# ESA Letter in Leavenworth, KS: Where the Offence Stops

> K.S.A. 39-1112 is a real misdemeanor, and it is about hotels and acquiring a dog. Kansas created no offence of asking a landlord and losing.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 37,370
- Households renting: 47.9%
- 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)

## Nearly half the households rent

Leavenworth has 6,577 renting households out of 13,733 occupied homes,
**47.9 percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year
estimate, fifteen points above the 32.8 percent Kansas figure and fifth of
the state's twenty largest cities by share.

Median gross rent is $1,229, a hundred and sixty-nine dollars above the
$1,060 Kansas median: high for a city of 37,370, and a consequence of steady
demand around Fort Leavenworth. The 2024 Census estimate puts the city
twelfth in Kansas.

A market with that much turnover produces a specific anxiety. Kansas has a
criminal provision about assistance animals, people hear about it, and the
fear of it stops requests being made at all.

So it is worth reading where the offence actually stops.

## K.S.A. 39-1112, in full

> "It is a class A nonperson misdemeanor for any person to:
> (a) Represent that such person has the right to be accompanied by an assistance dog **in or
> upon any place listed in K.S.A. 39-1101**, and amendments thereto, or that such person has a
> right to be accompanied by a professional therapy dog in or upon any place listed in K.S.A.
> 39-1110 … unless such person has the right to be accompanied in or upon such place by such
> dog pursuant to this act; or
> (b) represent that such person has a disability **for the purpose of acquiring an assistance
> dog** unless such person has such disability."

Two branches, and both are somewhere else.

**Branch (a) is about access.** The offence is representing a right to be accompanied "in or
upon any place listed in K.S.A. 39-1101" — common carriers, hotels, lodging places, places of
public accommodation, amusement or resort, and other places to which the general public is
invited. **Dwellings are not on that list.**

The housing rights a Kansas tenant may have read about — "in the acquisition and use of rental,
residential housing" — appear in K.S.A. 39-1102, 39-1107 and 39-1108. Each of those sections
added housing to its own grant. K.S.A. 39-1112 refers to 39-1101 and does not repeat them.

**Branch (b) is about acquiring a dog.** Representing a disability "for the purpose of
acquiring an assistance dog." That is about obtaining an animal, not about asking a landlord to
waive a rule for one you already have.

Neither branch reaches a housing accommodation request.

## And Kansas has no housing-documentation penalty at all

This is worth stating because a tenant who has read about a neighbouring
state may assume otherwise.

South Dakota's **SDCL 43-32-36** lets a lessor evict and claim a damage fee
of up to one thousand dollars where a person is found to have knowingly made
a false claim of disability or knowingly provided fraudulent supporting
documentation in a rental.

**Kansas has no equivalent** among the provisions retrieved for this material. No eviction
remedy, no statutory damage fee, no offence keyed to housing paperwork.

That is a real difference between two neighbouring states, and it means the
specific fear. That a Kansas landlord can prosecute or fine you over an
assistance-animal request, does not have a statute behind it.

## Which is not the same as "no downside"

The absence of a penalty is not an invitation.

A request that fails leaves the pet charge in place. It consumes part of the
six-month window K.S.A. 44-1005(i) puts the Kansas complaint window at six
months from the act, or from the last act of a continuing practice, before
the commission K.S.A. 44-1003 establishes. Ten months in, with no
probable-cause finding, a written request compels dismissal and that
dismissal is treated as exhausting administrative remedies.

For a household that may relocate inside that window, the date of the
refusal is fixed and absence does not extend it, so put the request and the
refusal in writing when they happen.

## What governs the tenancy

**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."
**42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** says the same federally.

Charges attached to the animal come off under **K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2)**, discrimination in "the
terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental because of disability. K.S.A. 58-2550(a) caps the
unfurnished deposit at one month's periodic rent, over twelve hundred dollars at Leavenworth's
median, and its additional half-month pet deposit is conditioned on a rental agreement that
permits pets, which an accommodation animal is not there under.

Under **K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(7)** a landlord keeps the ability to say no where
this tenancy would present a direct danger to other people or would
seriously damage what belongs to them.

And do not open with **K.S.A. 39-1108**. The section 39-1112 is built around. Its extra-charge
bar belongs to a "service dog, specially selected, trained and tested for the purpose."

