Florida Dog Bite Law FirmFlorida passed its own emotional support animal statute in 2020, § 760.27. It is a housing statute. It does not give an ESA any right to enter a restaurant, a shop or any other public accommodation — that is a different statute covering service animals, and it expressly excludes ESAs.
Getting that distinction right is most of the battle. Almost every argument in this area starts with someone applying the wrong law.
What an ESA is
No training required. That is the defining difference from a service animal, and it is also why the two are governed separately: a service animal is defined by trained task work, an ESA by the therapeutic effect of its presence.
What a housing provider may ask for
A provider may request reliable information supporting the disability — a determination of disability from a government agency, receipt of disability benefits, or information from a health care practitioner with personal knowledge of the disability. For the animal itself, a provider may ask a qualifying practitioner to identify “the particular assistance or therapeutic emotional support provided by the specific animal.”
What a housing provider may not do
Charge you for it
No pet deposit, no pet rent, no ESA surcharge. A reasonable accommodation is not a paid upgrade. Liability for damage the animal actually causes is a separate question from a fee charged for its presence.
Ask what is wrong with you
A provider may seek confirmation that a disability-related need exists. They may not require your diagnosis or your medical records.
Online ESA registrations are worth nothing
This deserves its own heading, because an entire industry depends on people not knowing it.
The certificates, the ID cards, the vests, the registry numbers — Florida law says a registration of any kind does not on its own establish anything. Paying for one buys a printed card and no legal standing whatsoever.
What does support a request is information from a practitioner with actual personal knowledge of you.
When a request may be denied
A direct threat, assessed on that specific animal. Not a category, not a breed, and not a general concern.
Worth pairing with the fact that Florida preempted breed-specific local ordinances in 2023, and that HB 941 barred governmental public housing authorities from restricting dogs by breed, weight or size. A refusal grounded in what the animal is rather than what it has done is on weak footing.
One thing the statute does not do
§ 760.27 contains no penalty for fraudulent ESA documentation.
That surprises people, because the criminal penalty they have heard about is real — it just lives somewhere else. Section 413.08(9) makes it a second-degree misdemeanour to misrepresent oneself as using a service animal in a public accommodation. That is a different animal, a different setting and a different statute.
Conflating the two is the most common error published about Florida ESA law.
History: s. 1, ch. 2020-76.
This firm handles injury claims. We do not handle housing discrimination, reasonable accommodation requests, or landlord and HOA disputes. If a provider has refused your request, a fair housing organisation or a housing attorney is the right call.