# ESA Letter in Canton Township, MI: Ask the Right Body

> A township ADA coordinator, a leasing office and a state agency handle three different things. Which one decides whether your assistance animal stays.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/michigan-emotional-support-animal/canton-township/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-17
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 99,793
- Households renting: 23.4%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Capped: 1.5 months' rent
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Wayne County's most expensive rentals are in a township

Canton Township has 36,311 occupied homes and 8,501 of them are rented:
23.4 percent. What stands out is the price: median gross rent is **$1,501**,
higher than any other Wayne County municipality in Michigan's top twenty.
Detroit is $1,074, Livonia $1,322, Dearborn $1,327.

Most of that rental housing is apartment communities along the main
corridors, with a second layer of houses and condominium units let by
individual owners.

At those rents, pet charges are quoted as fixed items on a price sheet
rather than opened as a negotiation, which changes how you should frame
the request.

## Three bodies, three different jobs

This is where Canton renters lose the most time, so it is worth setting out
plainly.

**The leasing office or owner** decides your accommodation request in the
first instance. Their duty comes from MCL 37.1506a(1)(b), which makes it
unlawful in a real estate transaction to "[r]efuse to make reasonable
accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when the
accommodations may be necessary to afford the person with a disability
equal opportunity to use and enjoy residential real property", and from 24
C.F.R. § 100.204(a) federally.

**The township's ADA coordinator** handles access to the township's own
programmes, services and buildings, a public-entity obligation. That is a
real and useful office if you need an accommodation to attend a township
meeting or use a township facility. It is not the route for a landlord
dispute, and a request sent there will be politely redirected.

**The Michigan Department of Civil Rights** enforces the state housing
duty, takes the complaint on 1-800-482-3604, and works to a 180-day
deadline.

A township has no fourth body. There is no Canton civil rights commission
to appeal to, because a township is governed by a board of trustees rather
than by a city charter with departments hanging off it.

## The price sheet is the rule

When a community publishes "$400 pet fee, $40 per month, breed
restrictions apply", it has written down the rule that the accommodation
duty asks it to set aside.

For an approved assistance animal, that whole line does not apply. The
animal is not a pet; a charge demanded because of it is a charge demanded
because of the disability; and MCL 37.1502(1)(b) forbids exactly that in
the "terms, conditions, or privileges" of a real estate transaction.

Say two things in the request. First, that you are asking for the pet
policy, including the fee and the monthly charge, to be waived as an
accommodation. Second, that damage the animal actually causes remains
chargeable against the deposit in the ordinary way under MCL 554.607. The
second sentence removes the objection managers reach for first, and it
costs you nothing you did not already owe.

It also helps to name the document. Communities here publish pet terms in a
separate addendum rather than in the lease itself, and asking for "the pet
addendum dated X to be waived as a reasonable accommodation" is far harder
to mislay than a general request about your animal. If the addendum is
presented for signature at move-in, that is the moment to raise it, not
after it has been signed.

## When the unit is a condominium

A good share of Canton's individually let housing is condominium units, and
that puts a second rulebook in play, the association's.

MCL 37.1501(e) settles who is covered: "real property" for the housing
article includes "an interest in a real estate cooperative or condominium".
So the association's rules are inside the duty as much as the lease is.

Send the same request, on the same day, to the owner and to the association
or its management company. Either can refuse; either refusal starts your
clock; and having both on record prevents the weeks that otherwise go into
each one pointing at the other.

There is a second reason to write to the association directly. Associations
here are frequently run by a professional management company on behalf of a
volunteer board, and the board meets monthly. A request that reaches only
the owner can sit until the next meeting without anyone treating it as
urgent; a request the manager has to log arrives with a date attached and a
person responsible for it.

## Deposits at $1,501 rent

Michigan's ceiling is one and a half months (MCL 554.602) (about **$2,252**
here), and MCL 554.601(d) counts a refundable pet deposit inside it by
defining a security deposit to include any amount "returnable to the tenant
on condition of return of the rental unit by the tenant in condition as
required by the rental agreement."

Be realistic about that number in Canton. It is high enough that a
community can take a month's deposit plus a pet deposit and stay well under
it, so the cap is a sanity check rather than a weapon. What does the work
is the accommodation duty, and behind it MCL 37.1102(2): the accommodation
is required "unless the person demonstrates that the accommodation would
impose an undue hardship."

