It's fascinating how you are talking out of both sides of your mouth on this. In that first message, you say there are a lot of annoying, burdensome hoops of procedure the renter would have to go through, as if that is equivalent for the landlord being allowed to say no. Those are not the same thing. No one is denying that there is a ton of work, effort, bother, and expense that the renter would still have to go through to comply with all of the conditions that go along with the required "yes" answer.
And then in the next message, you admit that the landlord is saying no in violation of the law, and that it probably would take a lawsuit to enforce. That may be the case. Depends on what the renter is willing to go through to try to get this done. But the fact does remain that the landlord is still legally required to allow this.