# ESA Letter in Des Plaines, IL: No City Office, Three Outside Doors

> Des Plaines has no fair housing commission of its own. Here is the state law that protects an emotional support animal, and the three clocks that run on it.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/illinois-emotional-support-animal/des-plaines/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-10
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 58,832
- Households renting: 21.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Varies by building
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Renting in a city where four homes in five are owned

Des Plaines has 22,537 occupied homes. Only 4,892 of them are rented. That
works out to a **21.7%** renter share against **32.9%** for Illinois as a
whole, on the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 five-year estimates. Roughly four
households in five here own the roof over their heads.

The city is also getting slightly smaller: 60,672 residents in 2020, 58,832 in
2024.

Des Plaines sits right up against O'Hare, and the airport shapes local life
enough that the City keeps a standing O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.
That body sits on the City's short list of boards and commissions, and not
one of the eight handles human relations, human rights or fair housing.

For a tenant asking to keep an emotional support animal, that single absence
decides almost everything about how the dispute plays out.

## The Act protects your animal without ever using the word

Your main tool is the Illinois Human Rights Act, and it has one odd feature
worth knowing before you write to your landlord. Search the statute for the
word "animal" and you will not find it.

What it says instead lives at **775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2)**. It is a civil
rights violation to "refuse 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."

Now read your lease with that sentence in mind. A no-pets clause is a rule. A
weight ceiling is a rule. A line adding a monthly animal charge to your
statement is a rule. You are not asking for a favour. You are asking for
one rule to bend so that your home works for you the way other people's homes
work for them.

Illinois defines disability generously. **775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1)** calls it a
determinable physical **or mental** characteristic. For housing, the only extra
condition is that it be unrelated to your ability to rent or keep a home.
Anxiety, depression and PTSD are mental characteristics.

## A neighbouring section that looks perfect and is not

There is a second section tenants find on their own, and it costs them.
**775 ILCS 5/3-104.1** is about refusing to rent to a person with a guide,
hearing or support dog. Its part (C) bans extra lease charges beyond actual
damage the dog does to the premises. Read cold, it looks written for you.

It was not. That section covers a blind person, a hearing impaired person, or a
person with a **physical disability**. If your disability is a mental health
condition and you build your letter on 3-104.1, you have handed your landlord
a clean way to say no.

Stay with 3-102.1(C)(2). Nothing in the accommodation duty narrows it to
physical conditions.

## City Hall will send you somewhere else

The City of Des Plaines publishes a fair housing page, and it is worth reading
before you need it, because it tells you plainly what the City will not do.

The page names no city office to complain to. It sends residents to the
**Illinois Department of Human Rights**, to **HUD** at 312-353-7776 extension
2453 or 1-800-765-9372, to **Open Communities** at 847-501-5760, and to the
**Lawyers Committee for Better Housing** at 312-347-7600. The only law it
identifies as the basis for a complaint is the federal Fair Housing Act.

So build your plan around filing outward. Every door that can actually decide
your complaint belongs to the county, the state or a nonprofit.

## Three clocks start the day you are refused

Your building sits in suburban Cook County, which opens three routes. They
close at very different speeds.

The **Cook County Commission on Human Rights** wants your complaint within
**180 days**, under county code section 42-34(b)(1)a. Six months feels long
until you have spent two of them exchanging polite emails with the office.

The **Illinois Department of Human Rights** allows **one year** from when the
violation was committed or ended, under **775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1)**.

**Circuit court** allows **two years**, under **775 ILCS 5/10-102(A)**. Either
side may demand a jury, and paragraph (3) means you may sue whether or not you
ever filed a charge with the Department.

Put the 180-day date in your calendar the day the refusal lands. It is the one
that quietly expires while you are still being reasonable.

And if the landlord starts leaning on you for asking (pressure to drop it,
sudden trouble over something unrelated, a threat), that is a violation in its
own right under **775 ILCS 5/3-105.1**.

## Nobody in Illinois caps what a landlord may charge

Illinois sets no ceiling on a security deposit, a pet deposit, or pet rent. No
statute, no state agency rule. For an ordinary pet in a Des Plaines rental, the
number is simply whatever the landlord writes down.

That missing ceiling does not weaken an assistance animal request, because a
ceiling was never what protected you. Charging you for the animal is charging
you for the accommodation, and refusing the accommodation is the violation. The
fee collapses for the same reason a flat refusal would.

