An investigator at a state agency concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe that an Auburn landlord discriminated against a Bangor couple who had a service animal.

Barbara and Michael Davis signed a lease in June 2014 to rent a mobile home in Fairfield from Double Eagle Properties LLC, an Auburn-based company that owns the mobile home park.

The Davises stayed at the property until July 2015, according to a report by Maine Human Rights Commission Chief Investigator Victoria Ternig.

Barbara Davis told Ternig she contacted the company in May 2014 to ask about rentals. She told an employee she had a “therapy dog” and was told she needed to provide documentation about her service animal along with landlord references.

Davis did that, she said, by putting a medical note for the dog and its vaccination records in the company’s mailbox in Waterville, Ternig wrote in her report.

Davis never received a response acknowledging receipt of the documents. She asked the company’s employee if she had gotten the documents and was told that she had.

When the Davises met with a company representative to sign their lease, they noticed an additional $50 per month pet fee for Barbara Davis’ dog, something the company hadn’t mentioned before.

Having already given notice to vacate their former home, they didn’t raise the issue with the company’s representative who presented the lease.

In April 2015, Barbara Davis was speaking to a friend who had made inquiries about renting a mobile home at the park. She had been told she wouldn’t have to pay a pet fee for a service animal as long as she provided the company with a doctor’s note.

In May, Davis called the company’s office, seeking a refund for the monthly pet fee she had been paying. She was advised to call the owner of the park.

She wrote a letter to the owner in May and again in June giving notice and asking for a refund. She put her letters in the same mailbox she had used a year earlier for references and a doctor’s note.

On June 5, the park’s owner called Davis and said she had found the Davises’ file and found the doctor’s note regarding the therapy dog. The owner explained that there had been miscommunication between her and a new employee as to which of them was supposed to get back to Davis and advise her that she didn’t have to pay June’s rent, Davis told Ternig.

Davis told the owner she and her husband would be traveling and wouldn’t have a forwarding address. Davis asked whether they could meet with a park representative on July 3, do a walk-through of the mobile home and get their security deposit back.

Davis and the owner agreed that Davis would be refunded for the pet fees in June.

In mid-June, she received a refund check.

The owner emailed Davis to say the couple wouldn’t receive their security deposit until three weeks after they moved out, Davis told Ternig.

The owner of the park told Ternig that she hadn’t learned about Davis’ service dog until the end of April 2015. The only reference to an animal in Davis’ file was the dog’s vaccination record, she told Ternig.

In May, Davis and the owner agreed to a full refund of the pet fees and the return of the security deposit when the Davises moved out.

In June, Barbara Davis asked the owner whether she could get the pet fee refund earlier. The owner agreed.

Ternig wrote in her investigator’s report that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the park denied the Davis couple a “reasonable accommodation” in violation of state law.

Ternig found there are “no reasonable grounds” to believe that the park owner retaliated against the couple because they filed a complaint with the MHRC and threatened to withhold their security deposit.

The commission voted on Monday to work to mediate the case with the Davises and the park owner in an effort to resolve the issue.