# ESA Letter in Denver, CO: A Majority-Renter City's New Presumptions

> Denver renters outnumber owners, and from August 12, 2026 Colorado presumes an assistance animal is reasonable. What that changes in a majority-renter city.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/colorado-emotional-support-animal/denver/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-07
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 729,019
- Households renting: 51.2%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Capped at $300
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Capped at $35/mo
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## A city where renting is the majority position

Denver has 335,428 occupied homes and 171,873 of them are rented. That is
51.2% against a statewide figure of 33.8%, on the 2020-2024 American
Community Survey five-year estimate, and it means the tenant asking about an
animal in Denver is not the exception in their building. They are the
building.

Scale changes how these requests get handled. A landlord with one property
reads an accommodation request as an unfamiliar problem. A Denver management
company has a form for it, a portal to upload into, and a policy written
before your request arrived. That is mostly good (the process exists), but
it also means the answer you get is often the policy talking rather than the
statute.

From August 12, 2026 the statute talks back.

## What changes on August 12

House Bill 26-1045 takes effect that day. It adds a definition of assistance
animal to C.R.S. § 24-34-301(2.5) that expressly covers an emotional support
animal, and then adds a presumption to C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(A):
permitting an assistance animal in housing is presumed to be a reasonable
accommodation, provided the housing provider has been given an opportunity to
engage in an interactive accommodation process.

The companion provision, C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(B), says a complete
prohibition of assistance animals in housing is presumed to be
discriminatory. Denver's larger buildings tend not to run absolute bans. They
run pet policies with breed schedules, weight ceilings and per-animal limits.
Those are rules, and a reasonable accommodation is defined by
C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) as an exception or adjustment to a rule, policy,
practice or service. The pet policy is the thing the accommodation carves
into.

## The condition attached to the presumption

Read the presumption's proviso before relying on it. It applies where the
landlord "has been given an opportunity to engage in an interactive
accommodation process." In a large Denver building that opportunity is
usually a written request through the leasing office or the resident portal,
and the paper trail it generates is the point.

Moving an animal in first and raising the law afterwards forfeits the
presumption and hands the building a procedural argument it did not have to
work for. Ask before the animal arrives.

## Being asked for paperwork is not being discriminated against

Denver renters hear confident advice that a landlord may not ask for
anything. Colorado has written the opposite into the statute.

Under C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(C), a building that asks for reasonable
documentation of your disability, or of why you need the animal, has not
discriminated by asking. Nor has one that opens a good faith interactive
process. The exception runs the other way: where the disability or the need
is already obvious, that request loses its cover.

The limits sit in the wording. Two subjects are on the table: the disability,
and the need for the animal. Breed, weight, obedience training and any online
listing are outside it, and no Colorado agency issues anything that would
satisfy such a request anyway.

## Who Colorado lets write the letter

Colorado regulates the professional, not just the tenant. Under
C.R.S. § 12-245-229(3)(a), a mental health licensee (a psychologist,
counsellor, social worker, or marriage and family therapist) may not make a
finding about disability or disability-related need unless they have met the
patient **in person**, are sufficiently familiar with the patient and the
disability, and are legally and professionally qualified. Physicians get a
slightly wider rule at C.R.S. § 12-240-144(3)(a), which allows in person or
by telemedicine.

Whichever it is, the licensee must produce a written finding on disability
and a separate written finding on whether the need for the animal relates to
it. In a city where much of the mental health care is delivered by therapists
rather than physicians, the in-person requirement is the one most Denver
renters are actually under.

## Money the building may and may not ask for

Colorado capped pet charges in C.R.S. § 38-12-106, in force since January 1,
2024. An additional pet deposit may not exceed three hundred dollars and must
be refundable. Pet rent may not exceed thirty-five dollars a month or one and
one-half percent of the monthly rent, whichever is *greater*, and since
Denver rents commonly sit above the point where 1.5% overtakes thirty-five
dollars, it is often the percentage that governs here rather than the flat
figure.

Those are the ceilings for a pet. An approved assistance animal is not a pet,
and waiving the charge is exactly the kind of exception to a policy that
C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) describes.

Breed restrictions deserve their own note, because the justification Denver
tenants hear most is insurance. C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8(16) bars an insurer from
refusing a homeowner's or dwelling fire policy, or raising the premium, over a
dog's breed or mixture of breeds, and bars the insurer from asking about
breed at all except whether the dog has been declared dangerous. A management
company that says its carrier forbids the animal is describing something the
carrier is not allowed to do.

