Are Online ESA Letters Legal?

If you’re considering the option of keeping an emotional support animal as a therapeutic treatment for an emotional or mental disorder that you’re currently suffering from, then you must fulfill the primary criteria that qualify you for an ESA, which is a legitimate letter issued by a licensed professional recommending you an ESA.

The task of acquiring the letter may seem daunting to you, but let me assure you it is not. In fact, you can acquire the ESA letter quite easily if you approach the right source. With a legitimate ESA agency that issues the letter after confirmation from a licensed mental health professional, you do not have to worry about the legitimacy of your letter.

You must be wondering how to check the legality of ESA letters, but it is pretty simple. All you have to do is ensure the legitimacy of the ESA agency that you are consulting for the recommendation of an emotional support animal. If the professional who issued the letter has the legal authority to issue it, then the letter issued by him/her is also legal.

Another question that might be plaguing your mind is whether you need to physically consult a licensed professional to acquire a legal letter or an online agency can get the job done for you. Well, you can get a legal letter in both ways, but there are certain things that you must remain cautious of while getting the letter from an online ESA agency.

The legality of Online Letters

You may have come across a lot of online agencies offering letters that give you authority to keep emotional support animals. But are they all offering legal letters? The answer is NO.

With the boom in ESA therapy, a lot of scammers have plagued the ESA system and are fooling people with fake letters. They are exploiting the emotional support needs of people and are manipulating them by offering illegal letters.  

One thing that you must take into notice is that not all online ESA letters are illegal as there certainly are legitimate agencies who are legally exercising their right to provide an emotional support animal letter. Such agencies follow the legal procedure, consult a licensed mental health professional for the issuance of the letter and do not just provide you with a fake one. The point being, online letters could be both legal and illegal depending on the letter issuance source.

Ways to identify Legal Letters

Since scammers have spread their business throughout the ESA system, it has become difficult for people to identify them and check the legality of their letters. Therefore, we have come up with a few ways through which you can now easily identify an illegal from a legitimate online letter.

1.      Missing details

The first way through which you can verify the legality of the letter is through the details mentioned in it. An online letter usually misses some important details that make it illegal. For instance, if your letter does not contain the details of the licensed professional such as the license number or contact details, chances are that your letter is fake, and thus illegal.

Some other details that a legitimate letter contains are the issuance or expiry date. An ESA letter for housing expires after one year of its issuance. Therefore, these details must be present on the letter so your landlord can easily check if the letter is still valid or not. However, when these dates are missing, the landlord cannot get an idea of whether the letter has expired or not. Thus, a legal letter always has dates mentioned on it. If your online letter lacks these details, it is probably not legal.

2.      ESA registration or certification instead of letter

If the online ESA agency offers you an ESA registration or certification, know that the website is fake. There is no legal value of such registration or certification. The only thing that authorizes you to keep an ESA is the “letter” and hence, is the only legal document. No other document that claims to offer you the right of housing an ESA or traveling with it is deemed as legal.

So, if someone offers you online registration or certification of your pet, you can easily identify it as a scammer. A legitimate ESA agency never offers you such documentation.

3.      Assess the rates and time offered

Scamming ESA website makes unrealistic promises on rates and time of acquiring the emotional support animal ohio letter. They offer incredibly low prices and claim to provide you the letter overnight. Use these claims to identify the scammers.

Cross-check the rates offered for the letter with other online emotional support animal colorado agencies. If the prices vary significantly that is generally offered by other service providers then the ESA agency is probably fake, and the letters issued by them are certainly illegal.

In addition, the process of acquiring the esa letter florida is also time taking. You cannot possibly expect to get the letter in one day because it is issued by a mental health expert after a thorough assessment of your mental and emotional state and your need for an ESA. This takes both time and a good amount of money.

Therefore, be wary of scammers and don’t get fooled by their enticing promises as the online letters issued by them have no legal value and do not provide you any sort of authority to house your pet as an emotional support animal florida.