Disability is the one protected class that puts affirmative duties on your HOA. It must make reasonable exceptions to its rules — for an assistance animal, an accessible parking space, a ramp — when you need them because of a disability. These are powerful rights, and also the ones associations most often get wrong. Here is what the law actually requires, and what your HOA may not demand of you.
Assistance & Service Animals
This is the most common — and most commonly mishandled — disability accommodation in an HOA. An assistance animal is not a pet, and the law sharply limits what your association may ask you to prove.
Accessible & Handicap Parking
A parking space close to your home can be a reasonable accommodation the HOA must provide — and where common-area parking is required to be accessible, the association can be cited by the city for missing markings and signage.
Reasonable Accommodations & Modifications
Disability is the one protected class that imposes affirmative duties on an HOA — not just a duty to avoid unequal treatment. There are two tools: a change to a rule (accommodation) and a change to the physical space (modification).
How to Request an Accommodation
Most disputes are won or lost on the paper trail. Here is how to make a request that is hard to ignore — and what to do if the HOA stalls, denies, or retaliates.