# ESA Letter in Emporia, KS: Three Fee Bars, None of Them Yours

> Kansas wrote 'without being required to pay an extra charge' into housing three separate times — for a guide dog, a hearing dog and a task-trained dog.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 24,354
- Households renting: 50.1%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $20-$40/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The cheapest rents of the twenty, and half the town renting

Emporia has 5,206 renting households out of 10,385 occupied homes, **50.1
percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate,
third of Kansas's twenty largest cities behind Manhattan (56.5%) and
Lawrence (56.4%).

Median gross rent is **$815**: the lowest of those twenty, two hundred and
forty-five dollars under the $1,060 Kansas median, and less than half what
Leawood commands. The 2024 Census estimate puts the city at 24,354,
eighteenth in Kansas.

Emporia State University and a substantial manufacturing base share the same
rental stock, which gives the town a year-round rental market rather than a
purely academic one. And a tenant here with an assistance animal goes
looking for the Kansas statute that removes the pet charge.

Kansas has written that statute three times.

## Three sentences, three dogs

**K.S.A. 39-1102**, guide dogs:

> "Every **legally blind person** shall have the right to be accompanied by a **guide dog,
> specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose**, in or upon any of the places listed
> in K.S.A. 39-1101 … **in the acquisition and use of rental, residential housing** … **without
> being required to pay an extra charge** for the guide dog…"

**K.S.A. 39-1107**, hearing assistance dogs:

> "Every person who is **deaf or hard of hearing** has the right to be accompanied by a
> **hearing assistance dog, specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose of hearing
> assistance** … in the acquisition and use of rental, residential housing … **without being
> required to pay an extra charge**…"

**K.S.A. 39-1108**, service dogs:

> "Every person with a disability shall have the right to be accompanied by a **service dog,
> specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose** which shall include, but not be
> limited to, **pulling a wheelchair, opening doors and picking up objects** … in the
> acquisition and use of rental, residential housing … **without being required to pay an extra
> charge**…"

Three sections. Three times the exact phrase a tenant is searching for.
Three descriptions that do not fit an emotional support animal.

Every one requires a **dog**. Every one requires it to be **specially
selected, trained and tested for the purpose**. The third names the
purposes: physical tasks. An animal whose help is its presence is outside
all three, and a landlord's adviser will say so in one sentence.

## Say the honest thing

**There is no Kansas statute barring a pet fee for an emotional support animal.** Not in chapter
39, whose three fee bars belong to trained dogs. Not in chapter 44, which never mentions an
animal. Not in K.S.A. 58-2550, which caps deposits rather than prohibiting charges.

That is worth stating flatly, because implying a fee bar exists and letting
a reader discover otherwise at a leasing office is how a request gets
refused.

## What Kansas has instead

**K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B)**, the right to keep the animal:

> "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"

**K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2)**, the charge:

> "To discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions or privileges of sale or rental
> of residential real property … because of a disability"

The argument runs in three steps. The animal is in the home **because of the
disability**, as a required accommodation. A charge attached to it is
therefore a **term of the rental applied because of the disability**. K.S.A.
44-1016(h)(2) makes exactly that unlawful.

Behind it, **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)**: the federal Fair Housing Act's
duty in the same words, with a far longer enforcement history around
accommodation-related fees than anything in Kansas law.

Notice what kind of thing that is. An **argument**, in three steps, from a
general prohibition, not a sentence you can put on the counter.

## What kind of state Kansas is

It is worth knowing, because it changes how a request should be framed.

**States with an express bar.** Oregon writes "service animal or companion animal" into ORS
90.300(4)'s deposit prohibition. Maine provides that an assistance animal may not be conditioned
on a fee. A tenant there can point at text.

**States without one.** Kansas and South Dakota both leave the tenant arguing from a general
discrimination provision. Montana is the same, having excluded the emotional support animal from
its service-animal definition by name.

In a pointing state, a weak file can sometimes ride on the strength of the
citation. In an arguing state it cannot, because every step past the first
is legal reasoning and only the first step (that the animal is a required
accommodation) is a fact.

## The deposit cap, at Emporia numbers

K.S.A. 58-2550(a) caps an unfurnished deposit at one month's periodic rent, about $815 here, the
lowest ceiling of the state's twenty largest cities. The additional half-month it authorises
applies "if the rental agreement permits the tenant to keep or maintain pets in the dwelling
unit," which an accommodation animal is not there under.

