# ESA Letter in Middletown, DE: Where Half the Law Switches Off

> An ESA letter in Middletown meets 6 Del. C. § 4607(e): in a four-family building where the owner lives, Delaware's accommodation duty stops applying.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 25,686
- Households renting: 23.2%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $35-$60/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## An owner-occupied duplex is a different legal country

Almost every account of Delaware housing law describes one set of rules and
leaves the impression they apply everywhere in the state. They do not. There
is a category of building where the Delaware reasonable-accommodation duty
is simply switched off, and the switch is one subsection long.

Middletown is a town of **25,686** on the 2024 Census estimate:
fourth-largest municipality in Delaware, governed by a town council, in New
Castle County. **2,094** of its 9,013 occupied homes are rented, **23.2
percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate, so
this is a place where most people own. The ACS five-year estimate puts
median gross rent at $1,583, though the margin on a rental sample this size
is wide enough that the figure is best read as an estimate rather than a
settled number.

Rented homes in a town like this run from purpose-built apartment blocks to
the upstairs of a house whose owner lives downstairs. That last category is
the one § 4607(e) is written about, and a tenant in it is standing on
different law from a tenant across the street.

## The subsection that turns it off

**6 Del. C. § 4607(e)**, exemptions in certain situations:

> "Nothing in **§ 4603 of this title, except paragraph (b)(3) thereof, or in § 4603A of this
> title**, shall apply to rentals of rooms or units in dwellings containing living quarters
> occupied or intended to be occupied by **no more than 4 families living independently of each
> other, if the owner actually maintains and occupies 1 of such living quarters as that owner's
> residence.**"

Read the list of what is exempted. § 4603, the main discrimination section. And **§ 4603A**,
named expressly. § 4603A is the section that makes disability discrimination include "a refusal to
make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services."

So the exemption does not merely trim the edges of Delaware's fair housing
law inside these buildings. **It reaches the accommodation duty itself.** A
tenant who assumes the state duty is always there has assumed something §
4607(e) contradicts in one sentence.

## What the sentence actually describes

Two conditions, both of which must be met, and both of which are about the
building rather than the landlord's size or intentions.

**No more than four families.** The test counts living quarters "occupied or intended to be
occupied by no more than 4 families living independently of each other." A house divided into
three flats qualifies on that limb. A twelve-unit apartment building does not, and neither does a
complex that happens to have an on-site manager in one of the units.

**The owner actually occupies one of them as a residence.** Not owns it, not visits it, occupies
it as that owner's residence. An investor who lives elsewhere is outside the exemption no matter
how few units the building holds.

If your building fails either limb, § 4603A applies to your tenancy in the ordinary way, and the
question becomes whether your accommodation "may be necessary to afford such person equal
opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling."

## What still applies inside it

One thing, and it is narrow. The exemption carves out "**paragraph (b)(3)**" of § 4603, the
prohibition on discriminatory advertising, so a landlord within § 4607(e) may not publish a
discriminatory notice or advertisement even while the rest of § 4603 and all of § 4603A do not
reach them.

One more point of housekeeping, because anyone who reads the chapter will
hit it. **§ 4607 is printed twice in the Delaware Code**, once marked
effective until 31 December 2028 and once effective from that date. The two
versions were compared line by line: **subsection (e) is identical in
both.** The difference is elsewhere, in subsection (j), which deals with
rental vouchers and has nothing to do with disability. Do not rely on one
printing as though it were the only one, but on this point the two say the
same thing.

There is also a separate non-discrimination sentence inside the Landlord-Tenant Code itself.
**25 Del. C. § 5116(a)** says no owner or agent "may refuse or decline to rent … by reason of …
**disability** … or any other basis protected under Chapter 46 of Title 6," and § 5116(c) lets the
tenant recover damages, "including reasonable expenditures necessary to obtain adequate substitute
housing." Whether § 4607(e)'s exemption touches that provision is not something any retrieved
Delaware decision answers, and this page will not guess. It is worth raising with a lawyer if your
building is inside the exemption.

## What to do if your building is inside it

Nothing about § 4607(e) stops a tenant asking. An exempt landlord is free to
say yes, and many do: the exemption removes a legal duty, not the
possibility of agreement. Two practical points follow.

Ask in writing, and keep the reply. A short, dated message setting out the
request and what it is for costs nothing and creates the record that any
later question (with a landlord, an agency or a lawyer) will turn on.
Delaware's own agency notes that no particular form or wording is required
but that a written request is the better practice.

And find out what kind of building you are actually in before you argue
about it. The number of living quarters and whether the owner genuinely
resides in one are facts, not opinions, and they decide which of two very
different legal positions you occupy. A tenant who assumes the exemption
applies and gives up has given up on a guess; a tenant who assumes it does
not and quotes § 4603A at an exempt landlord has quoted a section that does
not reach them.

