# ESA Letter in Westminster, CO: One City, Two Counties, One Duty

> Westminster straddles the Adams-Jefferson county line, so local help depends which side you rent on. The accommodation duty is identical on both.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 115,302
- Households renting: 38.1%
- 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)

## One city, two county lines

Westminster is not a housing provider, and it says so plainly. Its own housing
resources page explains that the city partners with the housing authorities in
Adams and Jefferson counties because Westminster straddles both. Most cities
have one county behind them. This one has two, and a renter with an assistance
animal learns it the first time they need help.

Westminster counts 48,106 occupied homes, and 18,320 of them are rented: a
renter share of 38.1% against 33.8% for Colorado as a whole, on the 2020-2024
American Community Survey five-year estimates, table B25003. The city's
population is 115,302 on the Census Bureau's Vintage 2024 subcounty estimates.

Everything below turns on one contrast. Your county decides which office picks
up. It decides nothing about what your landlord owes you.
C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b) makes it discrimination to refuse a reasonable
accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where one is necessary
to give a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a
dwelling, and C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(k) makes a breach of that section an unfair
housing practice. Neither sentence comes with a map.

## August 12 reaches both sides

House Bill 26-1045 takes effect on August 12, 2026. It was signed on
May 19, 2026 and sits in the session laws as chapter 202. Its declaration
states the purpose openly: rescinded federal guidance, restored by writing it
into Colorado's own statute.

The act supplies the vocabulary first. C.R.S. § 24-34-301(2.5) defines an
assistance animal as one that does work, performs tasks, assists, or provides
therapeutic emotional support to an individual with a disability, and confirms
the term takes in an emotional support animal as well as a service animal.
C.R.S. § 24-34-301(8.5) defines that support animal as one providing solely
emotional support to alleviate a symptom or effect of a disability.
C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) defines the accommodation itself: an exception or
adjustment to a rule, policy, practice or service, reaching public and
common-use spaces too.

Two presumptions follow, and they reach both sides of Westminster at the same
hour. Under C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(A),
permitting an assistance animal in housing is presumed reasonable. Under
C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(B), prohibiting assistance animals outright is
presumed discriminatory.

## Say it first, on either side

Presumption (A) is conditional. It runs where the housing provider has
been given an opportunity to engage in an interactive accommodation process,
so the tenant who never asked cannot lean on it.

Make the ask a document. An email or dated letter requesting an exception to
the pet policy, naming the animal and offering the finding creates that
opportunity and dates it. It has to go out ahead of the animal; the other order
hands a landlord a free procedural objection.

## What may be asked, and what sits outside the question

C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(C) settles a common leasing-office argument.
Two moves are lawful on their own: asking for reasonable documentation of
the disability or the disability-related need, and running a good faith
interactive process. Neither is discrimination, unless the disability or the
need is obvious.

The subject matter is narrow, though. Two things are in scope: whether you have
a disability, and whether the animal relates to it. C.R.S. § 24-34-501(1.3)
answers the first broadly, since disability includes a mental impairment,
meaning any behavioural, mental or psychological disorder. Outside it sit
breed, weight, obedience credentials, and membership of any list. Colorado
registers and certifies no assistance animals, so nothing bought online helps
and nothing missing from your file hurts.

## Who Colorado allows to sign the finding

The state licenses the writer, and the rule differs by profession.
C.R.S. § 12-245-229(3)(a) stops 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**.
A physician answers to C.R.S. § 12-240-144(3)(a) instead, which allows an
in-person visit or telemedicine. The therapist's rule is the stricter one, and
the two do not swap.

Either way, the licensee must be sufficiently familiar with the patient and
legally and professionally qualified, and must produce a written finding on the
disability plus a **separate** one on the disability-related need.

That paperwork has a second job. C.R.S. § 18-13-107.3 makes intentional
misrepresentation of an entitlement to an assistance animal, to get a housing
accommodation, an offence, but only where a written or verbal warning came
first, and that warning is an element rather than a formality. It has been a
class 2 civil infraction since March 1, 2022, carrying $25 for a first, $50 to
$200 for a second, and $100 to $500 after that. A written finding made under
C.R.S. § 12-240-144(1)(a) or § 12-245-229(1)(a) is an affirmative defence, and
lacking one is expressly not proof of the offence.