MCL 554.606 also stops the lease from waiving any of the deposit act's
protections, which is worth knowing if an addendum tries to.

## The letter, and Michigan's two markers

A licensed professional who has evaluated you, naming the condition, saying
what the animal does about it.

Michigan has appellate authority on both sides of that. In *Riverbrook v
Fabode* the Court of Appeals refused to treat a letter as self-proving
where it came from a single telephone call, with no records reviewed and no
testing, and named a condition that had not been diagnosed. On 29 November
2022 the Michigan Supreme Court held that neither the federal Fair Housing
Act nor MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) requires expert-witness testimony.

Anything sold online sits outside both. Michigan's only official
identification scheme covers **trained service animals**, confers no legal
privileges or protections by the Department of Civil Rights' own account,
and a landlord demanding registration is doing something the department
invites you to report.

## What a refusal has to contain to be worth anything

Two things, and neither is a policy.

An **undue hardship** the provider demonstrates: a cost, a structural
problem, a genuine conflict with an obligation the community already has.

Or a **direct threat** to the health or safety of others, the limit 24
C.F.R. § 100.202(d) preserves, judged on what this animal does rather than
on its breed or weight.

If the refusal you receive names neither, ask in writing what specific
hardship the accommodation would impose. The answer either gives you
something to solve or gives an investigator something to look at.

## Dates and doors

**180 days**: Michigan Department of Civil Rights, from the refusal:
1-800-482-3604, online portal, or Virtual Intake by Zoom appointment.

**One year**, HUD, under 24 C.F.R. § 103.35.

**Three years**: state court, on the department's own account, where its
window has closed and no federal jurisdiction applies. MCL 37.1606(2) puts
venue in Wayne County Circuit Court or wherever the landlord's principal
place of business sits.

**Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit**: (313) 963-1274, covering
Wayne County and naming Canton in its service area, with its own
investigators. **Legal Aid and Defender Association** covers Wayne, Oakland
and Macomb for civil legal help.

No Michigan statute gives a leasing office a deadline to answer you. Ask in
writing, chase once in writing, and count from the refusal.

## What Canton Township landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to give a person with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy residential real property: MCL 37.1506a(1)(b), and 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) federally.
- Cannot rely on a no-pets policy to refuse an assistance animal: the Michigan Department of Civil Rights gives "[a]llowing a service or support animal in a no-pet complex" as its own example of an accommodation state and federal law require.
- Cannot treat the request as settled by the animal's breed or size where the animal is an approved assistance animal: the accommodation analysis is individual, and a blanket rule is not that analysis.
- Cannot demand that the tenant register the animal or produce a state identification card. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights runs a voluntary identification programme for trained service animals and tells anyone "required to obtain service animal identification or register a service animal by a landlord" to file a complaint.
- Cannot require expert-witness testimony or a particular kind of professional: the Michigan Supreme Court vacated any reading of Riverbrook to that effect, holding that neither 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B) nor MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) contains such a requirement.
- Cannot ask about the existence, nature or severity of a disability as a general screening question, 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(c), which allows only defined inquiries made of every applicant.
- Cannot hold more than one and a half months' rent in deposits from any tenant, a refundable pet deposit included, because MCL 554.601(d) defines a security deposit to include any amount returnable on the condition the unit is returned as the lease requires, and MCL 554.602 caps the total.
- Cannot use a deposit for anything but actual damage beyond normal habitation and rent or utility arrears, MCL 554.607, and cannot contract out of the act at all, because MCL 554.606 says its requirements may not be waived.
- Cannot write a lease clause that discriminates in violation of the PWDCRA: MCL 554.633(1)(c) prohibits it, and MCL 554.636(1) lets the tenant void the lease and recover $250 or actual damages, whichever is greater, once written notice has gone unremedied for 20 days.
- Cannot refuse to rent, or discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of the tenancy, because of a disability: MCL 37.1502(1)(a) and (b).
- Cannot refuse a reasonable modification made at the tenant's expense, though it may require restoration of the interior on move-out where that is reasonable, MCL 37.1506a(1)(a).
- Cannot start a clock the law does not give it: no Michigan statute sets a deadline for a landlord's answer to an accommodation request, so a request left unanswered is a fact to record, and the tenant's own filing deadlines keep running while they wait.

