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Four Salt Lake Valley housing complexes have agreed to pay $45,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that says they discriminated against disabled tenants or prospective tenants who wanted to keep service dogs.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said in May that owners at Pinnacle Highland Apartments, Cobble Creek Luxury Apartments, Sky Harbor Apartments and Thornhill Park Apartments had violated the Fair Housing Act by enforcing burdensome rules on pets used as service animals. That included requiring a physician's prescription form that held the doctor's insurer liable for any animal-related damage.

"The Fair Housing Act requires landlords to make accommodations for individuals with disabilities who require assistance animals in their homes," said Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, in a news release.   

According to the lawsuit, a single mother and her disabled son moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Cottonwood Heights' Pinnacle Highland in late 2013 after being assured that property managers could accommodate a service animal at the Highland Drive complex. The family obtained a pit bull-terrier mix for the child before getting the landlord's approval. While the mother obtained the required forms, she was unable to persuade a doctor to accept liability for the dog.

She asked that the pet policy be waived as a reasonable accommodation of her child's disability, the lawsuit said. But officials with the California-based property management company NALS Apartment Homes refused her request, according to court documents.

Facing a $600 fine, the family sent the dog to stay with a friend and moved out in April 2014. The mother filed a complaint through the Salt Lake City-based Disability Law Center.

Workers trained by the center then posed as would-be tenants, court documents said, and confirmed that similar policies were in place at the Cobble Creek, Sky Harbor and Thornhill Park properties.

The settlement still must be approved by a federal judge, but under its terms, the apartment companies are required to pay $20,000 to the former tenant and her 7-year-old son, who has autism. They also are to put $25,000 into a settlement fund to compensate any additional people harmed by their conduct.

The settlement also prohibits future discrimination and requires the companies to train employees in fair-housing laws.