# Scottsdale ESA Rules: Condo Boards, Common Areas, Deposit Caps

> Scottsdale is 33.0% renters, much of it condos and association-run developments. How a proportional deposit cap and shared common areas shape a request.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/arizona-emotional-support-animal/scottsdale/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-07-29
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 246,170
- Households renting: 33%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): $0 for an approved assistance animal; every other deposit, fee and prepaid sum a Scottsdale landlord collects is measured together against a ceiling of one and one-half month's rent under A.R.S. § 33-1321 — a proportional cap, so the dollar figure climbs with the rent
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $0 for an approved assistance animal; recurring animal rent and animal-linked amenity charges stop once the accommodation is granted, leaving only ordinary responsibility for damage
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## An ordinary renter share over an unusual housing stock

Scottsdale counted 246,170 residents in the 2024 Census Bureau estimate, and
about 39,124 of its occupied homes are rented — 33.0%, within half a point of
Arizona's 32.6% statewide figure.

The percentage is the least distinctive thing about renting here. What separates
Scottsdale from another city with the same share is what those households rent:
condominium units, amenity-heavy apartment communities, and houses inside
developments run by a board. An assistance animal request lands differently in
each.

## The deposit ceiling moves with the rent

A.R.S. § 33-1321 limits security to one and one-half month's rent. That is a
ratio rather than a fixed sum, so the lawful ceiling is not the same quantity of
money in every Arizona city — it rises and falls with the rent.

Where rents run high, the arithmetic cuts in both directions. A large amount can
sit with a landlord perfectly lawfully, and that same multiplier is the only
thing keeping it from being larger still.

## Fees stack faster in a building that itemizes

The statute bars a landlord from demanding or receiving security "however
denominated," and the phrase does more work in a lease that breaks money into
parts. A pet deposit, a cleaning charge, a redecoration fee, prepaid rent — the
labels differ and the cap does not care. Every piece counts against the same one
and one-half months.

For an approved assistance animal the animal-specific portion should not be
there at all. An accommodation that sets aside a no-pets rule sets aside the
charges attached to it. What survives is ordinary liability for damage, assessed
the way any other tenant's is.

## Getting the money back requires a demand

The landlord has fourteen days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal
holidays, to hand over an itemized list of all deductions together with the
amount due — roughly three calendar weeks once the excluded days come out.

That period does not begin at move-out on its own. It begins on termination of
the tenancy, delivery of possession, and a demand by the tenant — and the third
condition is the one renters skip. A landlord who fails to comply owes the money
due plus damages equal to twice the amount wrongfully withheld. A written demand
handed over with the keys costs nothing and starts the count.

## Two housing providers, one apartment

A condominium tenant frequently answers to two entities at once. The unit
belongs to an individual owner, who is the landlord. The building belongs to an
association, which writes rules binding everyone inside it. A restriction on
animals can originate with either, and some owners are as stuck with it as their
tenants.

A.R.S. § 41-1491.19(E)(2) makes a refusal to accommodate discriminatory without
inquiring which entity drafted the rule in question. An association setting the
terms on which people live in its buildings is functioning as a housing
provider, and the duty follows the function.

## Corridors, elevators and the pool deck are inside the duty

Here the federal regulation earns its place on a Scottsdale page. 24 C.F.R.
§ 100.204 frames the obligation as one owed for equal opportunity to use and
enjoy a dwelling unit, "including public and common use areas."

A garden apartment with its own exterior door rarely puts that phrase in play. A
mid-rise with a lobby, elevators, interior hallways, a pool deck and a fitness
room puts it in play daily, because the animal crosses all of it to reach the
street. A rule tolerating the animal in the unit but barring it from the
elevator has not accommodated anything.

## Rules written before the tenant arrived

Covenants and house rules in a Scottsdale development were generally recorded
long before the current resident signed a lease, which lends them a permanence
they do not legally possess.

Age is not a defense. What the state provision reaches is rules, policies,
practices or services — categories describing how a restriction operates, not
when it was adopted. A pet clause in a recorded declaration and one in a lease
addendum get the identical analysis.

## Send it to the owner, copy the manager

Having two counterparts means the request has to reach whoever can grant it
while the other party watches it happen.

