# ESA Letter in Sterling Heights, MI: Two Sets of Rules

> In Sterling Heights the lease is often only half the problem — the condo association has rules too. Michigan's disability act reaches both. Here is how.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 134,342
- Households renting: 24.2%
- 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)

## The city where the landlord is not the only rule-maker

Sterling Heights rents 12,530 of its 51,736 occupied homes. 24.2 percent,
one of the lowest renter shares in Michigan's twenty largest municipalities.
What the number hides is the shape of that rental stock. A large part of it
is individually owned units inside condominium and co-operative
developments, let out one at a time.

That produces the local problem: two rulebooks over the same animal. The
lease, written by the owner. And the association's governing documents,
written by a board the owner does not control.

The usual result is a landlord who says, sincerely, "I would, but the
association won't let me."

## Michigan's act was drafted for exactly this

Read the definition. MCL 37.1501(e) says "real property" includes "a
building, structure, mobile home, real estate, land, mobile home park,
trailer park, tenement, leasehold, or **an interest in a real estate
cooperative or condominium**."

So when 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", the rules it is talking about are not only the ones in your
lease.

"The association won't allow it" therefore identifies **whose rule has to
bend**. It does not answer whether it has to.

## Send it to both, in writing, on the same day

The practical move in a condominium city is simple and it is different from
the advice everywhere else on this site: make the request twice.

One copy to the landlord, as your housing provider. One copy to the
association or its management company, as the body whose rule is being
asked to give way. Same wording, same date, both kept.

Two reasons. First, each of them can otherwise spend weeks pointing at the
other. Second, whichever one refuses, and the refusal may come from either.
That refusal is the act your **180 days** at the Michigan Department of
Civil Rights runs from.

Also ask, once, for the specific provision being relied on. An association
rule that turns out to be a pet policy from 1998 that the board has never
applied is a very different conversation from a recorded restriction.

Ask the landlord one more thing while you are at it: whether they have
themselves put the request to the association, and when. Owners frequently
relay a refusal they assumed rather than one they received, and a
management company asked directly will often say that assistance animals
were never inside the pet rule to begin with. That answer, in writing,
usually ends the matter in a week.

## The money, and the charge that is not yours

Michigan caps everything a landlord holds at one and a half months' rent:
MCL 554.602, which at Sterling Heights' $1,292 median gross rent is about
**$1,938**. A refundable pet deposit is inside that ceiling, not on top of
it, because MCL 554.601(d) counts 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."

There is a wrinkle specific to condominium rentals. An association may
impose its own pet-related fee or deposit, on the **owner**, under the
governing documents. That is a cost of the owner's investment. It does not
enlarge what the landlord may collect from a tenant, because the statutory
ceiling is a ceiling on the tenant's money.

And for an approved assistance animal, the pet charge should not be there
at all: 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 one of those terms.

## What either of them may ask you for

Where the disability and the animal's role are not obvious, a housing
provider, landlord or association, may seek verification: that you have a
disability, what accommodation you need, and how the two are connected.

The limits are the same for both, and both are Michigan-specific:

- **No expert witness.** The Michigan Supreme Court's order of 29 November
  2022 in *Riverbrook v Fabode* vacated any reading of the Court of Appeals
  requiring expert-witness testimony in accommodation cases, because "[t]he
  statutes contain no such requirement."
- **No registration.** The state's only animal register, run by the
  Department of Civil Rights, is for trained service animals, carries no
  legal privileges or protections by the department's own account, and
  being ordered by a landlord to obtain one is something MDCR says you
  should complain about.

One well-made letter (licensed professional, real evaluation, plain
statement of what the animal does) answers both bodies at once. Sending
different letters to each is how inconsistencies get found.

## A low renter share is a familiarity problem, not a legal one

24.2 percent is a small tenure minority, and it means many Sterling Heights
landlords are individuals letting one unit who have never received an
accommodation request in their lives.

That changes tactics rather than rights. Quote the statute rather than
describing it. Say what you are asking for in one sentence. Offer the
letter up front instead of waiting to be asked. An owner who is not hostile
but is simply unsure will usually take the path that has a rule attached to
it, and the rule here is unusually plain: accommodate unless you can
demonstrate undue hardship, MCL 37.1102(2), where the demonstrating is the
provider's job.

## City hall handles the building, not the animal

Sterling Heights runs Code Enforcement and a Building Department; the
former enforces property maintenance code and ordinances, and permit and
code-enforcement records are searchable online by address or parcel.

That system is worth knowing about for condition disputes. It has nothing
to say about an assistance animal, and neither side should try to make it
part of the argument.

