# ESA Letter in Derby, KS: Four Words in One Subsection

> Rules. Reasonable. May be necessary. Equal opportunity. K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B) is the whole Derby argument, and each word does a job.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 26,604
- Households renting: 31.5%
- 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)

## Wichita's expensive neighbour

Derby has 3,288 renting households out of 10,447 occupied homes, 31.5
percent on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate, a
little under the 32.8 percent Kansas figure and sixteenth of the state's
twenty largest cities by share.

Median gross rent is **$1,136**, seventy-six dollars above the Kansas median
and a hundred and sixty-one dollars above Wichita's $975, five miles up the
road. Newer stock and steady demand around McConnell Air Force Base account
for the gap. The 2024 Census estimate puts the city at 26,604, sixteenth in
Kansas.

A smaller market, newer buildings, professional management. And a single
subsection that decides almost every accommodation request here.

## The subsection

K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B). Discrimination includes:

> "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** residential real property"

That is it. No animal in the sentence. No training standard. No
documentation requirement. No list of licence types. Kansas wrote one test
and left it there.

Four phrases carry the whole thing, and each does a specific job.

## "Rules, policies, practices or services"

This is what the accommodation operates on.

A no-pets clause is a **rule**. A building's animal policy is a **policy**.
The way a leasing office handles requests is a **practice**. Between them
the four words cover essentially anything a landlord does that is not the
physical building.

Which is why the subsection is the right one and the modification provision next door is not.
K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(A) covers "reasonable **modifications of existing premises**": physical
changes, and those come "at the expense of the person with a disability." Your request changes a
rule, not a wall, so (A) and its cost allocation do not apply.

## "Reasonable"

It qualifies the accommodation, and it is a real word.

The request has to be proportionate to what it achieves. Waiving a no-pets clause for a household
animal is the paradigm case — nothing is built, nothing is bought, and the landlord's costs are
unchanged.

Its companion is **K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(7)**, which preserves a refusal where the tenancy "would
constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals" or would result in
"substantial physical damage to the property of others." That is an individualised judgment about
this tenancy, not a category rule, and it is where reasonableness gets tested if it gets tested at
all.

## "May be necessary"

This is the phrase most often over-read, in both directions.

It is **not** "is essential," and it is not a requirement to prove no alternative exists. "May be
necessary" is a lower threshold than either, and it is the same formulation the federal Fair
Housing Act uses at **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)**. The two provisions are deliberately parallel.

It is also **not** nothing. There has to be a connection between the
disability and the accommodation. That connection is a clinical judgment,
not a preference, and it is the part of the sentence that decides real
cases.

## "Equal opportunity to use and enjoy"

The measure, and the reason the request is defensible in a conversation
rather than only in a filing.

The comparison is with the use and enjoyment other tenants have. An accommodation closes a gap the
disability opens; it does not confer an advantage. A Derby leasing manager worried about
"exceptions for some residents" is answered by that framing directly: the exception exists so that
the outcome is the same, not better.

## What comes off, and under which subsection

Not (h)(3)(B). That subsection gets the animal in. The charges come off under **K.S.A.
44-1016(h)(2)**, discrimination in "the terms, conditions or privileges" of the rental because of
disability.

Where a deposit is taken, **K.S.A. 58-2550(a)** authorises the additional half-month "if the rental
agreement permits the tenant to keep or maintain pets in the dwelling unit." An accommodation
animal is not there on permission, so the condition is not satisfied: a textual argument, and
(h)(2) is the reliable one. The unfurnished cap is one month's periodic rent, which at Derby's
$1,136 median is more than in Wichita next door.

## And the section not to cite

**K.S.A. 39-1108** gives a freedom from "an extra charge" in rental housing to a "service dog,
specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose": pulling a wheelchair, opening doors,
picking up objects. It is the first result a Kansas search returns and it does not reach an
emotional support animal. Leading with it hands a Derby manager a correct answer and costs you the
next argument.

## Half a year, and the counting

K.S.A. 44-1005(i) sets the Kansas window at six months, running from the
last act if you allege a continuing pattern rather than a single refusal.
The complaint goes to the Kansas Human Rights Commission, which K.S.A.
44-1003 creates. Federal deadlines run on their own schedule, so do not
treat the state six months as the only clock.

## Where "may be necessary" gets tested

The phrase is generous, and it is not empty, so it is worth knowing what
actually tests it.

Not the animal's species, size or training. Not whether other tenants would
like one. Not whether you could theoretically manage without.

What tests it is the connection: whether there is a disability, and whether
this accommodation addresses something that disability does to your use and
enjoyment of the home.

That is a clinical judgment expressed in a statutory phrase, which is why a
determination from somebody who examined you is the only document that
speaks to it, and why a certificate, which speaks to nothing, does not.

