Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that will define the terms “emotional support animal” and “housing provider.”
SB 1084 will prohibit discrimination in housing being provided to someone who needs a support animal as well as prohibits health care practitioners from “providing information regarding a person’s need for an emotional support animal without having personal knowledge of that person’s need for the animal.”
The bill will also prohibit falsification or other fraudulent misrepresentation regarding the use of an emotional support animal.
The bill was initially filed in December of 2019 and unanimously passed by the Senate back in March 2020.
Democratic Sen. Kevin Rader of Boca Raton said he often hears complaints from condominium residents about people falsely claiming their pet is an emotional support animal, saying people are “getting phony-baloney psychological papers saying they’re allowed to have animals in their communities.”