A reasonable accommodation request is a small piece of administration that people put off because it feels confrontational. It is not. It is a written request, a piece of supporting documentation, and a date. Handled deliberately it takes twenty minutes; handled by text message at the point a landlord notices a dog, it can take months.
Before you send anything
Two things need to be true before you write to anyone. First, you need the documentation in hand — a signed letter, dated, from a clinician licensed in the state where you live. “I am in the process of getting one” is not a request, and it does not stop a pet fee being applied in the meantime. Second, you need to know where your building wants these sent.
- Check the documentation itself first. A missing licence number or a vague sentence about the animal is the most common cause of a refusal — the full list is in ESA letter requirements.
- Read your lease. Some leases already describe an accommodation process; following it removes an easy objection.
- Check whether the building uses a third-party screening portal for assistance-animal documentation. Larger managers often do, and a letter emailed to the leasing office may simply never be logged.
- Decide what you are actually asking for. “Please allow my dog” is weaker than “please exempt this animal from the no-pets policy, the pet deposit and monthly pet rent”.
When to make the request
You may request an accommodation at any point: while you are applying for a unit, after you sign, or after a landlord has already noticed the animal. Nothing in fair-housing law requires you to disclose in advance.
In practice, asking before the animal moves in is the cleanest sequence, because it keeps you out of the awkward middle ground where an unauthorised-animal notice and an accommodation request are travelling in opposite directions at the same time. Some tenants prefer to secure the tenancy first and request afterwards. That is lawful and it is a personal judgement — but it is worth knowing that it does not shorten the landlord's review and it does not change what they are entitled to ask.
The request, step by step
- 1Attach the documentation as a PDF. A photo of a letter on a kitchen table invites a request to resend it.
- 2Write a short covering message. Three or four short paragraphs. Name the statute once, name the animal, name the policies. Nothing else.
- 3Send it in a way that timestamps itself. Email to the leasing office, an upload to the portal they nominate, or certified mail. Keep the confirmation.
- 4Ask for a written answer and give a date. Ten business days is a normal, unaggressive ask, and it converts silence into something you can point at later.
- 5Keep every reply. If this ever becomes a dispute, the record of who said what and when is the part that matters, and it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.
A wording template you can adapt
This is written by you, not by your clinician, and it goes in the body of the email with the clinician's letter attached. Replace everything in square brackets. Keep it short — a long letter reads as an argument, and you are not arguing yet.
Subject: Reasonable accommodation request — assistance animal — [your name], unit [number] Dear [property manager's name], I am a tenant at [address, unit number]. I am writing to request a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act for an assistance animal. I have a disability that limits one or more major life activities, and an animal is part of how I manage it. My animal is a [species and, if relevant, breed] named [name]. I have attached supporting documentation from [clinician's name and credential], who is licensed in [state] and who evaluated me on [date]. I am asking to be exempted from [name the specific policies — for example the building's no-pets policy, the pet deposit, and monthly pet rent] for this animal. My animal is house-trained, and I understand that I remain responsible for its behaviour and for any damage beyond normal wear and tear. Please confirm in writing whether this accommodation is granted, or tell me what further information you need. I would be grateful for a response by [date, e.g. ten business days from today]. Thank you, [your name] [phone] · [email]
What a landlord may and may not ask
Where a disability or the need for the animal is not obvious, a housing provider is entitled to ask for reliable information supporting both. That is a real entitlement, and refusing to engage with it is the surest way to lose an otherwise strong request. What they are asking about, though, is bounded.
| A housing provider may | A housing provider may not |
|---|---|
| Ask for information that reasonably supports the disability and the need for the animal, where neither is obvious | Demand your diagnosis, your medical records, or the severity of your condition |
| Confirm that the clinician wrote the document and holds an active licence | Require your clinician to disclose clinical detail, or insist on a release before considering the request |
| Ask what species and, sensibly, what size of animal is involved | Require a registration number, a certificate, an ID card or a vest — none exists in law |
| Ask you to complete a reasonable-accommodation form the property uses for administration | Refuse to consider documentation because it is not on the property's own medical form |
| Require compliance with local vaccination and licensing rules that apply to every animal | Require the animal to be trained, certified or professionally assessed |
This is fair-housing law, not HIPAA
People often say “HIPAA means my landlord cannot ask”. The conclusion is right and the reason is wrong. HIPAA regulates what health care providers, health plans and their business associates may disclose; a landlord is generally not a covered entity and HIPAA does not by itself govern their questions. What limits a housing provider is fair-housing law and, in some states, a specific statute. Saying it the right way makes the point harder to dismiss.
