A body corporate can request evidence of a service animal’s training

The article is about the rights and responsibilities under the BCCM Act allowing a body corporate to request evidence of an assistance dog’s training when the dog is not certified, to verify it genuinely supports a disabled occupier.

Section 181 of the BCCM Act gives a disabled occupier the right to keep an assistance dog they rely on; no approval under the by-laws is required.

An assistance dog is one trained to perform identifiable physical tasks and behaviours to assist a person with a disability, to reduce the person’s need for support (Training).

An assistance dog can, but does not have to, be certified under the Guide, Hearing and Assistance Dogs Act 2009 (Qld) (GHAD Act).

If a claimed assistance dog is not certified, an Adjudicator from the Commissioner’s Office held:

…it is reasonable for the body corporate to ask for evidence of the dog’s training to perform identifiable physical tasks and behaviours to assist a person with a disability to reduce the person’s need for support. Where it is not provided, it is reasonable for the body corporate to assume the dog is not an assistance dog within the meaning of the GHAD Act, and therefore, section 181 of the BCCM Act.

This means that a body corporate can reasonably request evidence that the occupier has a disability under the GHAD Act and that the claimed assistance dog has the training and, if that is not provided, assume the dog is not an assistance dog.

This article has been republished with permission from the author and first appeared on the Hynes Legal website.