## What happens to the deposit when you leave

C.R.S. § 38-12-103, rewritten with effect from January 1, 2026, is where a
Denver tenancy with an animal most often ends up. You should have the money
back inside thirty days, sixty only if your lease claims the longer window.
Four things can be taken out of it: rent you did not pay, utilities you did
not pay, another charge the lease actually names, and repair of damage worse
than normal wear and tear that was not there the day you arrived.

Three provisions are worth knowing before the move-out inspection. The
landlord, not you, carries the burden of proving both that the withholding
was not wrongful and what the actual damages were. Keeping one hundred
twenty-five percent or more of the actual damages is presumed unreasonable.
And carpet cannot be treated as substantially and irreparably damaged if it
was not replaced with new carpet in the ten years before your tenancy ended,
which matters in a city with a large stock of older apartment carpet that has
already outlived its replacement cycle.

Either side may ask for a walk-through inspection before the tenancy ends
under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1.5). On a written request the landlord has fourteen
days to produce the photographs, invoices, estimates or inspection reports
behind any charge. Wrongful retention costs treble damages, attorney fees and
court costs, after seven days' written notice of intent to sue.

## Misrepresentation, and the document that answers it

C.R.S. § 18-13-107.3 makes it an offence to intentionally misrepresent
entitlement to an assistance animal in order to obtain a housing
accommodation. Three things must be true at once, and the last is easy to
miss: the person knows the claim is false, is making it to win the
accommodation, and has already been warned, in writing or out loud, that
doing so breaks the law. Since March 1, 2022 it has been a class 2 civil
infraction, running twenty-five dollars, then fifty to two hundred, then one
hundred to five hundred.

The statute names its own answer. A written finding made under
C.R.S. § 12-240-144(1)(a) or § 12-245-229(1)(a) is an affirmative defence, and
the absence of one is expressly not proof of the offence. A real assessment by
a licensed professional is the document Colorado law points at.

## If the answer is no

Complaints go to the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and
C.R.S. § 24-34-504(1) allows one year from the unfair housing practice before
the claim is barred. The Division states that it has no power to extend that
deadline for any reason.

The procedural trap catches Denver renters as often as anyone: submitting
intake through the Division's CaseConnect system is not the same as filing a
charge. The charge is drafted and signed afterwards, so starting intake in the
last few weeks of the year preserves nothing. Expect two case numbers once the
charge exists, one state and one federal: the Division carries HUD
certification as a Fair Housing Assistance Program agency, so housing
complaints are usually dual-filed.

For free help, Colorado Legal Services keeps its Denver office at 1560
Broadway, Suite 1100, on 303-837-1313, covering Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield,
Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin and Jefferson counties. It also runs an
in-person eviction clinic in Room 179 of the City and County Building on
Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, but the Denver clinic is open only to
tenants in public housing, project-based Section 8, or with a housing choice
voucher, which is a narrower door than the clinics in neighbouring counties.
The Denver Metro Fair Housing Center takes fair housing questions from across
the metro area.

Colorado has been enforcing a state fair housing law since 1959, the first in
the country and nine years ahead of the federal Act. The presumptions arriving
on August 12, 2026 are the newest layer on a system that has been running in
Denver for longer than almost anywhere else.

## What Denver landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot operate a complete prohibition on assistance animals, which C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(B) presumes to be discriminatory from August 12, 2026
- Cannot treat the mere presence of an assistance animal as a direct threat to health or safety, or presume it will cause substantial physical damage to the property of others, under C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(a)(III)
- Cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, under C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)
- Cannot rely on the small-landlord and owner-occupied exemptions that exist under federal law, because Colorado's disability provisions carry no equivalent, the three-or-fewer-units carve-out at C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1.5)(a) applies only to the source-of-income rules
- Cannot charge a pet deposit or pet rent for an approved assistance animal, because waiving that charge is an exception to a policy within the definition of reasonable accommodation at C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5)
- Cannot take more than a three-hundred-dollar refundable pet deposit, or more than thirty-five dollars a month or one and one-half percent of rent, whichever is greater, for an ordinary pet under C.R.S. § 38-12-106
- Cannot justify a breed restriction by pointing at its insurer, since C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8(16) bars an insurer from pricing or refusing a policy on dog breed and from asking about breed at all
- Cannot keep any part of a deposit without a written statement of the exact reasons within thirty days, and cannot charge for carpet replacement across a unit where the carpet was not replaced within the previous ten years, under C.R.S. § 38-12-103
- Cannot place a lien on the animal itself for unpaid rent, under C.R.S. § 38-20-102(3)(a)

