“ESA” Housing Scam ?

[BunnyBoi]

Hi. I am a rabbit owner to a small Holland Lop bunny named Pepper. Recently, I’ve had issues regarding my anxiety and depression and my apartment being a “no pet” apartment and was told that I could register her as an emotional support animal as I have in fact been disagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. Recently, my husband and I have decided to go online and look into how to get her registered and the first website recommended to us was “USServiceAnimals.org” which we continuously read into and searched through and thoroughly inspected as we were warned earlier about fraudulent companies.
We did not purchase anything extra for the rabbit but we did purchase a Housing Letter which required me to talk to a therapist through the phone and for them to sign off on my letter for approval. I did this and she approved it, but looking over the letter I am getting nervous about it’s legitamacy.
I looked online as to what a legit Housing Letter looked like and the only thing missing on the letter was my rabbits information. The therapists information was there and so were the intentions along with my name and D.O.B. but my rabbits name, weight, type, etc etc we’re not included. I read that this was the sign of a scam letter and so I went onto the internet to try to investigate this website. On the website it says something about this being a “lifetime” guarantee (my animals lifetime) but a website said that was also a sign of a scam. This makes me want to vomit.
I kept looking and looking and absolutely no one said anything about this website being a scam, reviews said that it was not and talked about how great it was but I’m no fool and they could’ve been fake. Only one website mentioned this website and it was Ezcare Clinic but all whilst stating how they were fake, they seemed to get information about the company wrong like saying they never mention doctors and just give you letters, which isn’t true because they insisted I had to speak to a therapist and couldn’t get a letter without speaking to one over the phone, along with saying they don’t answer the phone and have no listed location (both of which they did have ?) following that up by saying “as we do,” and “we actually provide…” so it seemed really odd that they were advertising themselves while stating that this website was fake ?
I have found NO other information about this and I am so confused and slightly angry because I don’t want to have been scammed but there’s no if romatikn to tell me if I was or wasn’t, clearly, and I have no idea what to do.
I won’t show my manager the letter I receive until I am sure that it is legitimate because I don’t want her to evict us and I don’t want to get rid of Pepper.

I need help and no one has been able to help me all throughout the rest of the internet so I am begging for some real information here.

Is USServiceAnimals.org a scam? Why didn’t their letter have what is considered “mandatory” for a legit Housing Letter? Why is there not information on this? Has anyone been through this? What can I do?

I’d love any and all information about this and I’m so sorry Ive said so much but I want to be clear that we didn’t just jump into this without thinking but it still has me confused even after completion. We just want to do this for Pepper. Thank you.

[Doodler]

Hi there! If you have such diagnosis why aren’t you able to get the esa letter completed from your own therapist?

To be honest I think any company that is advertising that they provide these letters sound like they are probably a scam. Sadly too many people try to get their animals certified for illegitimate reasons so that is why companies advertise for these. You shouldn’t have to go to one of these companies if you are in the care of a therapist and they agree an esa is warranted.

[Asriel and Bombur]

Literally you just need a letter from your own therapist or psychiatrist. There’s no fancy letter or website to go through. Just your own therapist detailing your mental health conditions and the need for your ESA. It only works for one, so if you ever decide to get a second bunny to bond, your husband would need an ESA letter as well.

[Kiki]

I agree with the above two comments. My therapist offered to write the letter for me, but I did not need it

[BunnyBoi]

I am allowed to get one from my therapist but I didn’t know if that was considered valid or official because he’s not branded ESA like those companies tried to make me think was necessary. I’ll just go through him now that I know I can but is there anything we can do about the scammers? He paid them for a letter and I doubt they’d give it back if we told them we found out they were fake.

[joea64]

I got a letter from my own therapist when I adopted Panda and Fernando, and my apartment complex accepted it without any issue. I agree with the others; if you’re currently seeing a therapist, all you need to do is ask them for an ESA letter. Any validly licensed and registered psychiatrist or therapist can write this letter and it won’t cost you anything extra other than your usual per-session copay.

[LBJ10]

Did you check with the BBB? You can go to the BBB website and type in the website address into their search. Any information the BBB has on them will come up. This includes whether or not they are a member, what grade they have and how many complaints have been made against them. This isn’t a 100% guaranteed way to find out if something is a scam, but it can sometimes be useful. If you do feel it was a scam, you can file a complaint. Also, if you used a credit card, you may be able to contact your credit card company and have them do a charge back.

I personally have no experience with this. However, I do know that you should only need a letter from your own therapist. If your therapist says you have a legitimate need for an emotional support animal, then your landlord is supposed to make “reasonable accommodations” (i.e. allow you to keep an ESA in a “no pets” apartment).

[Doodler]

The BBB (I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t a member and even if they are I wouldn’t count on this resolving the issue) and possible credit chargeback are really the only things I can think of as well. I hate to say it but honestly this may end up being a buyer beware situation where you have no real way to recover what you paid. I am sorry this happened to you.

[Doodler]

I noticed you had posted a question about selling your rabbit because you found out your rabbit wasn’t allowed in your apartment and the ESA route is what was suggested to you. You had stated you were going to talk to your therapist. I would recommend researching ESA guidelines because not all apartments have to allow ESA animals. I just wanted to make sure that your apartment is required to comply before you try the route of your therapist this time. Good luck!

[BunnybUNz]

My two-cents on this topic is that this topic is something of a double-edged sword in a way. The reason I say this is because in the negative side, this type of animals is loosely defined, so people have pushed the sanity limits, from bringing in many variations of animals. Specifically, one woman has brought a peacock and CNN reported on someone bringing an adult pig on board a plane once!

However, on the other end, many Americans do prefer and have a legitimate reason and a legitimate animal to have this emotional support animal service actually work. It’s seen as a better alternative to medicine as well. There are also online platforms that help people register their emotional support animal online and receive prescription letters for their emotional support animals. Overall, there are two ways to look at this, there just needs to be a sanity check, but we don’t want to deny people who have a legitimate need for such companion animals.

[jerseygirl]

Thanks BunnybUNz. I remember reading that peacock story!

I will now close this thread from further replies as it is an older thread.

To quote binkybunny (BB):

“To make it easier for us to attend to current posts, I ask that no one pull up old posts to respond to. (old as in a year or years ago).  If you want to refer to an old post, you can offer the link, but please avoid responding to them.  I think what may be happening is some members may search for a subject or ?? and then not look at the dates??.   Older posts most likely have been resolved and so  it is better to focus on responding to more current posts.”

[Author]

Messages