## Pet money, and the objection about the insurer

C.R.S. § 38-12-106 has fixed the price of a pet in Colorado since January 1,
2024: additional deposit no higher than $300 and refundable, additional rent no
higher than $35 a month or 1.5% of the monthly rent, whichever is *greater*.
Read that word: the cap takes the larger figure, so a higher rent lifts the
pet-rent ceiling rather than lowering it.

None of it is meant for an assistance animal. An approved one is not a pet, and
dropping the charge is the exception C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) describes.

Breed objections usually arrive dressed as insurance. That answer expired on
January 1, 2024: C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8(16) stops a carrier denying a
homeowner's or dwelling fire policy, or charging more for one, over a dog's
breed, and limits its breed questions to whether the dog has been declared
dangerous. Damage objections meet C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(a)(III), which from
August 12 provides that the mere presence of an assistance animal is neither
a direct threat to health or safety nor presumed to cause substantial
physical damage to others' property. A landlord may still weigh documented,
specific conduct by your animal. Reputation is not conduct.

## The deposit, once you hand back the keys

C.R.S. § 38-12-103, rewritten with effect from January 1, 2026, tilted the
field. The deposit returns within 30 days, or up to 60 where the lease says so.
Only four things may come out: unpaid rent, unpaid utilities, other lawful
charges the lease itself names, and repair of damage past normal wear and tear
that was not already there when you moved in.

Proof is the landlord's problem now: they carry the burden on both whether a
withholding was wrongful and what the actual damages were, and keeping 125%
or more of those damages is presumed to exceed them unreasonably. Carpet may
not be treated as substantially and irreparably damaged unless it was replaced
with new carpet within the preceding ten years, under subsection (11)(c). Ask
for a walk-through under subsection (1.5), and ask in writing for the
photographs, receipts, invoices or estimates subsection (8) requires within 14
days. Give seven days' written notice of intent to sue and a wrongful retention
carries treble damages, attorney fees and costs.

## The local help splits at the county line

Start at the city's housing resources page: it does the sorting and hands you
out to the county authorities rather than pretending to be one.
Maiker Housing Partners is the Adams County housing authority, and it is
headquartered in Westminster. The county body sits inside the city that
has none of its own.

Free legal help ignores the split. Colorado Legal Services covers Adams and
Jefferson alike from its Denver office at 1560 Broadway, Suite 1100, on
303-837-1313. Its in-person eviction clinics do not: help comes only at the
courthouse named on your summons, on your court date. The Adams County
clinic runs Wednesday and Friday, 8 to 11 a.m., at the Justice Center, 1100
Judicial Center Drive in Brighton. No Jefferson County clinic appears on that
list, so a Westminster tenant on the Jefferson side works through the Denver
office instead. Before a case exists, Colorado Housing Connects runs a
bilingual statewide line on 844-926-6632, operated by Brothers Redevelopment
since 2014.

## The complaint route that does not split

The Denver Metro Fair Housing Center says it is active in seven
counties: Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson,
which covers all of Westminster, whichever half you rent in.

A charge goes to the Colorado Civil Rights Division on 303-894-2997, or
720-432-4294 in Spanish. C.R.S. § 24-34-504(1) gives one year from the unfair
housing practice, and the Division says it cannot extend that even for good
cause. One trap: intake through CaseConnect is not a filed charge, since the
charge is drafted and signed afterwards. Most housing matters are then
dual-filed with HUD under a state and a federal number, because the Division is
a HUD-certified Fair Housing Assistance Program agency.

Colorado has run a statewide fair housing law since 1959, the first in the
nation and nine years ahead of the federal Act. County lines have never been
part of it.

