# Can an HOA or Condo Board Deny an ESA?

> Associations are housing providers under federal rules, and the accommodation duty reaches common areas. What a board may decide, and what it may not.

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

- Author: Support Animal Editorial Team (Reviewed by licensed providers)
- Published: 2026-07-29

Condominium and homeowners associations tend to run on documents:
declarations, bylaws, rules and regulations, an architectural committee,
a violation letter template. When one of those documents says two pets
per unit, or no dogs over 40 pounds, or no animals in the lobby, a board
often treats the text as the end of the conversation. Federal housing
rules treat it as the beginning.

## The word that decides it is "person"

The accommodation duty is written broadly on purpose. Under
24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a), it is unlawful "for any person to refuse to make
reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services,
when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a handicapped person
equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit, including public and
common use areas."

"Person" is not left to intuition. The definitions at 24 C.F.R. § 100.20
say the term "includes one or more individuals, corporations,
partnerships, associations, labor organizations, legal representatives,
mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorporated
organizations, trustees ... and fiduciaries." An incorporated association
that adopts and enforces rules about the dwellings in its community is
squarely inside that list, and so is the management company it hires.

## Common areas were named on purpose

Notice the last clause of § 100.204(a): the equal opportunity runs to the
dwelling unit "including public and common use areas." That phrase is
defined at 24 C.F.R. § 100.201 as "rooms, spaces or elements inside or
outside of a building that are made available for the use of residents of
a building or the guests thereof," and the definition then lists
"hallways, lounges, lobbies, laundry rooms, refuse rooms, mail rooms,
recreational areas and passageways among and between buildings."

That matters because association rules concentrate exactly there. A rule
that permits an animal inside a unit but bars it from the elevator, the
lobby, or the path to the parking deck does not leave the resident with
an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the home. The animal cannot reach
the unit without crossing the space the rule closed.

## Rules a board cannot apply to an assistance animal

Association covenants that operate as ordinary pet policy have no special
status once a documented accommodation request is on the table:

- Numeric pet caps written into the declaration
- Breed exclusions, including insurance-driven exclusions the board did
  not write itself
- Weight and height limits
- Species lists that permit only cats and dogs
- Pet registration fees, per-animal assessments, or refundable animal
  deposits collected by the association
- Amenity restrictions that keep the animal off shared walkways or out of
  the building's only entrance

The unequal-terms rule at 24 C.F.R. § 100.65 reaches this conduct from a
second direction. That section makes it unlawful to impose different
terms, conditions or privileges relating to the rental of a dwelling
because of handicap, and it names "limiting the use of privileges,
services or facilities associated with a dwelling" as a prohibited action.

## What a board may still legitimately do

The duty is real but it is not unlimited. Under 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(d),
nothing in the subpart "requires that a dwelling be made available to an
individual whose tenancy would constitute a direct threat to the health
or safety of other individuals or whose tenancy would result in
substantial physical damage to the property of others." That assessment
has to be about the specific animal in front of the board, supported by
objective facts, and not about the reputation of a breed.

A board may also ask for documentation when the disability and the
disability-related need are not apparent. What it may not do is turn the
request into a medical file review. Section 100.202(c) prohibits an
inquiry "to determine whether an applicant for a dwelling ... has a
handicap or to make inquiry as to the nature or severity of a handicap of
such a person." A board that asks for a diagnosis, therapy notes, or a
list of medications has crossed from verification into an inquiry the
regulation forbids.

## Fines, violation letters, and the interference rule

The most common association misstep is not an outright denial. It is a
running violation notice while the accommodation request sits unanswered,
with fines accruing weekly against the owner's ledger.

Section 100.400 addresses that pattern. It makes it unlawful "to coerce,
intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any person in the exercise or
enjoyment of ... any right granted or protected by this part," and its
list of covered conduct includes "retaliating against any person because
that person reported a discriminatory housing practice to a housing
provider or other authority." A fine imposed because a resident is
keeping a documented assistance animal, or because that resident
complained about the handling of the request, is exactly the conduct the
section describes.

## Who is on the hook when things go wrong

Associations often outsource enforcement, which raises the question of
who answers for a bad decision. The liability rule at 24 C.F.R. § 100.7
answers it in three parts. A person is directly liable for their own
conduct, for failing to correct an employee's or agent's discriminatory
conduct they knew or should have known about, and for failing to act on a
third party's conduct where they knew about it and "had the power to
correct it." The section then adds vicarious liability for an agent's
conduct "regardless of whether the person knew or should have known" of
it, consistent with agency law.

