# ESA Letter in Flint, MI: The Tightest Deposit Ceiling

> At Flint's $915 median rent, Michigan's deposit cap stops at about $1,373 — including any pet deposit. What that and the accommodation duty mean together.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 79,735
- Households renting: 46.2%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Capped: 1.5 months' rent
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): ~$35/mo
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Where the statutory ceiling actually bites

Michigan caps everything a landlord may hold in deposits at one and a half
months' rent. In Ann Arbor that is nearly $2,500 and almost nobody reaches
it. In Flint, where median gross rent is **$915** (the lowest of the
state's twenty largest municipalities), the ceiling is about **$1,373**,
and a lease asking for a full month's deposit plus a few hundred dollars of
pet deposit is already through it.

That is the practical opening for a lot of Flint renters, because the cap
does not care whether anyone is disabled. MCL 554.602 sets it; MCL
554.601(d) makes it stick 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."

A refundable pet deposit is exactly that. It is not extra. And under MCL
554.606 the lease cannot sign the protection away.

## 46.2 percent of the city rents

15,965 of Flint's 34,572 occupied homes are rented. That is a near-even
split in a city where much of the rental stock is single-family houses held
by individuals and small investors.

The upside is that the person who decides is usually the person you already
talk to. The downside is that they may never have handled an accommodation
request, and there is no compliance department behind them to know the
rules.

Which is why, in Flint more than in Detroit or Southfield, the letter you
send is doing double duty: it is the request, and it is the explanation.

It is also why tone is worth thinking about. A landlord with four houses is
not a policy machine; they are usually weighing an unfamiliar obligation
against a worry about the carpet. A request that names the statute, offers
the documentation up front and says plainly that damage remains chargeable
tends to land better than one that opens with a threat, and it leaves you
in exactly the same position if it is refused, because the refusal is still
dated, still written, and still the start of your 180 days.

## What the request has to say

Three things, in writing, dated:

1. That you have a disability. Not the diagnosis in detail, the fact.
2. What you are asking for: an exception to the pet rule for an assistance
   animal.
3. The supporting letter from a licensed professional who has evaluated
   you, saying what the animal does for the condition.

It also helps to quote the rule rather than describe it. MCL 37.1506a(1)(b)
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." A landlord
who has not met this before will usually respond better to the sentence
than to a summary of it.

If the answer is no, the follow-up question is short: what undue hardship
would the accommodation cause? MCL 37.1102(2) is what puts that
demonstration on them.

## "The Michigan Handicappers Act"

You will run into that name in Flint, including on the Fair Housing Center
of Eastern Michigan's own summary of the laws. It is not a different
statute and it is not out of date advice. It is the act's **former** name.

1998 PA 20 renamed it the persons with disabilities civil rights act. Same
act, 1976 PA 220, MCL 37.1101 to 37.1607, same accommodation duty in
article 5. If a form, a letter or a leasing agent uses the old title,
nothing about your position changes.

## One phone call for advice and enforcement

Flint's fair housing organisation is unusual in Michigan: the **Fair
Housing Center of Eastern Michigan** is a department *inside* **Legal
Services of Eastern Michigan**, rather than a standalone non-profit. It was
established in Genesee County in **October 1988**, and expanded to Saginaw
in 2004 to cover Saginaw, Bay and Midland counties.

The practical effect is that investigation and legal advice sit in the same
organisation. LSEM's intake line is **1-800-322-4512**.

Then there is the state. The **Michigan Department of Civil Rights**
enforces the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act and takes
complaints on **1-800-482-3604**, with an online portal and Zoom
appointments through Virtual Intake. Its deadline is **180 days** from the
act, the number to protect first.

## Charges instead of refusals

Some Flint landlords will not say no. They will say yes, and attach a
price: a pet deposit, a monthly pet charge, or both.

For an **approved assistance animal**, that is not a compromise, it is a
different form of the same refusal, MCL 37.1502(1)(b) bars discrimination
in the "terms, conditions, or privileges" of a real estate transaction
because of disability, and a charge that exists only because of the animal
is such a term.

For a pet, the position is different and worth knowing plainly: Michigan
does not cap monthly pet rent at all. At $915 rent, a $35 monthly pet
charge is close to four percent of the rent. That is a negotiation to have
before signing, not after.

Actual damage is a third thing again, and it stays chargeable: MCL 554.607
lets a deposit be used for damage that is "the direct result of conduct not
reasonably expected in the normal course of habitation", along with unpaid
rent and utilities. Being entitled to an accommodation has never meant not
paying for damage.

## What Michigan courts have already decided

Michigan is one of the few states where a court has examined ESA
documentation in a housing case, and Flint renters can use the answer.

In *Riverbrook v Fabode* the Court of Appeals refused to treat a letter as
self-proving. The counsellor had reached her conclusion after a single
telephone call, having read no medical records, run no testing and given no
counselling; the letter named a condition that had not been diagnosed and
never explained what the animal did.

