# ESA Letter in Prairie Village, KS: The Listing Itself

> K.S.A. 44-1016(c) reaches an advert or an application form, and it survives every small-landlord exemption in the Kansas act. It is the rule that always applies.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 22,919
- Households renting: 23%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $50-$100/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Kansas's second-highest rents, in a mid-century suburb

Prairie Village has 2,297 renting households out of 9,969 occupied homes,
23.0 percent on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate,
nineteenth of Kansas's twenty largest cities and ahead only of Leawood's 9.0
percent.

Median gross rent is **$1,794**, second highest in Kansas behind Leawood's
$1,983 and sixty-nine percent above the $1,060 state median. The 2024 Census
estimate puts the city at 22,919, nineteenth in Kansas.

The housing is mid-century single-family, and the rentals within it are
mostly individual houses let by their owners. Which means most Prairie
Village tenancies begin with a **listing** rather than with a leasing
office, and the listing is where a great many of them go wrong.

## The subsection that reads the advert

K.S.A. 44-1016(c) makes it unlawful:

> "To **make, print, publish, disseminate or use, or cause to be made, printed, published,
> disseminated or used, any notice, statement, advertisement or application**, with respect to
> the sale or rental of real property **that indicates any preference, limitation, specification
> or discrimination** based on race, religion, color, sex, **disability**, familial status,
> national origin or ancestry, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation,
> specification or discrimination."

Four things it reaches: a **notice**, a **statement**, an **advertisement**,
an **application**.

And two levels of responsibility: the person who makes, prints, publishes,
disseminates or uses it, **or causes** it to be done.

## Why it matters more here than in Overland Park

Because of the exemptions.

K.S.A. 44-1018(b) takes a good deal of small-landlord activity outside the
Kansas act. Subsection (b)(1) exempts an owner with an interest in no more
than three single family houses renting without a broker. Subsection (b)(2)
exempts owner-occupied buildings for up to four families.

In a city of individually owned rental houses, that is a real exemption
reaching real landlords.

But read how 44-1018(b) opens:

> "**Nothing in this act, other than the prohibitions against discriminatory advertising as
> provided in subsection (c) of K.S.A. 44-1016**, and amendments thereto, shall apply to…"

The advertising rule is carved **out of** the exemption. A Prairie Village
owner who is exempt from the rest of the act (no broker, three houses or
fewer) is still bound by 44-1016(c).

It is the one provision in the Kansas act that applies to essentially everyone.

## What "indicates a limitation based on disability" covers

A listing that says no assistance animals are accepted indicates a limitation based on
disability. So does one that says an animal is permitted only on payment of a fee "including
service or support animals."

Note also the closing words of the subsection: "or **an intention** to make any such preference,
limitation, specification or discrimination." The advert does not have to be the refusal. It can
be the statement of how the owner intends to behave.

## And it reaches the application form

"Any notice, statement, advertisement **or application**."

Application forms get reused for years. A form that asks a
disability-related question in a way that indicates a limitation, or states
a condition excluding assistance animals, is within the subsection's words
on their face, and unlike a listing, a form is rarely reviewed by anybody
after it is first drafted.

## Third-party listing sites

The subsection reaches someone who does the listed acts "**or cause[s]**"
them to be done. An owner who supplies wording that a listing platform
publishes has, on the ordinary meaning of that phrase, caused it to be
published.

How that applies to any particular arrangement is a question of fact, and no
Kansas case construing the phrase was retrieved for this page. What is on
the face of the statute is that handing the words to someone else is
contemplated by it.

## The accommodation itself

**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, and its exemptions are drawn differently from Kansas's,
so a Prairie Village owner claiming K.S.A. 44-1018(b) has answered only the state question.

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.

**K.S.A. 58-2550** has no small-landlord exemption at all. Its caps apply to an individually owned
house exactly as to a management company: one month's periodic rent unfurnished, close to
eighteen hundred dollars at Prairie Village's median, plus 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.