## The duty Delaware's exemption cannot switch off

Here is the part that changes what a Middletown tenant should do next. §
4607(e) is a provision of Delaware law and it exempts landlords from
sections of Delaware law. It has no power over the federal Fair Housing Act,
which carries its own accommodation duty at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) and
runs its own exemptions on its own terms. Those federal exemptions were not
researched for this page and are not described here, whether a particular
owner-occupied Middletown building falls inside or outside them is a
question for the Division of Human and Civil Rights or for a legal aid
lawyer, and it is worth actually asking rather than assuming.

What does not change either way is the showing. Under any of these routes, the first two things
anyone will want established are the same: that there is a disability, and that there is a
connection between it and the animal you are asking to keep. Delaware's own agency describes that
documentation as coming "**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 it says nothing about certificates, registries or vests, because none of those
establish or explain anything.

If a clinician already treats you, that is the natural first ask, and its
difficulties are practical ones: appointment waits, practices whose policy
is to write no housing documentation, and a clinician who will not make a
nexus finding on a short acquaintance. Middletown sits in New Castle County,
where most of Delaware's specialist capacity is, which shortens the wait
without removing it.

Where that route closes, a licensed evaluation is the same assessment
arranged for the purpose: a licensed professional decides whether a
disability exists and whether this animal answers it, and writes down the
finding, or does not, when the assessment does not support one.

Delaware wrote an exemption that can take half its housing law out of your
building. It cannot take away the finding, and the finding is the part you
actually have to go and get.

## What Middletown 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 Middletown

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

- [Town of Middletown](https://www.middletown.delaware.gov/) (town government)
- [Charter of the Town of Middletown](https://charters.delaware.gov/middletown.html) (ordinance)
- [New Castle County](https://www.newcastlede.gov/) (county government)
- [Fair Housing Information Center, Division of Human and Civil Rights](https://humanandcivilrights.delaware.gov/fair-housing-information-center/) (fair housing)
- [Legal Services Corporation of Delaware, Housing](https://www.lscd.com/topics/401/housing) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### My landlord lives in the same building. Does Delaware's accommodation duty still apply to me?

Possibly not. 6 Del. C. § 4607(e) provides that nothing in § 4603, except paragraph (b)(3), or in § 4603A applies to rentals of rooms or units in dwellings occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than four families living independently of each other, where the owner actually maintains and occupies one of them as a residence. § 4603A is the section carrying the state reasonable-accommodation duty, and the exemption names it expressly.

### How do I work out whether my building is inside that exemption?

Two questions, and both must be answered yes. Does the dwelling contain living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by no more than four families living independently of each other? And does the owner actually maintain and occupy one of those quarters as their own residence? An owner living elsewhere does not qualify however small the building, and a larger building does not qualify however involved the owner is.

### What is still unlawful inside the exemption?

Discriminatory advertising. § 4607(e) carves paragraph (b)(3) of § 4603 out of the exemption, so an exempt landlord may not make, print or publish a discriminatory notice, statement or advertisement even though the rest of § 4603 and the whole of § 4603A do not apply to them. Everything else in those two sections is switched off for that building.

### Does the federal Fair Housing Act have the same exemption?

The federal Act is a separate statute with its own exemptions, applied on their own terms, and § 4607(e) cannot disapply a federal duty. No federal guidance was reviewed for this page, so it does not say how the federal exemptions treat a particular owner-occupied building in Middletown. That is a question worth putting to the Division of Human and Civil Rights or to a legal aid lawyer before assuming an answer either way.

### I found two versions of § 4607 online. Which one governs?

Both are printed in the Delaware Code, one marked effective until 31 December 2028 and one effective from that date, and on this point it does not matter: subsection (e), the owner-occupied exemption, is word for word identical in both. The difference between the versions is in subsection (j), which concerns rental vouchers and has nothing to do with disability.

### Does the Landlord-Tenant Code say anything separate about disability?

Yes. 25 Del. C. § 5116(a) makes it unlawful for an owner or agent to refuse or decline to rent by reason of disability or any other basis protected under Chapter 46 of Title 6, and § 5116(c) lets a tenant recover damages including reasonable expenditures necessary to obtain adequate substitute housing. Whether § 4607(e)'s exemption touches that section is not answered by any Delaware decision retrieved for this page.

### Fewer than one Middletown household in four rents. Does that affect a request?

Not legally. Of 9,013 occupied homes here, 2,094 are rented (23.2 percent, under Delaware's statewide 27.0 percent), so a renter in Middletown is in the minority, and rented homes here range from purpose-built apartments to units inside a house the owner lives in. § 4607(e) turns on which of those describes your building, and the town's totals decide nothing about it.

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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%2Fmiddletown