# ESA Letter in Evanston: The Deposit Cap Is the City's, Not the

> Evanston caps move-in money at 1.5 months and blocks renamed fees. Its own code, section 5-5-6(W), carries your emotional support animal. Here is how both work.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 76,006
- Households renting: 43.8%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Capped: 1.5 months' rent
- 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)

## Nearly half of Evanston rents, and Northwestern is why

Evanston has 31,705 occupied homes, and 13,898 of them are rented. That is a
**43.8%** renter share in a city of 76,006 people. Northwestern University sits
inside that number. The campus drives a large student rental market, and it
pushes Evanston far past the towns around it. Skokie rents at 25.3%. Des
Plaines rents at 21.7%. The statewide figure is 32.9%.

If you keep an emotional support animal in an Evanston apartment, three
rulebooks touch you at once: the city's fair housing chapter, the city's
landlord and tenant chapter, and the Illinois Human Rights Act. Two of the
three are Evanston's own.

## The accommodation duty sits in Evanston's own code

Section 5-5-6(W) of the City Code is headed "Discrimination Due to a
Disability." Paragraph (b) makes it discrimination 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

Read the list again: rules, policies, practices or services. A no-pets
clause is a rule. A weight ceiling is a rule. The monthly pet charge built
into the online application is a policy. The ask is narrow: bend one rule,
because bending it is what lets you use your home the way other tenants use
theirs. State law says the same at 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2) and federal law
at 24 C.F.R. § 100.204. Evanston stacks a third source on both.

## A safety worry has to survive one question

The definitions section, § 5-5-5, hides the strongest sentence in the chapter.
Where the person involved is a person with a disability, a "demonstrable risk"
has to rest on two things: objective evidence, and a conclusion that the risk
"cannot be reduced or eliminated by a reasonable accommodation."

That gives you a two-part reply to a landlord who calls your animal
dangerous. First, what is the objective evidence? Not the breed name, not
the number on a weight schedule, not a story about someone else's dog.
Second, even if there is a real risk, could an arrangement fix it, quieter
hours in the elevator, a leash rule you put in writing? Under the city's own
definition, the worry only counts when both answers go the landlord's way.
Section 5-5-5 also defines disability on the three-part federal model, so a
mental-health condition is plainly inside it.

## Cook County's cap does not reach you. Evanston's does.

Most suburban Cook County tenants live under the county's landlord-tenant
ordinance. Evanston tenants do not. That ordinance steps aside for towns that
keep their own tenant and landlord regulations, at Cook County Code
§ 42-101(d), and Evanston keeps an entire chapter of them.

Your rule is § 5-3-5-1(A), rewritten by Ordinance 52-O-24, adopted on July 22,
2024 and effective January 1, 2025. A security deposit **plus** any prepaid
rent may not exceed **one and a half months' rent**. Whatever sits above one
month is payable in up to **six installments**, and the choice to use them is
yours, not the landlord's. The landlord must itemise and return within **21
days**, and getting that wrong costs double damages plus fees.

## Renaming the money does not work here

The sharpest line in § 5-3-5-1(A) is the anti-dodge clause. A housing provider
"may not avoid the coverage of this Subsection by labeling the fee or charge as
anything other than a security deposit."

That is why a pet deposit is not extra money here: it comes out of the same one
and a half months as everything else you pay at move-in. Search the whole
landlord and tenant chapter for "pet" or "animal" and you find nothing — zero
hits across 67,548 characters. The cap is the entire rule.

For an approved assistance animal, though, the cap is not your argument.
Charging you for the animal is refusing the accommodation that § 5-5-6(W)(b)
requires, and 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1) states outright that a landlord "may not
increase for persons with a disability any customarily required security
deposit." Monthly pet rent is separate: the city's ceiling governs move-in
money, and no Illinois statute caps a monthly charge. What removes that line is
the accommodation, not a number.

## There is no complaint desk at the Civic Center

This surprises tenants who move up from Chicago. Evanston has a fair housing
ordinance and no city agency that will investigate your complaint. The City's
own fair housing analysis says the Human Relations Commission "no longer
actively investigates complaints," and that the City "refers any complaints it
receives to Open Communities," the HUD fair housing agency covering the north
suburbs.

What the ordinance hands you instead is a courtroom. Section 5-5-11, "Private
Remedies," lets you sue, and a court may award compensatory **and punitive**
damages plus attorney's fees. Section 5-5-12 lets the Corporation Counsel bring
a pattern-or-practice case in Circuit Court. Section 5-5-13 sets fines of $100
to $500 per offense, with every day counted as a separate offense. Both remedy
sections came from Ordinance 79-O-22, effective October 10, 2022. There is no
intake window to miss, because there is no intake.

## The deadlines that do apply to you

Since the city runs no clock, the clocks that matter are the state's.

Under 775 ILCS 5/7B-102(A)(1), a housing charge is due at the Illinois
Department of Human Rights within **one year** of the violation happening or
ending. Investigation is meant to wrap up in 100 days, and the
statute twice makes clear that an overrun leaves the Department's jurisdiction
intact. A dismissal can be sent on to the Human Rights Commission, and that
request carries its own 90-day limit.

The court route is wider. 775 ILCS 5/10-102(A)(1) allows **two years**,
either party can insist on a **jury**, and paragraph (A)(3) drops any
requirement to have visited the Department first. 775 ILCS 5/8B-104 sets
what such a case can win: your actual damages, the fees of your attorney and
of any expert witness, and civil penalties climbing to $16,000, $42,500 or
$70,000. Retaliation is unlawful on its own. 775 ILCS 5/3-105.1 covers
coercing, threatening or interfering with anyone who exercises a fair
housing right.

