Assistance Animal Rules for Rentals in 2026: What Still Applies

The Fair Housing Act still makes it unlawful to refuse a reasonable accommodation that a person with a disability needs, and a request for an animal in a no-pet building is still a reasonable accommodation request.¹ What changed is HUD's own enforcement. Since May 22, 2026, HUD's fair housing office finds cause and recommends charges only when the animal was trained to provide disability-related help.² Tenants can still sue over untrained emotional support animals, state laws still apply, and HUD's pet rules for assisted housing still exempt support animals.³⁴

This guide covers the federal rules and three state examples. Check your own state at /states and the federal summaries at /federal.

What changed, and when

HUD did not change the statute or its regulation. It withdrew two guidance documents and then told its investigators how to prioritize cases.

The withdrawal notice says the documents "should not be relied upon as authoritative." It also says that conduct that does not comply with the text of the Fair Housing Act is still subject to HUD enforcement, and that complainants keep their right to sue within two years.⁵

We found no proposed HUD rule on animal accommodations in the Federal Register as of October 7, 2026. For now, the memo is the current word from HUD.

What the Fair Housing Act still requires

The statute defines discrimination to include "a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling."¹ A disability (the statute says "handicap") is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of one, or being regarded as having one.⁶

HUD's regulation, 24 CFR 100.204, repeats the duty and gives one animal example. A blind applicant wants to live with a seeing eye dog in a no-pets building, and refusing is a violation.⁷ That example has not changed since the rule was written, and it is still the only animal example in HUD's regulations.²

The statute also has a limit. Nothing in the disability section requires a dwelling to be made available to someone whose tenancy "would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals" or would cause "substantial physical damage to the property of others."¹ That limit is about the specific person and situation, which is why blanket rules cause trouble.

What HUD's May 2026 memo does and does not do

The memo is addressed to FHEO staff, not to housing providers. Its core instruction is that, "effective immediately," FHEO "will find reasonable cause and recommend charges only for those cases involving animals trained to provide disability-related assistance."²

Here is how the memo sets the new standard:

• Training is the test. FHEO will borrow the training part of the ADA's service animal definition. It will find cause on a pet-policy waiver claim only where the animal "has been individually trained to perform work or perform tasks directly related to the complainant's disability."²
• Species is open. Unlike the ADA, which limits service animals to dogs, the memo says a Fair Housing Act accommodation could involve another species if it is trained.²⁸
• Trained versus untrained. Requests for trained animals are "presumptively reasonable." Requests for untrained emotional support animals (ESAs) are not, and FHEO "no longer expects" providers to extend trained-animal accommodations to them as a category.²
• Open cases. Regional Directors must send all open ESA cases to headquarters for a case-by-case decision on the merits.²
• Scope. The memo "does not address" how HUD will handle complaints under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act or the ADA.²

HUD gives its reason in the memo. It says over 20% of FHEO's fair housing complaints involve untrained ESAs, and it points to online businesses that sell ESA letters.² That figure is HUD's own statement; the memo does not publish the underlying data.

What the memo does not do matters as much. It is not a regulation. It did not amend 24 CFR 100.204. And it says, in plain terms, that "nothing in this enforcement guidance affects the rights of parties to seek redress through a private action in court."²

Where ESA claims still live

Private lawsuits. A tenant or applicant can sue in federal or state court within two years after the alleged discriminatory practice. A court can award actual and punitive damages and can give the prevailing party attorney's fees.³ HUD's decision not to charge a case does not stop the suit.

Courts have ruled for tenants in ESA cases. In Bhogaita v. Altamonte Heights Condominium Ass'n (11th Cir. 2014), a condominium association enforced a 25-pound dog weight limit against an Air Force veteran with PTSD and his emotional support dog. A jury awarded $5,000 in damages, the district court awarded more than $100,000 in attorney's fees, and the appeals court affirmed.⁹ Courts have also gone the other way on specific facts. In Henderson, the court held that a tenant had not shown a $400 animal fee waiver was necessary or reasonable, in a building that already allowed her dog.² Neither case is controlled by HUD's memo. Courts decide these cases on the facts.

State law. Many states have their own fair housing statutes, and some have written ESA rules directly into their codes. Florida's law, for example, makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person with a disability-related need for an emotional support animal "to the extent required by federal law."¹⁰ The HUD memo binds HUD's staff. It does not bind state agencies or state courts applying state statutes. See how states compare at /laws.

HUD-assisted housing. Section 504 bars disability discrimination in programs that receive HUD funding, and its housing rule requires a recipient to modify housing policies that discriminate on the basis of disability.¹¹¹² HUD's pet ownership rules for projects for the elderly or persons with disabilities say owners "may not apply or enforce any policies" under those rules against animals "necessary as a reasonable accommodation to assist, support, or provide service to persons with disabilities."⁴ Public housing has the same exclusion.¹³ The word "support" is in the text, and the memo did not change these regulations.

