Can a Landlord Charge a Pet Deposit, Pet Rent or a Fee for an Emotional Support Animal?

Short answer: a landlord may bill for damage an emotional support animal actually causes, but HUD and the Justice Department's position is that a landlord cannot require a pet deposit, pet fee or pet rent as a condition of keeping an assistance animal. Landlords have agreed to pay $25,000 and $10,000 to settle cases over pet deposits. Those are agency positions, though, not statutes: HUD withdrew its 2020 notice on the subject in 2025, a federal court in 2025 found the agencies' fee rule unpersuasive and let one $400 fee stand, and eleven states have written their own rule on these charges into law. This guide shows the cases, the amounts, and the steps for asking your landlord.

HUD and the Justice Department say a landlord may charge for damage but not for the animal itself

These are positions, not statutes. The joint statement is a 2004 policy statement, and its example is a tenant with a hearing impairment, so it speaks of an assistance animal in general. HUD's 2020 notice applied the same rule to emotional support animals, and that notice is the part HUD withdrew. Courts weigh agency statements by how persuasive they are, which is why the 2025 ruling further down matters.

Landlords have agreed to pay real money to settle pet deposit cases with HUD and the Justice Department

Two cases ended in settlements with payments. In 2014 the Justice Department announced a consent decree in which the Longview landlords agreed to pay $25,000, of which $20,000 is for the tenant and $5,000 for the United States, and to adopt a reasonable accommodation policy, receive training and report to the department. In April 2022 HUD's Office of Hearings and Appeals entered a consent order in a case over a refused pet deposit waiver for an assistance animal: the landlords, who denied any violation, agreed to pay the tenant $10,000 and to adopt a policy that no one keeping an assistance animal will be charged "a fee, deposit, rent increase, or other charges for making the request or for keeping the animal."

A landlord can still hold you responsible for damage and for caring for the animal

The joint statement lets a landlord "charge the tenant for the cost of repairing the damage (or deduct it from the standard security deposit imposed on all tenants), if it is the provider's practice to assess tenants for any damage they cause to the premises." The 2020 notice added that "a person with a disability is responsible for feeding, maintaining, providing veterinary care, and controlling his or her assistance animal," and that a landlord could still turn down an individual animal that is a direct threat or would cause substantial damage, a test about that animal's own conduct. Our guide to when a landlord can deny an emotional support animal covers the limits.

In May 2026 HUD limited its cases to trained animals, and one court let a $400 fee stand

HUD withdrew the 2020 notice effective September 17, 2025, and on May 22, 2026 its fair housing office told staff it "will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only for those cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance." The memo attached a federal court decision, Henderson v. Five Properties (E.D. La., July 16, 2025). A renter asked an apartment complex in Louisiana to waive its $400 nonrefundable animal fee for her emotional support dog. The landlord said no and offered a payment plan twice. The court held that waiving the fee was not necessary on those facts, since the renter said she could have paid in installments, and it called HUD's notice and the 2004 joint statement "unpersuasive" on fees.

That is one court deciding one set of facts, and other courts are not bound by it. It does show how a landlord's lawyer may answer a fee request: the fee is small, it is charged to everyone with an animal, and it can be paid in installments. Our page on HUD's emotional support animal rules covers what the withdrawal and the memo changed and what they left alone.

Eleven states have their own law against pet fees for an emotional support animal, and two more limit them

State law is separate from HUD's enforcement, and the 2026 changes did not touch it. Where a state bars the charge, a landlord there has to follow the state's rule whatever a federal court decides about a fee.

Our ranking of the best states for renters with an ESA counts pet fees alongside other factors, and the ESA laws by state page lists every state's rule.

These six steps are the practical way to ask a landlord to waive a pet deposit, pet rent or fee

1. Ask for the building's animal policy in writing, with every charge listed.
2. Send your request in writing and attach a letter from your own licensed professional.
3. Name the charges you want waived: the deposit, the one-time fee and the monthly pet rent.
4. Offer to cover damage the animal causes, which the joint statement lets a landlord charge for.
5. If the fee is the only obstacle, ask about a payment plan, the offer the landlord made twice in Henderson.
6. If the answer is no, contact your state or local fair housing agency or a housing lawyer. A Fair Housing Act claim can go to court within two years, and HUD's memo leaves that right alone.

Disability complaints about housing are filed at very different rates depending on the state

HUD's own case files show how uneven the picture is. In our study of disability housing complaints by state, Rhode Island had 3.61 cases citing disability per 100,000 residents a year from 2015 to 2019, against 0.37 in Mississippi and 1.43 across the 50 states. Where you rent shapes the rules on fees, and it shapes how often renters take a problem to a fair housing agency.

These are the documents and cases every line above comes from

• HUD and Justice Department Joint Statement on Reasonable Accommodations (May 17, 2004).
• HUD notice FHEO-2020-01 (archived copy) and the Federal Register notice withdrawing it.
• HUD's enforcement memo of May 22, 2026, with Henderson v. Five Properties attached.
• Justice Department release on the Longview, Washington consent decree (November 4, 2014).
• HUD consent order, case 21-AF-0252-FH-030 (April 11, 2022).
• HUD charges: Moore, Oklahoma (2017) with its charge document, Oneida, New York (2020), and Niagara Falls, New York (2021) with its charge document.
• ADA Requirements: Service Animals, on deposits and fees for service animals.
• Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. 3604 and 42 U.S.C. 3613, on reasonable accommodation and the two-year deadline to sue.