## The section about support dogs is not your section

One Illinois provision looks tailor-made and is a trap. Paragraph (C) of 775
ILCS 5/3-104.1 forbids any extra lease charge except for damage the dog
actually does, precisely the sentence you would want. Then check who is inside
that section: blindness, hearing impairment, or a **physical disability**.
Build a mental-health case on it and your landlord gets a one-line reply. The
accommodation duty is the ground to stand on.

The state's housing discrimination rule is no help either. All eight
sections of 71 Ill. Adm. Code 2300 say nothing about animals. No Illinois or
Evanston office issues an ESA card, licence or certificate, and a landlord
may ignore anything printed off a website. Where your disability and your
need for the animal are not obvious, 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c) lets the
landlord ask for information showing you qualify. A current letter from a
licensed professional who actually treats you is what answers that.

## Move-out, damage, and two clocks

Approval is not a free pass. Damage the animal causes is yours.

Evanston gives you the faster process, itemise or return inside 21 days, or
face double damages and fees. The state's Security Deposit Return Act, 765 ILCS
710/1, is slower: an itemised statement with paid receipts within 30 days of
the later of your leaving or your right of possession ending, the full deposit
back within 45 days if no statement arrives, and twice the deposit plus costs
and attorney's fees where a court finds bad faith or a refusal to itemise.

One change matters whatever size building you rent in. Public Act
103-224, effective January 1, 2024, struck the words "containing 5 or more
units" from that Act, so it now reaches every Illinois residential landlord.
Deposit interest is different: under 765 ILCS 715/1 it is still owed only in
buildings of 25 or more units, or a contiguous complex that size.

## Getting help without leaving town

Open Communities is headquartered in Evanston, at 1740 Ridge Avenue, Suite
117, and serves the north and northwest suburbs of Cook County. It is
HUD-certified for housing counselling, and it runs fair housing testing and
investigations. One limit to understand up front: the agency does **not**
act as your lawyer and does not run formal mediation. It helps you get a
complaint filed and hands you on to legal help.

That help starts with Legal Aid Chicago, whose free civil practice reaches
every part of Cook County, and with Cook County Legal Aid for Housing and Debt,
which is built for this exact category of dispute. And if the real fight is
over whether your
disability is being believed at all, Equip for Equality is the state's
protection and advocacy organisation for people with disabilities.

## What Evanston 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 Evanston

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

- [Open Communities](https://www.open-communities.org/) (fair housing)
- [Legal Aid Chicago](https://legalaidchicago.org/) (legal aid)
- [Cook County Legal Aid for Housing & Debt](https://www.cookcountylegalaid.org/) (legal aid)
- [Equip for Equality](https://www.equipforequality.org/) (disability rights)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Evanston have its own rule protecting an emotional support animal?

Evanston has its own accommodation duty, which is close to the same thing. City Code § 5-5-6(W), headed Discrimination Due to a Disability, makes it discrimination to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when necessary to give a person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. A no-pets clause is a rule. The city text does not name animals, and neither does 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(2), the state provision that does the same work.

### Can an Evanston landlord charge a pet deposit for my assistance animal?

Not as the price of the accommodation, because charging for the animal is refusing it under § 5-5-6(W)(b), and 775 ILCS 5/3-102.1(C)(1) says a landlord may not increase a customarily required security deposit for a person with a disability. Worth knowing anyway: in Evanston a pet deposit is not extra money on top. Section 5-3-5-1(A) caps deposit plus prepaid rent at one and a half months' rent, and a charge cannot be renamed to escape that cap.

### Does Cook County's tenant ordinance apply to my Evanston apartment?

No. The county ordinance excludes municipalities that maintain their own landlord-tenant regulations at Cook County Code § 42-101(d), and Evanston maintains a full chapter of them in City Code Title 5, Chapter 3. The rule on your deposit is Evanston's own: one and a half months' rent including prepaid rent, installments available on the amount above one month, itemisation and return within 21 days, and double damages plus fees for a violation.

### Where do I complain if an Evanston landlord refuses my ESA?

Not at the Civic Center. The City's own fair housing analysis records that the Human Relations Commission no longer actively investigates complaints and that the City refers complaints to Open Communities. The ordinance instead gives you court: § 5-5-11 allows a private suit with compensatory and punitive damages and attorney's fees. You can also file a state housing charge with the Illinois Department of Human Rights within one year, or sue in circuit court within two.

### My landlord says my dog looks dangerous. What does Evanston's code require?

More than a hunch. Section 5-5-5 says that where the person is a person with a disability, a demonstrable risk must rest on objective evidence and on a conclusion that the risk cannot be reduced or eliminated by a reasonable accommodation. That is a two-part test: what is the actual evidence about this animal, and could a workable arrangement fix the problem? A breed name or a weight on a schedule answers neither question.

### How fast must an Evanston landlord return my security deposit?

Faster than state law requires. Evanston's § 5-3-5-1(A) sets 21 days for itemisation and return, with double damages plus fees for a violation. The Illinois Security Deposit Return Act, 765 ILCS 710/1, allows 30 days for an itemised statement with paid receipts and 45 days for a full refund if no statement comes. Since Public Act 103-224 took effect on January 1, 2024, that state Act covers every Illinois residential landlord, not only buildings of five or more units.

### Do I need a certificate to keep an ESA in a Northwestern-area rental?

No such document exists in Illinois law or in Evanston's code, and a landlord may ignore anything bought from a website. Where your disability and your need for the animal are not obvious, 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c) lets a landlord ask for information showing you qualify. A current letter from a licensed professional who actually treats you is what answers that question, and it is what turns a request into one the ordinance 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%2Fevanston