Usually that means a written request to the owner or the owner's agent, copied
to the association's management company wherever a building rule is the real
obstacle. Ask each to answer in writing. Where no answer arrives, those dated
copies establish what was asked, when, and of whom.

## Leasing staff apply policies they did not write

Scottsdale's larger rental communities operate the way large communities do
anywhere: a resident portal, a standard animal addendum, an on-site team, a
regional manager based elsewhere.

The person reading a request at the desk seldom wrote the policy and seldom has
authority to depart from it. Submit through the portal or by email rather than
across a counter, and ask plainly who makes the decision. A verbal refusal from
someone who could not have approved it anyway is not a decision.

## A restaurant may refuse, and the dwelling is unaffected

Scottsdale carries a heavy concentration of restaurants, resorts, galleries and
retail for its size, so the public-access question surfaces here constantly.

A.R.S. § 11-1024 reserves the term service animal for a dog or a miniature
horse that has been individually trained, or is being trained, to do work or
perform tasks for a person with a disability. An emotional support animal
falls outside that definition and
carries no Arizona right of entry into a business. A host who declines one at
the door is reading the statute correctly.

## The two statutes do not speak to each other

A refusal at a restaurant entrance has no bearing on the apartment, and the
reverse holds as firmly: an accommodation granted at home is not a pass into a
hotel lobby.

Section 11-1024 governs public places. Housing runs on § 41-1491.19 and the
federal regulation alongside it. So when a landlord or a community manager
quotes the service-animal rules — the two permitted questions, the civil penalty
of up to $250 for misrepresenting an animal to a business — they have picked up
a section never written for dwellings.

## Necessity is the test, and paperwork volume is not

Because Arizona legislated a duty rather than an animal, the question a request
must answer is whether the accommodation may be necessary to afford equal
opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling.

No Arizona agency issues a certificate, an identification card or a directory
entry capable of answering that, and nothing purchased online answers it either.
Information about the person and the need does, and a housing provider may ask
for it where neither the disability nor the connection is apparent.

## One year, and the complaint goes to the Attorney General

Arizona sends fair housing complaints to the Attorney General instead of a civil
rights commission. A.R.S. § 41-1491.22 gives an aggrieved person one year from
the discriminatory housing practice, measured from when it occurred or
terminated, whichever falls later.

A year is more generous than most states allow, which tends to make people
slower than the situation warrants. A condominium request can pass between an
owner, a management company and a board for months without anyone refusing it in
writing, and the record of those months is the case.

## What follows a failed conciliation

Conciliation is given thirty days under A.R.S. § 41-1491.34. Where that period
ends without an agreement, the attorney general "shall immediately file a civil
action." The court hearing it may order damages, actual and punitive, together
with injunctive relief and affirmative action, and the aggrieved person is
entitled to intervene in that action.

Arizona's approach is prosecutorial rather than adjudicative. The state's law
officer carries the matter into court instead of a commission hearing it, so the
endpoint of a successful complaint is a court order.

## Where a Scottsdale renter finds help

The Arizona Attorney General's Civil Rights Division is the fair housing
enforcement office and where a complaint is filed. AZLawHelp publishes general
legal information for Arizona residents. Housing matters fall within the
practice of Community Legal Services, a legal aid provider working across
Arizona; confirm with the program whether it can take a case in this area.

None of the three substitutes for the request, and none is much use without the
dates and documents described above.

## What a request actually rests on

The procedure is the easy half. The substance is narrower: whether the request
shows a disability and explains what the animal does that makes this dwelling
usable on equal terms with anyone else's.

That comes from a licensed professional who has genuinely assessed the person,
not from a template addressed to no one in particular. Where the counterpart is
a management company with counsel on retainer, the form letter is the first
weakness anyone finds.

Statewide rules, deadlines and deposit mechanics are collected in the
[Arizona ESA guide](/blog/arizona-emotional-support-animal/); what belongs in a
defensible letter is set out in our
[guide to getting an ESA letter](/blog/articles/how-to-get-esa-letter/).

