# ESA Letter in Loveland, CO: The City Points You to the State

> Loveland keeps a Fair Housing page but no fair housing agency — it names the state as enforcer. What that means for an assistance animal request here.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 81,102
- Households renting: 37.8%
- 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 that tells you where to go

Loveland keeps a Fair Housing page of its own, run by the Community
Partnership Office at 500 E. 3rd St., Suite 210. The valuable part is what it
says: the Colorado Civil Rights Division is the body charged with
enforcing the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, and residents reporting
housing discrimination should go there.

Treat that as a map, not a brush-off. The city is not an enforcement agency:
it does not investigate, does not take a discrimination charge, and has no
filing deadline of its own. It has a staffed line on 970-962-2705, Monday to
Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., a published landlord-tenant resource sheet, and
people who work on housing every day. The office administers Loveland's HUD
Consolidated Plan and CDBG funds, works with the Loveland Housing Authority,
and staffs the Affordable Housing Commission and the Human Services
Commission.

## Who rents in Loveland

The city has 34,367 occupied homes, and 13,007 of them are rented. That works
out to 37.8%, a little above the 33.8% figure for Colorado as a whole, on the
2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate. Population, on the
Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 estimate, is 81,102.

Renting is common without being the default, roughly three homes in
eight, so a request may land with a small owner as easily as with a
management company. The law does not shift between them.

## What August 12, 2026 changes in Loveland

That is the day House Bill 26-1045 starts operating. Its declaration is blunt
about why: federal guidance on assistance animals was rescinded, and Colorado
is restoring it by writing it into state law.

The bill defines an assistance animal at C.R.S. § 24-34-301(2.5) as one that
works, performs tasks, assists, or gives therapeutic emotional support to a
person with a disability, a term taking in emotional support animals and
service animals alike. C.R.S. § 24-34-301(8.5) defines an emotional support
animal as one providing solely emotional support to ease a symptom or effect
of a disability.

Two presumptions follow. C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(A) presumes that
allowing an assistance animal in housing is a reasonable accommodation.
C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(B) presumes that a complete prohibition of
assistance animals in housing is discriminatory. And
C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(a)(III) removes the argument landlords lean on hardest:
the mere presence of an assistance animal is not a direct threat to health or
safety and is not presumed to cause substantial damage to anyone's property.
Documented, specific conduct by your particular animal may still be weighed.

## The opportunity a landlord has to be given

The first presumption carries a string, and skipping it is the most expensive
mistake a tenant makes. It applies where the housing provider has been given
an opportunity to engage in an interactive accommodation process.

That means asking, in writing, before the animal moves in. A tenant who brings
the animal home and cites the statute afterwards keeps the underlying duty at
C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b), refusing an accommodation necessary for equal
opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling is discrimination, and
C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(k) makes that an unfair housing practice. But the
presumption is probably gone. With a small Loveland landlord who never had a
form, an email you can produce later beats a conversation at the door.

## Being asked for paperwork is not the same as being refused

Colorado has written into the statute that a housing provider does not
discriminate merely by asking. Under C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(C),
requesting reasonable documentation of the disability or of the
disability-related need is permitted, as is running a good faith interactive
process, unless the disability or the need is obvious.

The boundary sits in those two words: the disability, and the need for the
animal. That is the whole subject. A demand for breed, weight, proof of
training, or an entry in some online directory falls outside it, and no
Colorado or federal registry, certificate, or ID card exists that would answer
one.

Disability is defined broadly. C.R.S. § 24-34-501(1.3) includes a mental
impairment: any behavioural, mental, or psychological disorder, where most
emotional support animal requests sit.

## The professional Colorado will accept

Colorado regulates the person who writes your documentation, and not every
profession the same way. C.R.S. § 12-245-229(3)(a) requires a mental health
licensee (psychologist, counsellor, social worker, or marriage and family
therapist), to have met the patient in person, to be sufficiently familiar
with the patient and the disability, and to be legally and professionally
qualified. C.R.S. § 12-240-144(3)(a) gives physicians a wider option: in
person or by telemedicine.