## What Westminster 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 Westminster

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

- [City of Westminster, Housing Resources](https://www.westminsterco.gov/1038/Housing-Resources) (city agency)
- [Maiker Housing Partners (Adams County housing authority)](https://maikerhp.org/) (housing authority)
- [Denver Metro Fair Housing Center](https://www.dmfhc.org/) (fair housing)
- [Colorado Legal Services](https://www.coloradolegalservices.org/get-help/) (legal aid)
- [Colorado Civil Rights Division, Housing Discrimination](https://ccrd.colorado.gov/housing-discrimination) (state agency)
- [Colorado Housing Connects](https://coloradohousingconnects.org/) (tenant help)

## Frequently asked questions

### Why does it matter whether I rent on the Adams or the Jefferson side of Westminster?

It matters for services, not for rights. Westminster straddles both counties, and the city says it is not a direct provider of housing, so it partners with the housing authority in each one. Maiker Housing Partners is the Adams County authority and is headquartered in Westminster. Colorado Legal Services covers Adams and Jefferson alike from its Denver office at 1560 Broadway, Suite 1100, on 303-837-1313, but its in-person eviction clinics are courthouse-based: the Adams County clinic runs Wednesday and Friday from 8 to 11 a.m. at 1100 Judicial Center Drive in Brighton, and no Jefferson County clinic appears on its list. Your accommodation rights under C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b) are identical on both sides.

### Does Westminster run its own fair housing office or its own deadline?

No. The city's own housing resources page describes Westminster as a partner to the county housing authorities rather than a housing provider, and there is no separate city filing window. A housing discrimination charge goes to the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and C.R.S. § 24-34-504(1) gives you one year from the unfair housing practice before the claim is barred. The Division states that it cannot extend that deadline even for good cause, so the calendar is the same whichever county your address falls in.

### Is Maiker Housing Partners where I take a complaint about my landlord?

Maiker Housing Partners is the Adams County housing authority and it is based in Westminster, which makes it the right door for county housing programmes on that side of the line. A discrimination charge is different: that goes to the Colorado Civil Rights Division on 303-894-2997, or 720-432-4294 in Spanish. For fair housing questions, the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center says it is active in seven counties (Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson), which takes in every part of Westminster.

### My Westminster lease says no pets at all. Where does that leave my ESA?

An assistance animal is not a pet, and the lease clause is a rule the accommodation can carve into. 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. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(A) presumes that permitting an assistance animal in housing is reasonable, provided the housing provider was given an opportunity to engage in an interactive accommodation process, and C.R.S. § 24-34-502.2(2)(b)(II)(B) presumes that a complete prohibition is discriminatory. Ask in writing, before the animal moves in, so the presumption is available to you.

### Can a Westminster landlord charge me pet rent or a pet deposit for an assistance animal?

Not for an approved one. Those charges exist because an animal lives in the unit, and waiving them is the exception to a policy that C.R.S. § 24-34-501(3.5) contemplates. The caps in C.R.S. § 38-12-106 are written for actual pets. A pet deposit stops at $300, and the landlord has to give it back. Pet rent stops at $35 a month, or at 1.5% of your monthly rent where that comes to more. Note the direction of that cap. It takes the larger of the two figures, so a higher rent raises the pet-rent ceiling rather than lowering it.

### My landlord says the insurance policy on the house bans my dog's breed. Is that allowed?

The insurer is not allowed to do what the landlord is describing. C.R.S. § 10-4-110.8(16) has closed that route since January 1, 2024: no insurer may turn down a homeowner's or dwelling fire policy over a dog's breed, or add a surcharge for it, and breed is off the list of questions except whether the dog has been declared dangerous. Damage is the landlord's other line, and C.R.S. § 24-34-502(1)(a)(III) refuses two conclusions from August 12, 2026: that an assistance animal's mere presence endangers health or safety, and that it should be presumed to do substantial physical damage to property belonging to other people. Documented, specific conduct by your dog may still be weighed, on the Adams side and the Jefferson side alike.

### Who can write the documentation, and can it be done over video?

That depends on the profession, and Westminster renters get this wrong in both directions. Under C.R.S. § 12-245-229(3)(a) a mental health licensee (psychologist, counsellor, social worker, or marriage and family therapist), cannot make the finding unless they have met you in person. Under C.R.S. § 12-240-144(3)(a) a physician may meet you in person or by telemedicine. Whoever signs must know you well enough, must be legally and professionally qualified, and must set down two findings in writing: one that you have a disability, and a separate one on the disability-related need. That written finding is also an affirmative defence under C.R.S. § 18-13-107.3, and its absence is expressly not proof of the offence.

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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%2Fwestminster