One sentence in the Act says a piece of this out loud. In the modifications
paragraph at **775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1)**: "The landlord may not increase for
persons with a disability any customarily required security deposit."

## Actual damage, paid receipts, and a rule that grew in 2024

An approved animal is not a free pass. Chewed trim, a ruined carpet. Those are
yours to pay for.

What Illinois controls is how the landlord takes the money. **765 ILCS 710/1**
requires an itemised statement of the damage, backed by paid receipts, within
**30 days**. The clock starts at the later of two moments: you move out, or
your right of possession ends. No statement, and the entire deposit is due back
within **45 days**. Where a circuit court finds the landlord refused to itemise
or acted in bad faith, the award is **double the deposit**, plus court costs
and reasonable attorney's fees.

That law used to have a hole in it. Its text applied only to properties
"containing 5 or more units." **Public Act 103-224 struck those words effective
January 1, 2024.** Every residential landlord in Illinois now falls inside it.
If you rent from an owner with three or four units, a protection arrived for
you two years ago that you never had before.

## When the owner lives in the same building

**775 ILCS 5/3-106** lists exemptions from the Act, and among them are rental
in an owner-occupied building of not more than four families, and rooms let
inside a private home.

Here is the detail almost everyone skips. That section opens with the words
"Nothing contained in Section 3-102 shall prohibit," and every cross-reference
inside it points back at Section 3-102. The accommodation duty is in a
different section, 3-102.1, which 3-106 never names.

No Illinois court decision resolving that gap turned up. So treat it as an
argument worth putting to a lawyer, not as a result you already own. If the
owner downstairs tells you the Act does not touch them, do not simply accept
it, and do not assume you have already won.

## There is no state list, and no card worth buying

No Illinois agency keeps a list of emotional support animals for you to join.
The Human Rights Act mentions no certificate, no vest and no identification
card, because none of those things exists in Illinois law. A Des Plaines
landlord who bins that printout has done nothing wrong.

What actually moves a request forward is documentation from a licensed
professional who has treated you and can explain why the animal is necessary
for your condition. That is what turns "I would like to keep my dog" into the
kind of request 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2) obliges your landlord to engage with.

## Your practical help list, since the City does not have one

Four organisations do the work no Des Plaines office does.

**Open Communities** is the one the City itself names. It is a fair housing
nonprofit for the north and northwest suburbs of Cook County, an area that
includes Des Plaines, reachable at 847-501-5760. Know its limit before you
call: it does not provide legal representation.

**The Cook County Commission on Human Rights** is where the county complaint
goes, and where that 180-day clock is running.

**Legal Aid Chicago** is a free civil legal services provider, a place to
start if you cannot pay for a lawyer.

**Cook County Legal Aid for Housing & Debt** handles housing and debt matters
for Cook County residents.

The City's fair housing page names one more, the Lawyers Committee for Better
Housing, at 312-347-7600.

## What Des Plaines landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services when it may be necessary to give a tenant with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2), which is what a request to waive a no-pets rule for an assistance animal asks for
- Cannot treat a mental-health disability as outside the Act, because 775 ILCS 5/1-103(I)(1) defines disability as a determinable physical or mental characteristic and the housing article adds only that it be unrelated to the person's ability to acquire, rent or maintain a housing accommodation
- Cannot demand that the animal be trained, certified, registered or of a particular species, none of which appears anywhere in the Illinois Human Rights Act. The word "animal" does not appear in the Act at all
- Cannot refuse to rent because of the disability of a person who will live in the unit or of anyone associated with the renter, not only the person signing the lease, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(A)
- Cannot alter the terms, conditions or privileges of a tenancy, or the services and facilities that come with it, because of a disability, under 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(B)
- Cannot increase for a person with a disability any customarily required security deposit, in the express words of 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1)
- Cannot coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant who asks for an accommodation, or who helped someone else ask, under 775 ILCS 5/3-105.1, a separate civil rights violation from refusing the request
- Cannot keep any part of a security deposit for damage without sending an itemised statement with paid receipts within 30 days, or must return the whole deposit within 45 days, under 765 ILCS 710/1: a duty that reaches every Illinois landlord since Public Act 103-224 removed the five-unit threshold on January 1, 2024
- Cannot rely on 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1 to justify a charge, because that section is written for blind, hearing impaired and physically disabled tenants and grants a landlord nothing in any event

