prior written consent of Landlord. A pet fee of $350 shall apply to any violation.
I had seen Todd Brandt’s face. He had not looked like a bully. He had looked like a man holding a form.
That afternoon I did the first thing I did right all week. I called him.
I got his voicemail, and left my name and the number of the unit. He called back within the hour. I could hear a truck engine behind him, and a radio.
“Ma’am, I understand you’re upset,” he said. “But the policy is the policy.”
“Mr. Brandt, I’m not calling to argue. I’m calling to ask if you’ll read one page for me before you come Saturday.”
“I’ll be happy to take a look at anything you send over.”
“I’d rather hand it to you myself.”
“Fine,” he said. “Saturday, 10.”
“I’ll be in the hall,” I said.
The page came from the library.
I went down there that same afternoon, with Walt’s permission and his dog’s good wishes, and Lorna was at the desk. I had never seen her cry, and she did not cry then, but her mouth went small and tight when I told her what had happened.
I asked her whether the library’s computer could find something for me, and she sat me down at the second terminal, where the screen was so bright I squinted. There is a government office that handles housing and fair treatment, and it has a page, in plain words, on what it calls assistance animals. She printed it on the library’s printer, one sheet, both sides, 10 cents a side, and I paid her 20 cents.
I read it three times on a bench outside the library. It was not a legal document. It was written for people like me, who read the back of a pill bottle.
A service animal, it said, such as a dog trained to guide a person who is blind, is not a pet. A building that says no pets cannot apply that rule to a guide dog, because the dog is not there as a pet. It is there as a tool of the person’s independence, like a wheelchair or a hearing aid. A landlord may not charge a pet fee, a pet deposit, or pet rent for such an animal. A landlord may not ask a tenant for paperwork about the disability when the disability and the need for the animal are plain to see. The tenant remains responsible for any damage the animal causes, the same as any other damage, and a landlord may act if a dog is truly out of control. And that was it. That was the whole page.