## Four numbers to keep

**Michigan Department of Civil Rights**: 1-800-482-3604, online portal, or
a Zoom appointment through Virtual Intake; Michigan Relay on 711. **180
days** from the refusal. Outside that window, and without federal
jurisdiction, MDCR points to state court and a three-year limit.

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

**Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit**: (313) 963-1274, covering
Macomb County alongside Wayne, Oakland and St. Clair, with its own
investigators.

**Lakeshore Legal Aid**, (888) 783-8190 or online intake, for free civil
legal help.

Nothing in Michigan law gives a landlord or an association a deadline to
answer you. The clock only runs one way, so date the request, chase once in
writing, and count from the refusal.

If both bodies go quiet, treat the silence as the answer once it has gone
on long enough that no reasonable person would still call it a delay, and
say so in your last letter, in terms, so the record shows when you decided
the request had been refused. In a condominium the two-body structure makes
that more likely than elsewhere: a board that meets monthly and a manager
who forwards things to it can absorb a request for a whole season without
anyone actually saying no. That is not a reason to wait. It is a reason to
write the closing letter earlier, and to file inside the 180 days with a
file that shows exactly who was told what, and when.

## What Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights

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

- [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)
- [Lakeshore Legal Aid](https://lakeshorelegalaid.org/) (legal aid)
- [City of Sterling Heights Code Enforcement](https://www.sterlingheights.gov/396/Code-Enforcement) (city agency)
- [City of Sterling Heights Building Department](https://www.sterlingheights.gov/150/Building) (city agency)
- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights, service animals](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/divisions/ada-compliance/service-animals) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### My landlord says the condo association bans pets. Is that the end of it?

No. It identifies whose rule has to bend. Michigan's Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act defines "real property" at MCL 37.1501(e) to include "a building, structure, mobile home, real estate, land, mobile home park, trailer park, tenement, leasehold, or an interest in a real estate cooperative or condominium", so the accommodation duty at MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) reaches the association's rules as well as the lease. Practically, send the request to both the landlord and the association, in writing, and keep both replies: whichever refuses, that refusal is what starts the 180-day clock at the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

### Sterling Heights has few renters. Does that weaken my position?

Not legally. 12,530 households rent here, 24.2 percent of the city, and the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act applies to every one of them on the same terms as it applies in Detroit. What a low renter share does change is familiarity: an individual owner letting a single condo unit may never have received an accommodation request before. That is an argument for putting it in writing, quoting the statute, and giving them a route to say yes rather than a fight to lose.

### How much can a Sterling Heights landlord hold in deposits?

One and a half months' rent in total under MCL 554.602 (about $1,938 at the city's $1,292 median gross rent), and a refundable pet deposit sits inside that total 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 condominium association separately charges the owner for a pet, that is the owner's cost, not an extra sum the landlord may collect from you beyond the statutory cap.

### Who enforces fair housing in Sterling Heights?

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights, which has jurisdiction over the Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act and takes complaints on 1-800-482-3604 within 180 days. The Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit covers Macomb County and investigates independently, including by testing, on (313) 963-1274. The city's own housing-related offices, Code Enforcement and the Building Department, deal with property maintenance and permits, and code enforcement records are searchable online by address, which occasionally matters for a condition dispute but never decides an accommodation question.

### Can the association ask me for documentation directly?

It can ask for what a housing provider may ask for, on the same limits. Where the disability and the animal's role are not obvious, a provider may seek verification of the disability, the accommodation needed and the link between them. It may not require an expert witness (the Michigan Supreme Court settled that in 2022), and it may not require registration, because the Michigan Department of Civil Rights says its voluntary identification programme for trained service animals confers no legal privileges or protections and tells anyone required by a landlord to register an animal to file a complaint. Send one letter that answers the question properly rather than several partial ones.

### What happens if the association fines my landlord over the animal?

That is a dispute between the owner and the association, and it does not suspend your rights. The accommodation duty runs against the housing provider under MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) and against the association through the same act's definition of real property. If the pressure lands on you as an eviction threat, the refusal to accommodate is the thing to complain about, to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights within 180 days, and to HUD within one year under 24 C.F.R. § 103.35. Get the fine, the notice and the correspondence into one file, dated.

### Where do Macomb County renters get free legal help?

Lakeshore Legal Aid takes applications for free civil legal services by phone on (888) 783-8190 or through an online intake. The Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit provides investigation and advocacy across Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and St. Clair counties. For the formal complaint, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights runs telephone intake on 1-800-482-3604, an online portal, and Zoom appointments through its Virtual Intake service; Michigan Relay is available on 711.

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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%2Fsterling-heights