**Can:**
- Must show undue hardship if it refuses: MCL 37.1102(2) requires accommodation "unless the person demonstrates that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship", which puts the demonstration on the housing provider.
- May ask for reliable disability-related information where the disability and the need are not obvious: the standard the Michigan Court of Appeals applied in Riverbrook v Fabode, drawn from the 2004 joint statement of HUD and the Department of Justice.
- Is not required to accept an animal whose tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others. 24 C.F.R. § 100.202(d), but that is a judgement about the individual animal's conduct, not about its breed.
- Is exempt only in narrow circumstances: MCL 37.1503 excepts renting in a building with no more than two families where the owner or their immediate family lives in one of them, or renting a room in a dwelling the lessor lives in. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights states the same exclusion as "[o]wner-occupied one or two family dwellings".

## How to get an ESA letter in Canton Township

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

- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/enforcement/fair-housing) (state agency)
- [Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit](https://www.fairhousingdetroit.org/) (fair housing)
- [Legal Aid and Defender Association](https://www.ladadetroit.org/) (legal aid)
- [Canton Township, permits and applications](https://www.canton-mi.org/245/Permits-Applications) (city agency)
- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights, service animals](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/divisions/ada-compliance/service-animals) (state agency)
- [Michigan Legal Help, housing](https://michiganlegalhelp.org/self-help-tools/housing) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a Canton Township office that decides accommodation disputes?

No. A Michigan township is a general-purpose local government run by a board of trustees and a supervisor; Canton has building and ordinance functions but no civil rights body deciding housing complaints. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights enforces the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act statewide, takes complaints on 1-800-482-3604 and requires them within 180 days of a refusal. The Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit covers Wayne County and names Canton among the communities in its service area, and investigates independently.

### The township has an ADA coordinator. Can they help with my landlord?

Not with a private landlord. A township ADA coordinator deals with access to the township's own programmes, services and buildings, a public-entity obligation under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Your landlord's duty is a housing duty under MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) and the federal Fair Housing Act, enforced by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and by HUD. The two systems are often confused because both use the word accommodation; asking the right body first saves weeks.

### What can a Canton apartment community charge for an assistance animal?

Nothing for the animal itself. An approved assistance animal is not a pet, so the community's pet fee and monthly pet rent have nothing to attach to. Money that exists only because the animal does is a difference in treatment traceable to the disability, and MCL 37.1502(1)(b) forbids differences of that kind in the terms, conditions or privileges of a real estate transaction. Damage the animal actually causes remains chargeable against the security deposit in the normal way under MCL 554.607, which is worth saying in the request because it answers the objection most managers reach for first.

### How much can the landlord hold as a deposit here?

One and a half months' rent in total, MCL 554.602, about $2,252 at Canton's $1,501 median gross rent, with any refundable pet deposit inside that total under MCL 554.601(d). At these rents the cap is generous enough that most communities stay under it even after adding a pet deposit, so use it as a check on the arithmetic rather than as the argument. The act also cannot be waived by the lease (MCL 554.606).

### My unit is a condominium let by its owner. Who has to agree?

Both the owner and, where its rules are the obstacle, the association. MCL 37.1501(e) defines "real property" for the housing article to include "an interest in a real estate cooperative or condominium", so the accommodation duty reaches association rules as well as the lease. Send the request to the owner and to the association or its management company on the same day, in the same words, and keep both replies, either refusal is a refusal, and either one starts the 180-day clock at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

### What should the supporting letter say?

It should come from a licensed professional who has evaluated you, name the condition, and explain the animal's role in managing it. Michigan's Court of Appeals rejected a letter in Riverbrook v Fabode that came from a single telephone call with no records reviewed and no testing, and which named a condition that had not been diagnosed. The Michigan Supreme Court then confirmed on 29 November 2022 that neither the Fair Housing Act nor MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) requires expert-witness testimony. An ordinary clinical letter that answers the question sits comfortably between those two.

### How long do I have, and where would a court case go?

180 days to file with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, from the refusal. Where the window has closed and no federal jurisdiction applies, MDCR points to state court on a three-year limit, and MCL 37.1606(2) places venue in the circuit court for the county where the violation occurred, Wayne County for a Canton tenancy, or where the landlord has its principal place of business. HUD's window is one year under 24 C.F.R. § 103.35. Nothing in Michigan law requires a landlord to answer by any particular date, so silence does not extend anything.

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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=michigan-emotional-support-animal%2Fcanton-township