Documentation and online ESA letters

Federal law does not have a documentation regulation for housing. The 2020 notice described what documentation a provider could ask for, and it is gone.² That leaves the statute, the case law and state statutes. When a disability or need is not obvious, operators typically ask for reliable information that shows a disability and a disability-related need for the specific animal. They do not ask for a diagnosis or medical records.

Three state laws show how legislatures have filled the gap:

Notice the direction of these laws. They limit what a landlord can ask (no diagnosis, no medical records) and set minimum standards for the letter writer. None of them lets a landlord reject every online letter on sight.

Timing matters too. In Bhogaita, the association answered the request for more than six months only with more requests for information it already had. The court held that delay was a constructive denial, because "an indeterminate delay has the same effect as an outright denial."⁹

The leasing office is different. If a resident or visitor brings a service dog into a leasing office open to the public, ADA Title III rules generally apply there. The regulation's list of public accommodations includes any "sales or rental establishment."⁸ In that space staff may ask only whether the dog is required because of a disability and what work or task it has been trained to perform, and may not require documentation or certification.¹⁷

Pet fees, deposits and damage

This is where the withdrawal had the most practical effect. The 2020 notice said pet fees could not be charged for ESAs, and that notice is rescinded.² But the federal answer is now case by case, not "fees are fine."

In Henderson, the $400 one-time fee was a little under 3% of the total housing cost, the landlord twice offered a payment plan, and the tenant said she could have paid in installments. On those facts the waiver was not necessary. The court added that it was not holding "that animal fees can always be enforced against someone with an ESA."²

Charging for actual damage, on the same terms as any other resident, is the safest common ground across all of these.

Breed, weight and number limits

No federal regulation sets breed or weight rules for assistance animals. The statutory standard is direct threat or substantial physical damage.¹ Florida and Montana spell out a provider's power to deny an ESA that poses a direct threat, but only where the threat "cannot be reduced or eliminated by another reasonable accommodation."¹⁰¹⁶

A weight limit applied to an assistance animal is what lost the Bhogaita case.⁹ HUD's assisted-housing rules let owners set size and weight limits for ordinary pets, but those rules do not apply to animals needed as an accommodation.¹⁸⁴

On the number of animals, Florida and Montana let the provider ask for information on the specific need for each animal when a tenant requests more than one.¹⁰¹⁶ Operators typically make breed and size decisions about the specific animal's behavior history, not its category.

A request-handling procedure

This is the sequence many management companies use. Adapt it with your counsel and your state rules.

1. Treat any request as a request. It does not need a form or special words. Florida, for example, bars denying a request only because the person did not use your process.¹⁰
2. Log the date. Start a written file the day the request arrives. Set an internal response target in days, not weeks, given the Bhogaita delay holding.⁹
3. Check the property type. If the property receives HUD funds, Section 504 applies. If it is public housing or a HUD project for the elderly or persons with disabilities, the HUD pet rule exclusion applies too.¹¹⁴¹³
4. Decide whether more information is needed. If the disability and need are obvious, do not ask. If not, ask for reliable information about the disability and the need for this animal. Do not ask for a diagnosis or records.¹⁰¹⁶
5. Apply your state's letter standards. In California and Montana, check license details and the 30-day relationship requirement. Do not ask for more than the law allows.¹⁵¹⁶
6. Ask about training only as a fact. Whether the animal is trained now matters for HUD's enforcement, but not for a private suit or a state agency.²
7. Assess the specific animal. Use direct threat or property damage only on facts about this animal, and consider conditions that would reduce the risk.¹
8. Decide in writing. Grant, deny with reasons, or propose an alternative, and keep the file. Montana requires a written determination.¹⁶
9. Set fees by property type. Use the fee table above, and get counsel's sign-off before charging pet fees for an approved ESA in private housing.

The tenant lead-to-lease playbook and the tenant move-in playbook are where these steps usually plug in.

What to do now

• Pull every policy, form and training slide that cites FHEO-2020-01 or FHEO-2013-01 and rewrite it to cite the statute and 24 CFR 100.204.⁵⁷
• Remove any "we do not accept online ESA letters" language. Replace it with your state's documentation standard.
• Flag HUD-assisted properties in your system so staff know when Section 504 and the HUD pet rule exclusion apply.¹¹⁴
• Review weight, breed and count limits so they apply to pets, not to approved assistance animals.⁹
• Decide your pet fee position for approved ESAs, by state, in writing.
• Train leasing staff on the two ADA questions for service dogs in the office.¹⁷ The staff onboarding playbook is a good place for it.
• Add a check for a HUD proposed rule on animal accommodations to your compliance calendar.²

This article explains what the rules say. It is not legal advice for a specific request.