# ESA Letter in Dover, DE: The Sentence That Looks Like Yours

> An ESA letter in Dover runs into 25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(3), a pet-deposit bar that says 'support animal' and, two chapters back, means a trained one.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/delaware-emotional-support-animal/dover/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-05
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 40,191
- Households renting: 53.1%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$50/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## A statute that answers the question, in the wrong direction

Search for a Delaware pet-deposit rule and you land on one sentence. It is
real, it is current, and it uses the exact words you were looking for.

**25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(3)**, pet deposits:

> "A landlord may require an additional deposit from a tenant with a pet, but **shall not require
> any pet deposit from a tenant if the pet is a duly certified and trained support animal for a
> disabled person who is a resident of the rental unit.**"

A Dover renter reads that and reasonably concludes the argument is over. No
pet deposit. Support animal. Disabled person. Resident of the unit. Every
box ticked.

It is not over, and the reason sits in a different chapter of the same Part.

## The definition that was never going to fit

Part III of Title 25 keeps its definitions in **25 Del. C. § 5141**, and the section opens "For
purposes of Part III of this title", which is to say, for § 5514 as well.

> "(38) '**Support animal**' shall mean **any animal individually trained to do work or perform
> tasks to meet the requirements of a disabled person**, including, but not limited to, minimal
> protection work, rescue work, pulling a wheelchair or retrieving dropped items."

Read the illustrations. Protection work. Rescue work. Pulling a wheelchair.
Retrieving dropped items. That is a register of physical, taught behaviours,
and the operative words in front of them are **individually trained to do
work or perform tasks**.

An emotional support animal helps by being present. Presence is not work and
it is not a task. The definition was written around a different animal, and
it governs every appearance of the phrase in § 5514.

This is worth saying flatly, because the alternative is finding it out at a
leasing office with a lease already in front of you. **There is no Delaware
statute that bars a pet deposit for an emotional support animal.** The
sentence that looks like one belongs to somebody else.

## And then a second condition, with nothing behind it

Look again at § 5514(i)(3) and notice that it asks for more than the definition does. The animal
must be "**duly certified and trained.**" Two requirements, joined by *and*.

Here is the drafting gap. **Nothing in the Delaware Code says who
certifies.** No registry, no issuing body, no approved standard, no agency
named anywhere in Part III. The word sits in the operative sentence with
nothing underneath it.

That cuts in one direction only, and it is not the direction the certificate
sellers suggest. A document bought online does not make an animal "duly
certified" for the purposes of a statute that names no certifier, and even a
tenant who somehow satisfied that half of the sentence would still have to
satisfy the other half, which is training to do work or perform tasks.

## The capital, and 8,198 households that rent

Dover has **8,198 renting households** of 15,428 occupied homes: **53.1
percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate, the
second-highest renter share among Delaware's twenty largest places, behind
Laurel's 60.4 percent. It is also the second-largest number of renting
households in the state after Wilmington.

Median gross rent is **$1,344**. The 2024 Census estimate puts the city at
40,191 people, second in Delaware.

A capital city rents like that for reasons that stack: state government
employment and Delaware State University share the same rental stock. A
market that turns over on a legislative and academic rhythm signs a great
many new leases every year, and every new lease is a fresh chance for a pet
deposit to appear on a schedule of charges.

At a $1,344 median, the pet deposit § 5514(i)(2) permits (up to one month's rent, "regardless of
the duration of the rental agreement") is roughly $1,344 of exposure, and it sits alongside the
separate security deposit rather than inside it.

## Where the charge actually comes off

Not from Title 25. From the Fair Housing Act in Title 6.

**6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2)** makes disability discrimination include "a refusal to make reasonable
accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services, when such accommodations may be
necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." That is the right
to have the animal at all, and it turns on no training and no species.

**6 Del. C. § 4603(b)(2)** does the money half. It is unlawful "to discriminate against any
person in the **terms, conditions, or privileges** of sale or rental of a dwelling … because of …
**disability**."

The reasoning is short enough to write on one line and worth writing out
anyway. The animal is in the unit because a required accommodation put it
there. A charge attached to that animal is a term of the rental imposed
because of the disability. § 4603(b)(2) makes that unlawful, and 42 U.S.C. §
3604(f)(3)(B) supplies the same result under federal law.

Notice the difference in kind. § 5514(i)(3) is a sentence you point at. §
4603A(a)(2) is an argument you make, and an argument's first step has to be
a fact.

## Which document the real route needs

The first step is not a certificate. It is a finding that you have a
disability, and a second finding that this accommodation may be necessary
because of it.

Delaware's own civil rights agency describes the paperwork without ever mentioning an animal. Its
reasonable-accommodation guidance says documentation should come "**from a health professional or
other person who can establish that the person has a disability and explain the nexus between the
disability and the accommodation request**," and that while no particular form or wording is
required, "**it is best to make a request for a reasonable accommodation in writing.**"

Two verbs in that sentence do the work: *establish* and *explain*. Both are
things a licensed professional does after assessing someone. Neither is
something a PDF with a seal on it can do.

Start with a clinician who already treats you, if you have one. It costs
nothing extra and the relationship is the strongest thing a letter can rest
on. Be ready for the ordinary obstacles: many practices decline as policy to
write housing findings, some will not put a nexus opinion in writing after a
short course of treatment, and Kent County's supply of independent practices
is thin enough that a first appointment is often measured in months rather
than weeks.