**Can:**
- May ask for information establishing the disability and the disability-related need for the animal where neither is obvious, the enquiry 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c) leaves open
- May refuse an accommodation that is not reasonable. One imposing an undue financial or administrative burden, or requiring a fundamental alteration of the landlord's operations
- May hold a tenant liable for damage the animal actually causes, and may recover it from the deposit through the itemised statement 765 ILCS 710/1 requires
- May enforce the ordinary terms of the tenancy against a tenant with an assistance animal: rent, noise, cleanliness and lease conduct rules apply the same way they apply to everyone else
- May set a security deposit at any amount, Illinois capping none, and may charge pet fees and pet rent to tenants generally, since no Illinois statute regulates them, which is exactly why the accommodation, rather than a ceiling, is what removes the charge for an assistance animal

## How to get an ESA letter in Des Plaines

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

- [Open Communities](https://www.open-communities.org/) (fair housing)
- [Cook County Commission on Human Rights](https://www.cookcountyil.gov/agency/commission-human-rights) (county agency)
- [Legal Aid Chicago](https://legalaidchicago.org/) (legal aid)
- [Cook County Legal Aid for Housing & Debt](https://www.cookcountylegalaid.org/) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Des Plaines have a city commission I can complain to about my ESA?

No. The City's boards and commissions are bodies like planning and zoning, youth, fire and police, TIF joint review, the pension funds and O'Hare noise, and not one of them is a human relations, human rights or fair housing body. The City's own fair housing page names no city office either. It points residents to the Illinois Department of Human Rights, HUD, Open Communities and the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing.

### How long do I have to act if my Des Plaines landlord refuses the animal?

Three clocks run at once and the county one is tightest. The Cook County Commission on Human Rights requires the complaint within 180 days under county code section 42-34(b)(1)a. The Illinois Department of Human Rights allows one year under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1). Circuit court allows two years under 775 ILCS 5/10-102(A), with a jury if either side demands one. Diary the 180-day date on the day the refusal arrives.

### Can a Des Plaines landlord charge pet rent for an emotional support animal?

Not as the price of the accommodation. Illinois puts no cap on pet rent or pet deposits, so there is no ceiling to point at and none in Des Plaines either. The reason the charge fails is different: billing you for the animal is refusing the accommodation that 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2) requires. Separately, 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1) bars a landlord from raising a customarily required security deposit for a person with a disability.

### My landlord says the Illinois law only covers guide dogs. Is that true?

That answer comes from reading the wrong section. 775 ILCS 5/3-104.1 does deal with guide, hearing and support dogs, and its part (C) bars extra charges beyond actual damage the dog does, but it reaches only a blind person, a hearing impaired person or a person with a physical disability. The section that protects an emotional support animal is 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2), and it has no physical-disability limit in it.

### I rent from an owner who lives in the same small building. Am I covered?

Do not assume either way. The exemption list at 775 ILCS 5/3-106 does reach an owner-occupied building of not more than four families. But look at how it is drafted: it opens 'Nothing contained in Section 3-102 shall prohibit,' and each exemption underneath is written against that one section. Reasonable accommodation lives one section over, at 3-102.1, a number 3-106 leaves out. We found no Illinois ruling settling the point, so put it to a lawyer instead of counting on it.

### Where do Des Plaines renters get help when the city has no fair housing office?

Open Communities is the fair housing nonprofit the City itself names, covering the north and northwest suburbs of Cook County, which includes Des Plaines, at 847-501-5760, note that it does not provide legal representation. The Cook County Commission on Human Rights takes the county complaint. Legal Aid Chicago is a free civil legal services provider, and Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt covers housing and debt matters for Cook County residents.

### Will an online certificate get my animal approved in a Des Plaines building?

There is no Illinois list of emotional support animals to be added to, and the Human Rights Act mentions no card, vest or certificate anywhere. A Des Plaines landlord may throw that printout away and has done nothing wrong. What carries weight is documentation from a licensed professional who has actually treated you and can explain why the animal is necessary for your condition. That is what makes the request one the Act obliges your landlord to engage with.

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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=illinois-emotional-support-animal%2Fdes-plaines