## Outside this page's scope

Quarters on the installation run under their own arrangements and their own
process. Nothing in the Kansas statutes read for this material addresses
them, so nothing here describes them. What is set out above is the private
rental market inside the City of Leavenworth.

## The filing window

K.S.A. 44-1005(i) allows six months from the act of discrimination, from the
last act where a continuing pattern is alleged, filed with the Kansas Human
Rights Commission created by K.S.A. 44-1003. Ten months in, with no
probable-cause finding, a written request compels dismissal and that
dismissal is treated as exhausting administrative remedies.

For a household that may relocate inside that window, the date of the
refusal is fixed and absence does not extend it, so put the request and the
refusal in writing when they happen.

## Why the fear matters even though the statute does not

A misdemeanor provision that does not apply to housing still stops housing
requests being made, which is the practical harm.

It gets repeated in leasing offices, on forums and between neighbours as "Kansas has a law against
fake support animals", and the people most deterred by that sentence are the ones with genuine
claims and the least appetite for risk.

Reading K.S.A. 39-1112 once removes the fear permanently. Two branches, both
about somewhere else, and no Kansas provision touching a request made to a
landlord about a rental. That is worth knowing before deciding not to ask.

## Making a request worth making

Begin with a clinician already treating you. For a household that has moved
recently that is the hardest instruction on the page: continuity of care is
precisely what a posting interrupts, records travel slowly, and someone who
has seen you twice may quite properly decline to make a disability finding
yet. Local capacity is shared with the wider Kansas City metro, where
new-patient waits run to months.

Failing that, a licensed evaluation does the same work on purpose. A
licensed clinician establishes whether a disability exists and whether this
animal answers it, then commits it to writing or gives the reason they will
not.

Kansas will not prosecute you for a bad request. It also will not grant one,
and only the second half of that sentence has consequences you can do
anything about.

## What Leavenworth 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 Leavenworth

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

- [City of Leavenworth](https://www.leavenworthks.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

### Can I be prosecuted in Kansas for an ESA request that fails?

Not under any provision retrieved for this page. K.S.A. 39-1112 makes it a class A nonperson misdemeanor to represent a right to be accompanied by an assistance dog "in or upon any place listed in K.S.A. 39-1101" without that right, or to represent a disability "for the purpose of acquiring an assistance dog" without one. Neither branch is about a housing accommodation request, and neither is engaged by asking a landlord and being refused.

### What places does K.S.A. 39-1101 actually cover?

Public transport of every kind, along with hotels, lodging houses and places of accommodation, amusement or resort including food service establishments, plus anywhere else the public at large is invited. Homes are absent from the enumeration. Where housing rights do appear in the article: in K.S.A. 39-1102, 39-1107 and 39-1108: each section added them for itself, not by way of 39-1101.

### Does Kansas have anything like South Dakota's fraudulent documentation penalty?

No. South Dakota's SDCL 43-32-36 lets a lessor evict and claim a damage fee of up to one thousand dollars for a knowingly false claim or knowingly fraudulent housing documentation. Kansas has no equivalent in the provisions retrieved for this material. That is a genuine difference between the two states and worth knowing rather than assuming.

### So there is no downside to a weak request?

There is no criminal one under 39-1112, and there is a practical one. A request that fails leaves the charge in place, uses up part of the six-month window in K.S.A. 44-1005(i), and makes the next conversation with the same landlord harder. The absence of a penalty is not a reason to submit something you cannot stand behind.

### What does actually govern my Leavenworth rental?

K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B) does, by counting as discrimination a landlord's refusal to bend rules, policies, practices or services where bending them may be needed to give a disabled tenant the same use and enjoyment of the property as anyone else. The federal duty at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) stands behind it, and K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2) is what removes the charges.

### Leavenworth rents above the state median. What is the deposit ceiling?

One month's periodic rent for an unfurnished unit under K.S.A. 58-2550(a), which at the city's $1,229 median gross rent is over twelve hundred dollars. The additional half-month pet deposit that subsection allows is conditioned on a rental agreement that permits pets, which an accommodation animal is not present under.

### Does this page cover housing on the installation?

No. This addresses the private rental market in the City of Leavenworth, which is where most of the demand lands. Housing provided on a military installation is a different arrangement with its own process, and no Kansas statute retrieved for this page speaks to it.

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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%2Fleavenworth