ESA Letters · Delaware
Get an ESA Letter in Delaware
Delaware wrote the sentence you are searching for and gave it to a different animal: 25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(3) forbids a pet deposit for a “duly certified and trained support animal,” and § 5141(38) defines that term as one “individually trained to do work or perform tasks.”
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State statutes cited
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What your Delaware letter stops, and what stays
With a valid letter
- 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)
- 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
- 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)
- 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)
Still applies
- 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."
- 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)
- 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)
- 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
- 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
The Delaware rule: read § 5141(38) before you rely on § 5514(i)(3)
The definition three sections away illustrates itself with protection work, rescue work, pulling a wheelchair and retrieving dropped items, a register an animal that helps by its presence never enters. Relief comes instead from 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2), whose chapter never uses the word animal at all, which is exactly why it reaches yours: a duty written about rules and policies has no species gate to argue over. And § 4601(b) instructs that the chapter be read liberally, naming the accommodation duty as it does so.
The law behind the letter
Every claim on this page traces to a primary source. The ones doing the work in Delaware:
- 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2)
- 6 Del. C. § 4601(b)
- 25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(3) and § 5141(38)
- 6 Del. C. § 4603(b)(2)
What pet charges actually look like in Delaware
Typical figures from our 20 Delaware city guides. Every one of these charges falls to $0 once a valid letter is on file.
| City | Monthly pet rent | Pet deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Wilmington | $25-$50/mo for pets | Barred as accommodation |
| Dover | $25-$50/mo for pets | Barred as accommodation |
| Newark | $35-$60/mo for pets | Barred as accommodation |
| Middletown | $35-$60/mo for pets | Barred as accommodation |
| Milford | $25-$40/mo for pets | Barred as accommodation |
Three steps to your Delaware letter
Check that you qualify
Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Delaware. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front.
About 5 minutes: free
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
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
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
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 Delaware.
Protection under FHA + state law
About “ESA registration” in Delaware
Delaware needs a different myth-busting answer from every other state, because Delaware's own statute uses the word. 25 Del. C. § 5514(i)(3) bars a pet deposit for a "duly certified and trained support animal", and nowhere in Title 25 Part III, or anywhere else in the Delaware Code, is there a certifying authority, a registry, an issuing body or a standard that says what "certified" means. The word appears in the operative sentence with nothing behind it. So the certificate a reader is tempted to buy would not satisfy § 5514(i)(3) even on the subsection's own terms, and § 5514(i)(3) is not the route to fee relief in any event: 25 Del. C. § 5141(38) confines "support animal" to an animal "individually trained to do work or perform tasks," which an emotional support animal is not. Fee relief runs through 6 Del. C. § 4603A(a)(2) and § 4603(b)(2) instead: a duty phrased in terms of rules and policies, which asks for a disability and a nexus rather than a card. And the Delaware Fair Housing Act contains the word "animal" nowhere at all, so there is no state list an animal could be enrolled on.
Delaware ESA letter FAQs
Who issues the Delaware certification the deposit statute mentions?
Nobody. The word “certified” sits in § 5514(i)(3) with no authority, registry or standard named anywhere in Title 25 Part III. A bought certificate would fail the subsection on its own terms even before the training definition ruled it out.
How much can a Wilmington or Dover landlord hold in deposits?
For an ordinary pet, two months’ rent: the ceilings stack, because § 5141(33) defines the security deposit as “exclusive of a pet deposit.” For an animal a required accommodation puts in the unit, the pet half should not be charged at all.
Which Delaware deadline applies to me?
Whichever forum you pick: one year to the Division of Human and Civil Rights, two years for a civil action, and each also runs from when the practice was discovered or reasonably should have been, which is unusual and often decisive.
Is an online ESA letter valid in Delaware?
Yes. Delaware layers its own fair housing law on top of the federal Fair Housing Act, and neither requires an in-person visit, what both require is a real evaluation by a provider licensed for Delaware. A telehealth evaluation that ends in a signed letter meets that standard; a questionnaire that ends in a PDF does not.
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