Then the Michigan Supreme Court, on 29 November 2022, cut the decision back,
neither the federal Fair Housing Act nor MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) requires
expert-witness testimony, because "[t]he statutes contain no such
requirement."

Between them: your letter has to be real, and it does not have to be
elaborate.

## Registration is not a thing you can buy

If a landlord asks for a certificate or registration number for the animal,
there is nothing legitimate to buy. Michigan's only official identification
programme, run by the Department of Civil Rights, covers **trained service
animals**, is voluntary and free, and by the department's own account
confers no legal privileges or protections on the animal or the handler.
The department goes further and treats a landlord's demand to register as
grounds for a complaint.

## The dates, and the courthouse

**180 days** to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, counted from the
refusal. **Three years** in state court where the complaint falls outside
that window and carries no federal jurisdiction, on MDCR's account, venue
under MCL 37.1606(2) being Genesee County Circuit Court for a Flint tenancy,
or wherever the landlord has its principal place of business. **One year**
to HUD, under 24 C.F.R. § 103.35.

No Michigan statute gives a landlord a deadline to reply, so silence does
not stop the clock. Send the request, chase once, and count from the day
the answer came or the day it became clear none would.

## What Flint 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 Flint

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

- [Fair Housing Center of Eastern Michigan (Legal Services of Eastern Michigan)](https://lsem-mi.org/fair-housing/) (fair housing)
- [Legal Services of Eastern Michigan](https://lsem-mi.org/) (legal aid)
- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/enforcement/fair-housing) (state agency)
- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights, how to file](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/enforcement/investigation/jurisdiction) (state agency)
- [Michigan Legal Help, housing](https://michiganlegalhelp.org/self-help-tools/housing) (legal aid)
- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights, service animals](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/divisions/ada-compliance/service-animals) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### Who handles a housing discrimination complaint for a Flint renter?

Two organisations do most of the work. The Fair Housing Center of Eastern Michigan is a department of Legal Services of Eastern Michigan, established in Genesee County in October 1988 to address fair housing issues in the area and expanded to Saginaw in 2004; LSEM's intake line is 1-800-322-4512. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights is the enforcement agency for the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act, on 1-800-482-3604, and it requires a complaint within 180 days of the act. The centre can investigate while the state complaint protects your position.

### Why do I see the law called the "Michigan Handicappers Act"?

Because that was its name until 1998. The act was renamed the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act by 1998 PA 20, and the older title still appears in circulation, including on the Fair Housing Center of Eastern Michigan's own summary of fair housing laws. It is the same statute either way: 1976 PA 220, MCL 37.1101 to 37.1607, whose housing article contains the accommodation duty at MCL 37.1506a(1)(b). If a landlord or a form uses the old name, nothing turns on it.

### How much can a Flint landlord hold in deposits?

One and a half months' rent in total, under MCL 554.602: roughly $1,373 at the city's $915 median gross rent, the tightest ceiling among Michigan's twenty largest municipalities. A refundable pet deposit is counted inside it, because MCL 554.601(d) defines 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". If a lease asks for a full month plus a pet deposit of several hundred dollars, the arithmetic is worth doing before signing.

### My landlord owns a handful of houses and has never heard of any of this. What do I send?

One short letter, in writing, that does three things: says you have a disability, says what you are asking for (an exception to the pet rule for an assistance animal), and encloses a letter from a licensed professional who has evaluated you and can say what the animal does. Quoting the statute helps: MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) makes it unlawful 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." Keep a copy and date it.

### Can a Flint landlord charge extra for the animal instead of refusing?

Not for an approved assistance animal. A charge that exists only because of the animal is a term or condition imposed because of the disability, which MCL 37.1502(1)(b) prohibits, and the accommodation duty is what requires the pet rule to give way in the first place. For a pet, monthly pet rent is unregulated in Michigan (worth noticing at Flint rents, where a modest monthly pet charge is a meaningful share of the rent), and any actual damage remains chargeable against the deposit under MCL 554.607 in the ordinary way.

### What documentation is enough in Michigan?

Enough to connect a real condition to what the animal does. Michigan has appellate authority on this: in Riverbrook v Fabode the Court of Appeals refused to treat a letter as self-proving where the counsellor had reached her conclusion in a single telephone call, reviewed no records, conducted no testing and provided no counselling, and where the letter named a condition that had not been diagnosed. The Michigan Supreme Court then held that neither the Fair Housing Act nor MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) requires expert-witness testimony. A licensed professional who has actually evaluated you sits comfortably between those two points.

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

180 days to file with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, from the act. MDCR points complaints outside that window which carry no federal jurisdiction to state court, with a three-year limit; venue under MCL 37.1606(2) is the circuit court for the county where the violation occurred, Genesee County for a Flint tenancy, or where the landlord resides or has its principal place of business. HUD allows one year under 24 C.F.R. § 103.35. Nothing in Michigan law obliges a landlord to answer a request by any date, so the clock runs whether or not you have heard back.

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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%2Fflint