Where that door is closed, a licensed evaluation is the same assessment
arranged on purpose: someone licensed decides whether the disability is
there and whether this animal answers it, then documents the conclusion, or
declines to. An evaluation that could only ever end one way is not an
evaluation, and the fact that it can end in *no* is exactly what makes the
yes worth anything.

Delaware wrote you a sentence with your words in it and gave it to a trained
working animal. What it left you is better than it looks, and it starts with
a finding rather than a certificate.

## What Dover landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2).
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental, or in the services and facilities provided with it: 6 Del. C. § 4603(b)(2). This is where a charge attached to a required animal is met.
- May not require a security deposit above one month's rent where the agreement runs a year or more, or on a month-to-month tenancy once it has lasted a year, 25 Del. C. § 5514(a)(2)–(3), and those limits do not apply to furnished units at all, § 5514(a)(4).
- May not inquire whether an applicant for a dwelling has a disability, or as to its nature or severity, except by inquiries made of all applicants alike: 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(4).

**Can:**
- May require a pet deposit, capped at one month's rent regardless of the length of the agreement, 25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(2), but that deposit is a separate and additive ceiling from the security deposit, which § 5141(33) defines as "exclusive of a pet deposit."
- Must remit the deposit and provide an itemized list of damages within twenty days of the end of the tenancy; failure to itemize is an acknowledgment that no payment for damages is due, and failure to remit entitles the tenant to double the amount wrongfully withheld, 25 Del. C. § 5514(e)–(g).
- May charge an application fee of no more than the greater of 10 percent of the monthly rent or $50, on pain of double damages, 25 Del. C. § 5514(d).
- May decline where the tenancy would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of others, or would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others, 6 Del. C. §§ 4603(c) and 4603A(f). The assessment is individualised.
- Is outside the state accommodation duty only in the case 6 Del. C. § 4607(e) describes: a dwelling of no more than four families where the owner occupies one of them. Discriminatory advertising under § 4603(b)(3) remains unlawful even there, and the federal Fair Housing Act runs its own exemptions on its own terms.

## How to get an ESA letter in Dover

1. **Check that you qualify**, Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Dover. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes: free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional**, You are matched with a provider licensed for Delaware 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 Delaware 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 Dover. (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 Dover

- [City of Dover](https://www.cityofdover.gov/) (city government)
- [Dover Housing Authority](https://www.dhade.org/) (local housing authority)
- [Community Legal Aid Society (CLASI), Kent County office](https://www.declasi.org/contact-us/) (legal aid)
- [Fair Housing Information Center, Division of Human and Civil Rights](https://humanandcivilrights.delaware.gov/fair-housing-information-center/) (fair housing)
- [Kent County Levy Court](https://www.kentcountyde.gov/) (county government)

## Frequently asked questions

### I found 25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(3) and it says no pet deposit for a support animal. Why does it not cover my ESA?

Because the phrase is a defined term. 25 Del. C. § 5141 applies its definitions across Part III of Title 25, and § 5141(38) limits a support animal to one individually trained to do work or perform tasks, illustrated by minimal protection work, rescue work, pulling a wheelchair and retrieving dropped items. An animal that helps by being present is not described by any of that.

### The subsection also says "duly certified." Certified by whom in Delaware?

By nobody the Code identifies. The word sits in the operative sentence with no registry, no issuing body, no approved standard and no agency named anywhere in Part III of Title 25. That is a genuine drafting gap, and it does not help a purchased certificate: a document from a private seller cannot make an animal duly certified under a statute that names no certifier, and the same sentence still requires training on top.

### My landlord already took a pet deposit before I made a request. What happens to it?

Whether it must come off is the accommodation question, argued under 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2) and § 4603(b)(2) rather than under the deposit statute, and no retrieved Delaware decision settles it. Separately, § 5514(i)(1) subjects a pet deposit to the same handling rules as a security deposit, including the twenty-day return and itemisation duties in § 5514(e)-(g).

### How much can a Dover landlord hold in deposits altogether?

Up to two months' rent in the ordinary case. The security deposit ceiling of one month's rent applies where the agreement runs a year or more, and the pet deposit carries its own separate ceiling of one month's rent regardless of the term, because § 5141(33) defines a security deposit as exclusive of a pet deposit. At Dover's $1,344 median gross rent that is roughly $2,688 before the first month's rent.

### My lease says no animals and I signed it. Does that end the conversation?

No. A no-animals clause is a rule, and 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2) is about accommodations in rules: the request asks for an exception, not for the clause to be void. Delaware also conditions rules generally: 25 Del. C. § 5511(a) makes a landlord's rules binding only where they meet six cumulative conditions, including being reasonably related to their purpose and applied to all tenants fairly.

### Does Dover being the state capital give me a local office to deal with?

Yes for the state agency. The Division of Human and Civil Rights keeps its Kent County office at 861 Silver Lake Boulevard in Dover. The city also has its own public housing authority, the Dover Housing Authority on Stevenson Drive. One of only three public housing authorities in Delaware with a web presence, alongside the Wilmington Housing Authority and the statewide Delaware State Housing Authority.

### What should the documentation I bring actually establish?

Two things, and neither of them is training. That a disability exists, and that there is a connection between it and the accommodation being asked for. The Division of Human and Civil Rights describes documentation as coming from a health professional or other person who can establish the disability and explain that nexus, and advises putting the request in writing even though no particular form or wording is required.

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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=delaware-emotional-support-animal%2Fdover