There is a pointed limit built into the same section: prompt corrective
action "may not include any action that penalizes or harms the aggrieved
person, such as eviction of the aggrieved person." A board cannot resolve
a neighbor complaint by removing the resident who made the accommodation
request.

## Renting inside a condo means two decision-makers

A tenant leasing a unit in an association-governed building is answering
to a landlord and to a board at the same time, and the two rarely
coordinate. The practical move is to send the request to both in the same
week: to the landlord as a lease accommodation, and to the association in
whatever form its governing documents use for a variance or a rules
exception. Waiting for the landlord to relay it usually costs a month and
produces a second, contradictory answer.

Keep the paper. A dated written request, the board's response or silence,
and the minutes of the meeting where the item was discussed are what an
investigator will ask for first.

## The 2025 federal guidance change

Boards that have been trained on HUD's old assistance-animal memo are
working from a document that no longer exists. HUD's Office of Fair
Housing and Equal Opportunity withdrew FHEO Notice 2020-01 and FHEO
Notice 2013-01, effective September 17, 2025, in a notice published at
91 FR 17291 under Docket No. FR-6571-N-01. The same notice states that
conduct failing to comply with the text of the Fair Housing Act remains
subject to enforcement, and reminds readers that a complainant may bring
a civil action in federal or state court within two years of the conduct.

Withdrawing a guidance memo does not repeal a regulation. Sections
100.204, 100.202, 100.65, 100.400 and 100.7 are all still in the Code of
Federal Regulations, and they are the provisions an association is
actually bound by. Our overview of
[what the Fair Housing Act guarantees](/blog/articles/esa-housing-rights-fair-housing-act/)
walks through the same framework from the tenant's side.

## State law often reaches associations directly

Several states describe the covered party in language that leaves no room
for a board to argue it is a private club rather than a housing provider.

| State | Provision | Effect on a board |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | Fla. Stat. § 760.27 | Defines a housing provider as any person or entity engaging in conduct covered by the federal Fair Housing Act, including an owner or lessor, and forbids extra compensation for the animal |
| New York | N.Y. Exec. Law § 296(18)(2) | Writes the use of an animal to alleviate symptoms of a disability into the accommodation duty itself |
| Pennsylvania | Assistance and Service Animal Integrity Act § 3(a) | Permits a documentation request only where the disability or the need is not readily apparent or known |
| California | Cal. Gov. Code § 12955 | Supplies a state accommodation duty enforced by the Civil Rights Department |
| Texas | Tex. Prop. Code § 301.025 | Mirrors the federal accommodation duty, with complaints going to the Texas Workforce Commission |

State pages with the full citations sit at
[Florida](/blog/florida-emotional-support-animal/),
[New York](/blog/new-york-emotional-support-animal/),
[Pennsylvania](/blog/pennsylvania-emotional-support-animal/),
[California](/blog/california-emotional-support-animal/) and
[Texas](/blog/texas-emotional-support-animal/).

## If the board says no

Get the denial in writing with the reason attached, then check the reason
against the two lawful categories in § 100.202(d). If it is a covenant, a
breed list, or a headcount, it is not one of them. A complaint may be
filed with HUD or with a substantially equivalent state agency, and the
federal administrative window is one year from the conduct under
24 C.F.R. § 103.35. The parallel path to court, noted in the 2026
withdrawal notice itself, runs two years.

Boards respond to specificity. A letter that cites the section number,
attaches the provider's documentation, and asks for a written decision by
a named date resolves far more of these disputes than an argument at an
open meeting ever has.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a condo association covered by federal fair housing rules?

The regulation defines a person to include corporations, partnerships and associations, and the accommodation duty is written as a duty of any person. A board acting on a unit is inside that definition rather than outside it.

### Can the board keep my animal out of the lobby or the elevator?

The accommodation duty at 24 C.F.R. § 100.204 covers a dwelling unit including public and common use areas. Hallways, lobbies, laundry rooms and passageways are named as common use areas in the definitions at § 100.201.

### The association already fined me. Is that fine still valid?

Ask the board in writing to rescind it as part of the accommodation. A fine imposed for keeping a documented assistance animal is an adverse action taken because a resident exercised a protected right, which the interference rule at 24 C.F.R. § 100.400 addresses directly.

### Who is responsible if a neighbor, not the board, is the problem?

A person can be directly liable for failing to take prompt action against a third party's discriminatory conduct where they knew of it and had the power to correct it. That corrective action may not itself penalize the resident who complained.

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