Florida Dog Bite Law FirmService Animal or Emotional Support Animal?
Florida has two assistance animal statutes and they do different jobs. Conflating them is the most common error published about Florida law in this area — including by people whose job it is to get it right.
- § 413.08 governs service animals in public accommodations — shops, restaurants, venues. Trained task work. Limited to dogs and miniature horses.
- § 760.27 governs emotional support animals in housing. No training required. No public access rights at all.
Three questions below will tell you which one you are in and quote what it says.
It will not tell you whether a request should be granted or whether a refusal was lawful. Those turn on facts, and on federal law this page does not cover.
The difference in one table
| Service animal · § 413.08 | Emotional support animal · § 760.27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Defined by | trained work or tasks | therapeutic effect of its presence |
| Training required | yes | no |
| Species | dog or miniature horse only | not limited by the statute |
| Governs | public accommodations | housing |
| Public access right | yes, to areas the public may normally occupy | none |
| Extra fees | — | prohibited |
| Diagnosis disclosure | — | cannot be required |
| Criminal penalty for misrepresentation | yes — 2nd-degree misdemeanour + 30 hours community service | none in the statute |
That last row is where most of the damage is done. The penalty is real, and it belongs to the public accommodation statute. It is routinely cited as though it applied to ESA paperwork in housing, which has no penalty provision whatsoever.
Service animals, in the statute’s words
Access runs to “all areas of a public accommodation that the public or customers are normally permitted to occupy” — not to staff-only areas. A business may remove any animal, a service animal included, on three grounds: out of control with the handler not effectively controlling it, not housebroken, or posing a direct threat.
And the handler “is liable for damage caused by a service animal” where the business charges others for pet damage. Access is not immunity — a service animal that bites is still a dog whose owner is subject to § 767.04.
Emotional support animals, in the statute’s words
A housing provider may not require extra compensation for the animal, and may not request information disclosing a diagnosis or any medical records. Denial is available where the animal “poses a direct threat to the safety or health of others.”
Who counts as a housing provider is defined by function, not entity type — “any person or entity engaging in conduct covered by the federal Fair Housing Act.” The statute does not name condominium associations, HOAs or cooperatives, so whether a particular one is covered is a fact-specific legal question.
The full ESA page · how this interacts with HOA rules
Which one are you in?
Three questions. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.
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