## Six months, from the publication

K.S.A. 44-1005(i) sets the Kansas window at six months from the act
complained of, or from the last act where the practice is a continuing one,
before the commission established by K.S.A. 44-1003.

Where the advertisement is the practice complained of, the date it was
published or used is the date to record. Screenshot the listing with a
visible date. Listings come down, and an owner's recollection of what a
removed advert said is not evidence.

## What a screenshot needs to show

If the listing is the problem, the record has to be made before the listing
comes down.

Capture the whole page, not the sentence. The wording, the property, the
date and the platform all matter, and a cropped line of text proves none of
them.

Capture the application form too, if one was sent. K.S.A. 44-1016(c) names
applications alongside adverts, and forms are reused for years without
anybody rereading them, which makes them both more likely to contain the
problem and easier to fix once somebody points it out.

**And keep the message that sent it.** Where an owner supplied the wording to a platform, the email
or portal entry doing that is the evidence of causation the subsection contemplates, more useful than
the published page, which shows only the result.

## What no advertising rule can supply

An existing treating clinician is the strongest and cheapest opening,
because history answers the statute where a single appointment cannot, and
there is nothing to pay beyond the visit. Johnson County answers slowly: two
to four months for a new patient at the larger practices, several of which
decline housing documentation on principle.

Where that is unavailable, a licensed evaluation is the same enquiry
arranged on purpose. A licensed clinician determines whether a disability
exists and whether this animal answers it, then signs the determination or
explains why not.

The advertising rule reaches every landlord in Prairie Village. What gets
you the tenancy is the thing no statute can hand you.

## What Prairie Village 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 Prairie Village

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

- [City of Prairie Village](https://www.prairievillageks.gov/) (city government)
- [Johnson County](https://www.jocogov.org/) (county government)
- [Kansas Legal Services](https://www.kansaslegalservices.org/) (legal aid)
- [Disability Rights Center of Kansas](https://www.drckansas.org/) (disability rights org)

## Frequently asked questions

### A Prairie Village listing says no assistance animals. Is that lawful?

K.S.A. 44-1016(c) makes it unlawful to make, print, publish, disseminate or use any notice, statement, advertisement or application with respect to the sale or rental of real property "that indicates any preference, limitation, specification or discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, disability, familial status, national origin or ancestry." A statement excluding assistance animals indicates a limitation based on disability, which is what the subsection is about.

### Does that apply to a small owner renting out one house?

Yes. This is the one provision the exemptions do not reach. K.S.A. 44-1018(b) exempts certain small landlords from the act "other than the prohibitions against discriminatory advertising as provided in subsection (c) of K.S.A. 44-1016." An owner exempt from everything else is still bound by the advertising rule.

### Does it cover an application form as well as an advert?

The subsection names "any notice, statement, advertisement or application." An application form that asks a question or states a condition indicating a disability-based limitation is within those words on their face, which is worth noticing because forms are often reused for years without anyone rereading them.

### What if the listing is on a third-party site?

Liability under the subsection extends past the person who makes, prints, publishes, disseminates or uses the notice to whoever "cause[s]" any of that to happen. Hand a listing platform the wording and, on the ordinary sense of the word, you have caused its publication. Whether that fits a given arrangement is a factual question, and no Kansas decision construing the phrase was retrieved for this material.

### What about the accommodation itself?

The right comes from K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(3)(B), which counts it as discrimination when a landlord will not bend rules, policies, practices or services that may need bending to give a disabled tenant the same use and enjoyment of a home as anyone else. Federal law says the same at 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B). The money side is K.S.A. 44-1016(h)(2).

### Prairie Village rents are very high. 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 $1,794 median gross rent, second highest in Kansas, is close to eighteen hundred dollars. The extra half-month that subsection allows is conditioned on a rental agreement permitting pets, which an accommodation animal is not there under.

### How long do I have to complain?

K.S.A. 44-1005(i) sets six months from the act, or from the last act where the practice is continuing, before the commission established by K.S.A. 44-1003. Where an advertisement is the practice complained of, the date it was published or used is the date to record.

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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%2Fprairie-village