Low rent cuts both ways. A $40 monthly pet charge against $815 rent is a
larger share of the tenancy than the same charge against Leawood's $1,983,
even though the number is smaller.

## The clock

Kansas allows six months, and K.S.A. 44-1005(i) measures them from the act
complained of, or from the last act if the practice is a continuing one. On
a nine-month academic lease that arithmetic decides things: a September
refusal is still live in March, an April refusal has run by October when the
tenant is elsewhere. The commission that receives it is the one K.S.A.
44-1003 sets up.

## Why the argument has to be written out

In a pointing state a tenant can send a statute number. In Kansas the three
steps have to appear on the page, because a reader who is given only the
conclusion will look for the sentence behind it and not find one.

So write them. The animal is in the home because of a disability, as a
required accommodation. The charge is attached to that animal. A charge
applied because of a disability is a term of the rental within K.S.A.
44-1016(h)(2).

Three sentences, in that order. It is longer than a citation and it is the
version that survives being read twice.

## Which is why the first step has to be solid

Start with a clinician you already see. If your care runs through the
university's services and that is a real clinical relationship, it is the
strongest and cheapest route, though campus services carry semester
waitlists, are built for short-course counselling rather than for writing
disability determinations, and a clinician who has seen you twice may
properly decline to make a finding. Off campus, Lyon County's private
capacity is thin and much specialist care is in Topeka or Wichita, with
waits of months.

Where those routes are closed, a licensed evaluation is the same examination
arranged on purpose: someone licensed works out whether a disability exists
and whether this animal answers it, then records the conclusion or says
plainly that they will not. Both endings are real, and a provider whose
answer is fixed before you arrive is selling a document.

Kansas wrote "without being required to pay an extra charge" three times and gave it to three
dogs. What it gave you is a step-one fact that has to be true.

## What Emporia 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 Emporia

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

- [City of Emporia](https://www.emporiaks.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

### Kansas has three statutes saying no extra charge in housing. Why does none of them help me?

Because each is tied to a particular trained dog. K.S.A. 39-1102 belongs to a guide dog "specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose" used by a legally blind person; K.S.A. 39-1107 to a hearing assistance dog used by a person deaf or hard of hearing; K.S.A. 39-1108 to a service dog specially selected, trained and tested, illustrated by pulling a wheelchair, opening doors and picking up objects. An emotional support animal fits none of the three descriptions.

### Is there any statute in Kansas that bars a pet fee for an emotional support animal?

No. There is no such sentence anywhere in the provisions retrieved for this material. The charge falls away under K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2), which reaches disability discrimination in "the terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental, and under the federal Fair Housing Act. That is an argument rather than a citation, and saying so plainly is more useful than implying a fee bar exists.

### Do other states write one?

Some do. Oregon's ORS 90.300(4) names the companion animal in its deposit bar; Maine provides that an assistance animal may not be conditioned on a fee. Kansas and South Dakota both leave a tenant arguing from a general discrimination provision instead. Knowing which kind of state you are in changes how the request should be framed.

### So what do I actually cite in Emporia?

K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B) for the right to keep the animal, "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", and K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2) for the charge, together with 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B).

### Does the pet deposit statute help at all?

It limits rather than prohibits. K.S.A. 58-2550(a) caps an unfurnished deposit at one month's periodic rent (about $815 at Emporia's median, the lowest ceiling of the state's twenty largest cities), and permits the additional half month only "if the rental agreement permits the tenant to keep or maintain pets in the dwelling unit," which an accommodation animal is not there under.

### Emporia rents are the cheapest of the twenty. Does that matter?

It changes the arithmetic rather than the law. At $815 the median gross rent here is two hundred and forty-five dollars under the Kansas figure and less than half Leawood's $1,983, so a monthly pet charge is a larger proportion of the rent even when it is a smaller number. The subsections that govern are the same.

### How long do I have on a nine-month lease?

Six months, run under K.S.A. 44-1005(i) from the act complained of or from the last act of a continuing practice, before the commission K.S.A. 44-1003 creates. On a nine-month academic lease that matters: a refusal in September is still live in March, while an April refusal has run by October when most students have left for the summer.

---

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%2Femporia