**Can:**
- May request reasonable documentation supporting the claim of disability or the disability-related need, and may run a good faith interactive process, without that being discrimination, unless the disability or the need is obvious, under C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(C)
- May act on documented, specific conduct of the animal that poses a direct threat to health or safety or causes substantial physical damage to property
- May hold a tenant responsible for damage the animal actually causes, provided it exceeds normal wear and tear, did not preexist the tenancy, and is substantiated with the photographs, invoices or estimates C.R.S. § 38-12-103(8) requires on request
- May ask for a walk-through inspection at the end of the tenancy, as may the tenant, under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1.5)

## How to get an ESA letter in Denver

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Denver. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Colorado 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. (Most of Our Applicants Qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter**, Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number: the documentation Colorado 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 Denver. (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 Denver

- [Colorado Civil Rights Division, Housing Discrimination](https://ccrd.colorado.gov/housing-discrimination) (state agency)
- [Denver Metro Fair Housing Center](https://www.dmfhc.org/) (fair housing)
- [Colorado Legal Services](https://www.coloradolegalservices.org/get-help/) (legal aid)
- [Denver Housing Authority](https://www.denverhousing.org/) (housing authority)

## Frequently asked questions

### My Denver building has a breed restriction. Does it apply to my emotional support animal?

A breed schedule is a rule, and C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) defines a reasonable accommodation as an exception or adjustment to a rule, policy, practice or service. From August 12, 2026, C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(a)(III) also provides that the mere presence of an assistance animal is not a direct threat to health or safety and is not presumed to result in substantial physical damage to property. If the building says its insurer requires the restriction, note that C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8(16) bars an insurer from refusing or surcharging a policy over a dog's breed and from asking about breed at all except whether the dog has been declared dangerous.

### Can a Denver leasing office charge pet rent for an assistance animal?

Not for an approved one. Pet rent is a charge levied because an animal lives in the unit, and waiving it is precisely the kind of exception to a policy that C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) covers. C.R.S. § 38-12-106 sets the ceilings that apply to actual pets, three hundred refundable dollars of deposit and thirty-five dollars a month or one and one-half percent of rent, whichever is greater. Because that cap takes the greater of the two figures, higher Denver rents raise the pet-rent ceiling rather than lowering it.

### Does the pet screening service my building uses apply to me?

A third-party screening step cannot create a legal requirement the statute does not impose. What Colorado law asks is whether you have a disability and a disability-related need for the animal. C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(C) lets a housing provider request reasonable documentation of those two things, and running a good faith interactive process is not discrimination, but the enquiry is bounded by what it is for. Breed, weight, obedience training and any online listing are outside it.

### I already moved in with my animal. Am I protected?

You still have the underlying duty in C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b) behind you, but you have probably given up the new presumption. From August 12, 2026 C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(A) presumes that permitting an assistance animal is a reasonable accommodation only where the housing provider has been given an opportunity to engage in an interactive accommodation process. Making the request in writing, before the animal arrives, is what secures it, and in a large Denver building the portal or leasing office generates the paper trail on its own.

### Who can write my documentation in Denver?

A licensed professional who has genuinely assessed you, and Colorado sets different rules by profession. C.R.S. § 12-245-229(3)(a) bars a mental health licensee (a psychologist, counsellor, social worker or marriage and family therapist), from making a finding unless they have met the patient in person, are sufficiently familiar with the patient and the disability, and are legally and professionally qualified. C.R.S. § 12-240-144(3)(a) allows a physician to meet in person or by telemedicine. Either must produce a written finding on disability and a separate written finding on whether the need for the animal relates to it.

### The building kept my deposit for carpet after my animal lived there. What are my options?

C.R.S. § 38-12-103, as rewritten with effect from January 1, 2026, puts the burden on the landlord to prove both that the withholding was not wrongful and what the actual damages were. Retaining one hundred twenty-five percent or more of the actual damages is presumed unreasonable. Carpet specifically cannot be treated as substantially and irreparably damaged if it was not replaced with new carpet in the ten years before your tenancy ended, and a written request obliges the landlord to hand over the photographs, invoices or estimates within fourteen days. Wrongful retention carries treble damages, attorney fees and court costs after seven days' written notice of intent to sue.

### Where do I complain, and is there free help in Denver?

Complaints go to the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and C.R.S. § 24-34-504(1) gives one year from the unfair housing practice before the claim is barred. Submitting intake through CaseConnect is not the same as filing a charge, so start early. Colorado Legal Services covers Denver from 1560 Broadway, Suite 1100, on 303-837-1313, serving Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, Elbert, Gilpin and Jefferson counties; its Denver eviction clinic in Room 179 of the City and County Building runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings but is open only to tenants in public housing, project-based Section 8, or holding a housing choice voucher. The Denver Metro Fair Housing Center takes fair housing questions across the metro area.

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