When a landlord may lawfully refuse
A valid letter is not a guarantee of approval, and any service that tells you otherwise is selling something. There are three families of lawful refusal.
1. The property is exempt from the Fair Housing Act
Under 42 U.S.C. §3603(b), two categories of dwelling sit outside §3604 (other than the advertising provision at §3604(c)): rooms or units in a building of no more than four families where the owner actually occupies one of them — the “Mrs. Murphy” exemption — and a single-family house sold or rented by an owner who owns no more than three such houses, without a broker and without discriminatory advertising. Both are narrower than they are usually described. A state or city fair-housing law may still cover a building the federal statute exempts.
2. Direct threat, or substantial damage to property
Section 3604(f)(9) says nothing in the disability provisions requires a dwelling to be made available to someone whose tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others, or would result in substantial physical damage to others' property. The key word is specific: this has to be about your animal and its actual history or behaviour, evaluated individually. “That breed is dangerous” is not the analysis, and most state assistance-animal laws say so explicitly.
3. Undue financial or administrative burden
An accommodation that would impose an undue financial or administrative burden, or fundamentally alter the nature of the housing provider's operations, is not required. For an ordinary dog or cat in an ordinary apartment this almost never applies — it tends to surface with unusual species, or with animals whose care needs would require the building itself to be changed.
Pet rent, deposits and damage
Assistance animals have long been treated as sitting outside pet-fee policies, and several state laws still say so in terms — Florida's statute provides that a person with a disability-related need for an emotional support animal may not be required to pay extra compensation for it. California, New York and others give similar protection.
Federally the picture is less settled than it was. A 2025 federal district-court decision in Louisiana allowed a generally applicable animal fee to be charged to an ESA owner because the tenant had not shown that waiving it was necessary for equal use and enjoyment of the housing — a jurisdiction-specific ruling, not a change in national law, but a signal. HUD's May 2026 memorandum then narrowed which complaints its own office will pursue. So: check what your state says, ask for the exemption explicitly, and do not treat a waiver as automatic. Our guide to apartment pet rent and ESA letters goes through the numbers.
Damage is always yours
Whatever happens with fees, you remain responsible for damage the animal causes beyond normal wear and tear, and for its behaviour in shared spaces. A landlord may deduct genuine repair costs from an ordinary security deposit in the usual way. Noise and damage complaints are the most common route by which an approved accommodation later comes apart.
2025–2026 federal ESA policy timeline
- September 17, 2025: HUD withdrew guidance documents FHEO-2020-01 and FHEO-2013-01, removing the documentation framework landlords and tenants had relied on for a decade.
- May 22, 2026: HUD issued an enforcement memorandum directing its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity to find reasonable cause only where an animal is individually trained to perform work or tasks related to the complainant's disability — the standard the ADA applies to service animals.
- What did NOT change: the Fair Housing Act itself (42 U.S.C. §3604(f)) and its regulations, your right to bring a private FHA suit, and state and local fair-housing laws, which the memorandum expressly leaves alone.
If your request is denied
- 1Ask for the reason in writing, and specifically. It tells you whether this is a paperwork gap you can close this week or a refusal you need to escalate.
- 2Fix what can be fixed. A missing licence number, a letter older than the property will accept, or a clinician licensed in the wrong state are all repairable without a dispute.
- 3Go to your state or local agency first. Since May 2026 HUD's enforcement office has said it will find reasonable cause only where the animal is individually trained for disability-related tasks, so a federal complaint about an untrained emotional support animal is unlikely to be pursued. State human-rights and fair-housing agencies enforce their own laws, which the memorandum expressly leaves alone.
- 4Remember the private route exists. The memorandum preserves private rights of action; the Fair Housing Act still allows a civil suit, and a fair-housing attorney or a local tenants' organisation can tell you whether yours is worth bringing.
Step-by-step help with each of those is in why ESA letters get rejected and what to do when a landlord says no. For the background on what a housing provider can and cannot do generally, see ESA housing rights explained.
Sources & further reading
- Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. §3603(b) (exemptions), §3604(f) (disability) and §3604(f)(9) (direct threat)
- HUD FHEO — withdrawal of Notices FHEO-2020-01 and FHEO-2013-01 (September 17, 2025) and the assistance-animal enforcement memorandum (May 22, 2026)
- Fla. Stat. §760.27 — supporting information and the bar on extra compensation
- Mont. Code Ann. §70-24-114 — documentation requirements and the diagnosis limit
- Henderson v. Five Properties LLC (E.D. La., 2025) — generally applicable animal fees and accommodation necessity