Whoever it is must record a written finding on the disability and a separate
one on the disability-related need, or a finding that there is too little
information to say.

That finding has a second job. C.R.S. § 18-13-107.3 has made it a class 2
civil infraction since March 1, 2022 to intentionally misrepresent
entitlement to an assistance animal in order to obtain housing, but only
where the person already had a written or verbal warning that it is illegal.
Fines start
at twenty-five dollars and reach one hundred to five hundred for a third
offence. A written finding under C.R.S. § 12-240-144(1)(a) or
§ 12-245-229(1)(a) is an affirmative defence, and the statute says outright
that not having one is no evidence of the offence.

## What the animal may cost you

An approved assistance animal is not a pet, and waiving a pet charge is
exactly what C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) calls a reasonable accommodation: an
exception or adjustment to a rule, policy, practice, or service, including in
public and common-use spaces.

The pet ceilings still matter: they tell you what the addendum in front of you
may say. C.R.S. § 38-12-106, in force since January 1, 2024,
holds an additional pet deposit to three hundred refundable dollars and
pet rent to thirty-five dollars a month or one and one-half percent of rent,
whichever is greater. At Loveland rent levels the flat thirty-five dollars is
usually the higher figure, so it turns up on so many local addenda.

Breed rules get blamed on insurance more than on anything else.
C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8(16) stops an insurer refusing or surcharging a
homeowner's or dwelling fire policy over a dog's breed, and stops it asking
about breed at all beyond whether the dog has been declared dangerous. A
landlord invoking the carrier describes a decision the carrier may not make.

## Moving out with an animal on the lease

The rewritten C.R.S. § 38-12-103 has applied since January 1, 2026, and it
moved the weight onto the landlord. The deposit comes back within thirty days,
or up to sixty if the lease says so. A landlord may subtract rent you still
owe, utilities you still owe, other lawful charges written into the lease, and
the cost of repairing damage worse than normal wear and tear, provided that
damage was not already present at the start of the tenancy.

If money is kept, your landlord must prove both that the retention was not
wrongful and what the actual damages were. Holding one hundred twenty-five
percent or more of those damages is presumed to exceed them unreasonably.
Carpet gets its own rule: it cannot count as substantially and irreparably
damaged unless new carpet went down in the previous ten years. Uncleanliness
now
counts as normal wear and tear under C.R.S. § 38-12-102(4).

Ask for a walk-through inspection under C.R.S. § 38-12-103(1.5) before
handing back the keys, and ask in writing for the photographs, receipts,
invoices, or estimates behind any charge, C.R.S. § 38-12-103(8) gives
fourteen days. Wrongful retention carries treble damages plus attorney fees
and costs, after seven days' written notice of intent to sue.

## If Loveland's page sends you to the state

It will, so know what waits there. Charges go to the Colorado Civil Rights
Division, part of DORA, on 303-894-2997 or 720-432-4294 for Spanish.
C.R.S. § 24-34-504(1) allows one year from the unfair housing practice, and
the Division says it cannot extend that for any reason, good ones included.

One detail catches people out. Sending intake through CaseConnect is not
filing a charge (the charge is drafted and signed later), so a late start
buys nothing. The Division is a HUD-certified Fair Housing Assistance Program
agency, so most housing matters are dual-filed under a state and a federal
case number, and where probable cause is found and conciliation fails, housing
cases go to hearing automatically.

Loveland has no legal aid office of its own. Larimer County is covered by
Colorado Legal Services from Fort Collins, at 215 W. Oak Street, Suite 800, on
970-493-2891, and the county eviction clinic sits at the Larimer County
Justice Center, 201 LaPorte Avenue, Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Colorado
Housing Connects, the bilingual renter helpline Brothers Redevelopment has run
since 2014, answers on 844-926-6632. Behind all of it sits the country's first
statewide fair housing act, which Colorado passed in 1959, nine years ahead of
Congress.