**And it is asked once, not repeatedly.** A landlord who has accepted the connection at the start of
a tenancy does not get to reopen it each renewal. Whether the accommodation may be necessary is a
question about your circumstances, and nothing in K.S.A. 44-1016 makes it an annual review.

## What the subsection is actually asking about

An existing clinician is the strongest opening, because history speaks to
the statute in a way a first appointment cannot, and the visit is the only
cost. Most Derby residents' specialist care is in Wichita, where being seen
as a new patient takes two to four months and some practices decline housing
documentation as a matter of standing policy.

Where that is not available, a licensed evaluation runs the same enquiry
deliberately. A licensed clinician settles whether a disability exists and
whether this animal answers it, then writes the determination or explains
why they will not.

Four words decide a Derby request. Only one of them ("may be necessary") is
answered by anything other than reading the statute, and that one is
answered in an examination room.

## What Derby 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 residential real property: K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B).
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental, or in the services and facilities provided with it: K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2).
- May not take a security deposit above one month's rent for an unfurnished unit, or 1½ months' where the landlord supplies the furniture, K.S.A. 58-2550(a).

**Can:**
- May take the additional pet deposit of up to half a month's rent only where the rental agreement permits the tenant to keep pets, K.S.A. 58-2550(a). An accommodation animal is not there on permission, so the condition is not satisfied.
- Must return the balance of the deposit within fourteen days of determining charges and no more than thirty days after termination, possession and demand, or face damages of one and a half times the amount wrongfully withheld: K.S.A. 58-2550(b) and (c).
- May refuse where the tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others, K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(7). This is an assessment of the individual animal and tenancy, not of a breed.
- May still hold the tenant liable for damage: K.S.A. 39-1108 makes even a trained service dog's handler liable for damage to the premises, and nothing in the accommodation duty says otherwise.
- Is not required to permit modifications at the landlord's expense, K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(A) puts reasonable modifications of existing premises at the cost of the person with the disability.
- Is exempt from the state act only within K.S.A. 44-1018(b): a four-family owner-occupied building, or an owner with an interest in no more than three single family houses renting without a broker. The federal Fair Housing Act runs its own, different exemptions.

## How to get an ESA letter in Derby

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

- [City of Derby](https://www.derbyks.gov/) (city government)
- [Kansas Legal Services](https://www.kansaslegalservices.org/) (legal aid)
- [Kansas Housing Resources Corporation](https://kshousingcorp.org/) (state housing authority)
- [Disability Rights Center of Kansas](https://www.drckansas.org/) (disability rights org)

## Frequently asked questions

### What exactly does K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B) require?

That a landlord not 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 residential real property." It names no animal, sets no training standard and prescribes no documentation. A no-pets clause is a rule, and the accommodation is an exception to that rule.

### Does "may be necessary" mean I have to prove the animal is essential?

The words are "may be necessary," not "is necessary" or "is indispensable." That is a lower threshold than proving no alternative exists, and it is the same formulation the federal Fair Housing Act uses at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B). What it still requires is a connection between the disability and the accommodation, which is a clinical judgment rather than a preference.

### What does "equal opportunity to use and enjoy" measure against?

The use and enjoyment other tenants have. The accommodation is meant to close a gap created by the disability, not to confer an advantage. That framing is useful in a Derby conversation because it explains why the request is an exception rather than a demand for better treatment.

### What does "reasonable" do in the subsection?

It qualifies the accommodation. A request has to be proportionate to what it achieves, and the statute pairs it with K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(7), which lets a landlord refuse where the tenancy would endanger the health or safety of others or would cause substantial physical damage to their property. Waiving a no-pets rule for a household animal is ordinarily the paradigm of a reasonable accommodation.

### Can a Derby landlord charge me for the accommodation?

No. Attaching a price to an animal the law obliges them to allow is a term of the tenancy imposed because of the disability, and that is what K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2) forbids. The extra half-month deposit in K.S.A. 58-2550(a) is available only where the lease permits pets, and permission is exactly what an accommodation animal was never given.

### Derby rents more than Wichita. Does that matter?

Only to the amounts. At $1,136 Derby's median gross rent is seventy-six dollars above the Kansas median and a hundred and sixty-one above Wichita's $975, so the one-month deposit cap in K.S.A. 58-2550(a) ceilings a larger figure here than in the city next door. The subsection that governs the accommodation is identical.

### How long do I have if the request is refused?

Six months, under K.S.A. 44-1005(i), running from the act or from the last act if you allege a continuing pattern rather than a single refusal, before the commission K.S.A. 44-1003 creates. Federal Fair Housing Act deadlines are set by federal law and run separately, so the Kansas six months is not the only clock in play.

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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=kansas-emotional-support-animal%2Fderby