## What Scottsdale landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where the accommodation may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling
- Cannot apply a no-pets policy, a breed restriction or a weight limit to an approved assistance animal without going through that accommodation analysis
- Cannot demand or receive a deposit, however it is labelled and including prepaid rent, of more than one and one-half month's rent
- Cannot keep any part of a deposit without providing an itemized list of deductions within fourteen days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, of the tenancy ending, possession being delivered and the tenant demanding the balance
- Cannot treat the service-animal rules in A.R.S. § 11-1024 as the housing standard, since that section governs public places rather than dwellings

**Can:**
- May ask for information supporting the disability and the disability-related need where neither is apparent, because the accommodation analysis turns on necessity
- May hold the tenant responsible for damage the animal causes, assessed at move-out on the same terms as any other damage
- May decline where no reasonable accommodation exists that meets the tenant's need without fundamentally altering the housing or imposing an undue burden

## How to get an ESA letter in Scottsdale

1. **Check that you qualify** — Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Scottsdale. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes — free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional** — You are matched with a provider licensed for Arizona clients who reviews your situation in a telehealth evaluation. (Telehealth evaluation)
3. **Complete your evaluation** — The professional evaluates whether an emotional support animal alleviates symptoms of a condition recognized in the DSM-5. Honest evaluations — not everyone qualifies. (95% of applicants qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter** — Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number — the documentation Arizona landlords may lawfully request. (Typically within days of approval)
5. **Send it to your landlord** — Submit the letter with a short reasonable-accommodation request. Pet fees, pet deposits, and breed limits no longer apply to your animal in Scottsdale. (Protection under FHA + state law)

## Conditions that can qualify for an ESA

No fixed government list exists. A licensed professional evaluates whether an animal alleviates symptoms of a DSM-5-recognized condition, commonly:

- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Major depressive disorder
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Panic disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Bipolar disorder
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- Phobias with housing impact
- Chronic stress affecting daily function

## Housing help in Scottsdale

- [Arizona Attorney General, Civil Rights Division](https://www.azag.gov/civil-rights) (government)
- [AZLawHelp](https://www.azlawhelp.org/) (legal information)
- [Community Legal Services](https://clsaz.org/) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### The no-pets rule comes from my condo association, not my landlord. Does that matter?

Not to the analysis. Arizona's fair housing provision, A.R.S. § 41-1491.19(E)(2), asks whether an accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services may be necessary for equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. It does not ask who drafted the restriction. An association setting the terms of residence in its buildings is acting as a housing provider. Send the request to the owner and copy the association's manager.

### Does an accommodation cover the lobby, elevator and pool deck?

The federal regulation reaches them. 24 C.F.R. § 100.204 frames the duty as equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit, including public and common use areas. In a Scottsdale mid-rise the animal has to cross shared corridors and an elevator simply to get outdoors, so permission that stops at the unit door does not resolve the request.

### Can a Scottsdale landlord charge a pet deposit on top of the security deposit?

Not beyond the cap, and not for an approved assistance animal at all. A.R.S. § 33-1321 blocks a landlord from demanding or receiving security however denominated, prepaid rent included, above one and one-half month's rent. Relabelling money as a pet deposit, an amenity fee or a redecoration charge keeps it inside that total. Once an accommodation is approved, the animal-specific charges should not be there.

### Why does the deposit cap matter more in an expensive market?

Because the limit is written as a multiple of rent rather than as a dollar amount. One and one-half month's rent buys a much larger lawful ceiling where rents are higher, so more of a tenant's money sits with the landlord legitimately, and any fee stacked on top is bigger too. The protection is proportional, which is exactly why the itemization and return rules deserve attention.

### A Scottsdale restaurant refused my emotional support animal. Does that weaken my housing request?

No — the two run on separate statutes. A.R.S. § 11-1024 governs public places and defines a service animal as a dog or miniature horse individually trained to do work or perform tasks, which an emotional support animal is not. A business may decline entry. The housing question is decided under § 41-1491.19 and the federal regulation, and nothing that happens at a restaurant door bears on it.

### Where does a Scottsdale tenant complain, and how long is the window?

With the Arizona Attorney General, not a civil rights commission. A.R.S. § 41-1491.22 allows a filing up to one year after the discriminatory housing practice occurred or terminated, whichever is later. If conciliation produces no agreement in thirty days, § 41-1491.34 requires the attorney general to file a civil action immediately, with damages, injunctive relief and affirmative-action orders available and the aggrieved person able to intervene.

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Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=referral&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=arizona-emotional-support-animal%2Fscottsdale