## What Loveland 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 Loveland

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Loveland. 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 Loveland. (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 Loveland

- [City of Loveland, Fair Housing](https://www.lovgov.org/services/community-partnership-office/fair-housing) (city agency)
- [Colorado Civil Rights Division, Housing Discrimination](https://ccrd.colorado.gov/housing-discrimination) (state agency)
- [Colorado Legal Services, Fort Collins & Northeast Colorado](https://lawhelp.colorado.gov/node/19801) (legal aid)
- [Loveland Housing Authority](https://www.lovelandhousing.org/) (housing authority)
- [Colorado Housing Connects](https://coloradohousingconnects.org/) (tenant help)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does the City of Loveland investigate housing discrimination complaints?

No. Loveland publishes a Fair Housing page through its Community Partnership Office, and that page tells you plainly that the Colorado Civil Rights Division is the agency charged with enforcing the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. So the city is a place to get oriented, pick up its landlord-tenant resource sheet and ask a person a question: the office sits at 500 E. 3rd St., Suite 210, on 970-962-2705, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The charge itself goes to the state, and C.R.S. § 24-34-504(1) bars a housing claim filed more than one year after the practice.

### What changes for Loveland renters on August 12, 2026?

House Bill 26-1045 takes effect that day. It writes an assistance animal definition into C.R.S. § 24-34-301(2.5) that expressly takes in emotional support animals, and it adds two presumptions at C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II). Under subparagraph (A), allowing an assistance animal in housing is presumed reasonable where the landlord got an opportunity to engage in an interactive accommodation process. Under subparagraph (B), banning assistance animals outright is presumed discriminatory. The bill's own declaration says it is codifying rescinded federal guidance into Colorado law.

### My Loveland landlord owns the duplex and lives in the other half. Is he exempt?

Not on disability. Federal fair housing law leaves out owner-occupied buildings of four units or fewer, and that carve-out is what small landlords usually have in mind. Colorado's law does not copy it. The only three-or-fewer-unit exception in the state statute, at C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1.5)(a), is limited to the source-of-income rules and does nothing for a disability claim. The accommodation duty in C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b) reaches your landlord the same way it reaches a 200-unit complex.

### Can my therapist write the letter after a video visit?

Not in Colorado. C.R.S. § 12-245-229(3)(a) requires a mental health licensee (psychologist, counsellor, social worker, or marriage and family therapist), to have met the patient in person before making a finding, and to be sufficiently familiar with the patient and legally and professionally qualified. Physicians are treated differently: C.R.S. § 12-240-144(3)(a) lets a physician meet you in person or by telemedicine. Either professional has to put down a written finding on the disability and a separate written finding on the disability-related need.

### The complex charges $35 a month for animals. Do I have to pay it for my ESA?

Not once the animal is approved as an assistance animal, because that charge is a policy and waiving it is the exception C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) contemplates. The $35 figure comes from C.R.S. § 38-12-106, which caps pet rent at $35 a month or 1.5% of monthly rent, whichever is greater. At the rent levels most Loveland units sit at, 1.5% has not yet overtaken $35, which is why the flat number shows up on so many local addenda. The same statute caps an additional pet deposit at $300 and requires it to be refundable.

### Where is the free eviction help for Larimer County?

Colorado Legal Services covers Larimer County from its Fort Collins office at 215 W. Oak Street, Suite 800, on 970-493-2891, Loveland has no office of its own, so that is the one to call. The Larimer County eviction clinic runs Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon at the Larimer County Justice Center, 201 LaPorte Avenue in Fort Collins, and clinic help is tied to the courthouse named on your summons and to your court date. Colorado Housing Connects, a bilingual statewide renter helpline run by Brothers Redevelopment since 2014, takes calls on 844-926-6632.

### Can Loveland management keep my deposit for carpet the animal used?

Only within limits, and the rewritten C.R.S. § 38-12-103 in force since January 1, 2026 puts the work on the landlord. He must prove both that keeping the money was not wrongful and what the actual damages were, and keeping 125% or more of those damages is presumed unreasonable. Carpet may not be called substantially and irreparably damaged if it was not replaced with new carpet in the ten years before your tenancy ended. Ask in writing and the supporting photographs, invoices or estimates are due within fourteen days. Wrongful retention costs treble damages plus fees, after seven days' written notice of intent to sue.

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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%2Floveland