Are Iowa Mobile Home Parks Allowed to Evict Animals on the Lease Without Notice?

This question came from one of our users:

In a mobile home park, is it legal to evict an animal immediately after an incident, even if your animal is on your lease?

Yes, even if an animal is on the lease, if an incident occurs where the pet becomes a “clear and present danger” to other tenants or individuals on or around the property, the landlord may order the tenant to no longer keep the dangerous pet on the property.

If the tenant continues to keep the dangerous pet on the property, then the landlord may terminate the rental agreement and bring eviction proceedings against the tenant. They may do so even more quickly than they would be to for failure to pay rent or failure to maintain the property. 

How Much Control Does a Landlord Have Over a Tenant’s Right to Have Pets? 

Landlords have considerable control over pet policies, including what they allow and the charges they can impose on tenants for having pets. So long as the pet is not a service animal or emotional support animal, the landlord can outright prohibit the tenant from having pets.

If they prefer, they can charge the tenant monthly pet rent, a one-time pet fee, a specific pet deposit that is returnable if the home is kept in good condition and free of pet damage, or even any combination of the above. They can limit what types of pets they allow.  

However, landlords have much less control over service animals and emotional support animals. Landlords cannot charge extra fees or deposits for service animals or registered emotional support animals. Landlords in Iowa must allow them in rental properties. Further, the Fair Housing Act prohibits landlords from discriminating against tenants with service animals and emotional support animals.

This means that landlords cannot refuse a tenant simply because they have a service animal or an emotional support animal. Under this Act, landlords are required to provide reasonable accommodations for these animals to allow individuals with disabilities to live comfortably. 

Can a Landlord Terminate the Rental Agreement and Evict You If Your Pet is Dangerous and You Refuse to Get Rid of It? 

Unfortunately, yes. If your pet creates a clear and present danger to the health and safety of other tenants, the landlord, the landlord’s employees, or even other individuals on the landlord’s property or within 1,000 feet of the landlord’s property. This would give the landlord the right to terminate the rental agreement more quickly than for an issue such as failure to pay rent or failure to maintain the property.

Suppose the tenant creates a clear and present danger. In that case, the landlord can terminate the agreement, file a lawsuit for possession, and serve the tenant with a three-day written notice that the rental agreement has terminated and that they are required to leave the property. However, the tenant still has the right to a hearing to dispute the termination with at least three days’ notice before the hearing. 

When Does a Pet Become a “Clear and Present Danger”? 

A pet becomes a clear and present danger if it threatens to assault an individual or physically assaults an individual. Even if such a threat or assault only occurs once, that single event could be sufficient to establish that an animal is a “clear and present danger” to others. 

Designed for general information use only. The content above does not constitute legal advice or the formation of an attorney/client relationship.