# ESA Letter in Westland, MI: Check First, Then Ask

> Westland lets you look up a rental's certificate before you apply. Use the same habit on the pet policy, and here is what the law does with it.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 82,745
- Households renting: 38.7%
- 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)

## A city that expects renters to check

Most Michigan cities keep their rental records for their own inspectors.
Westland points tenants at them. Its Residential Rental Program tells
prospective renters to open the city's Records Search, choose the Detailed
Record Search and then Building Department, type in the address, and look
under certificates to see whether the property "has had or has a rental
certificate".

That is worth doing, because a rental dwelling here "shall not be occupied
without a Certificate of Compliance", and the certificate lasts three
years.

It is also a habit worth extending. While you are checking the certificate,
ask the landlord or leasing office for the **pet policy in writing**. A
policy you have in front of you is a policy an accommodation request can be
aimed at; a policy described over the phone tends to change shape once an
animal is mentioned.

The same request, made in an email, produces a second useful thing: a dated
record that you asked before you applied. If the tone of the conversation
changes after that, you have the before and the after, which is exactly what
an investigator or a fair housing centre will ask you for.

## 38.7 percent of Westland rents

13,921 of the city's 35,932 occupied homes are rented, the highest renter
share of any Wayne County suburb in Michigan's top twenty. Median gross
rent is $1,158.

The stock is mixed: large apartment complexes with corporate policies,
duplexes, and single-family houses let by individuals. Which of those you
are dealing with changes who you send the request to, not what the request
says.

It also changes how long an answer takes. A single owner can decide in an
afternoon; a complex may route the request to a regional office and take a
fortnight. Neither timescale changes your deadline, so ask early enough
that a slow answer is still an answer inside the window you have.

## The rule, and the sentence to quote

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." 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) is the federal equivalent.

Note the word **policies**. When a complex says its pet rule is set
centrally and cannot be changed, it has described the exact thing the
statute contemplates changing. The right response is not to argue with the
leasing agent; it is to ask who has authority to decide accommodation
requests and to send it there in writing.

If the answer is still no, MCL 37.1102(2) puts the burden of the excuse on
the landlord: the accommodation is required "unless the person demonstrates
that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship."

## The city's fees are not your fees

Westland charges for rental registration and inspection: $125 for a single
family dwelling, $175 for a duplex, $250 for a quadplex, $54 per apartment
in a multi-family building, plus $75 for each inspector visit after the
second and $75 if the requester fails to show.

Those are the landlord's costs of being allowed to let the property. They
are not charges a tenant can be asked to cover, and they have nothing to do
with an animal.

What a landlord **may** collect from you is capped: MCL 554.602 limits
total deposits to one and a half months' rent (about **$1,737** here), and
MCL 554.601(d) sweeps a refundable pet deposit into that same ceiling 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."

For an approved assistance animal the pet portion should not be charged at
all, because MCL 37.1502(1)(b) bars discrimination in the terms and
conditions of a tenancy because of disability. Monthly pet rent is
unregulated in Michigan and by the city: a price for a pet, and for an
assistance animal a charge the accommodation duty answers.

## Vouchers and animals, together

Westland runs its own voucher programme. The Housing Commission sets policy
and budget for it, and the day-to-day administration sits with the city's
Housing and Community Development department.

If you hold a voucher and need an accommodation, you are relying on two
different protections at once. The accommodation duty runs against the
landlord whoever pays the rent. And **source of income** now sits among the
characteristics the Michigan Department of Civil Rights lists as protected,
so a landlord who backs away once the voucher is mentioned has a second
problem.

Practically: keep the two threads separate in your correspondence so it
stays clear which refusal was which, but raise both with MDCR if both
happened. The department takes one complaint that can carry more than one
basis.

The distinction is worth keeping clean for a second reason. A refusal aimed
at a voucher and a refusal aimed at an animal often arrive in the same
sentence, "we don't do that here", and the investigator's job is easier
when your file shows what was said, to whom, and on what date. Two short
notes written the same evening are worth more than one long account written
three months later.

## Documentation that holds up

A letter from a licensed professional who has actually evaluated you, which
names a real condition and says what the animal does about it.

Michigan has case law on the failure mode. In *Riverbrook v Fabode* the
Court of Appeals looked at a letter written after a single telephone call,
no records reviewed, no testing, no counselling, a condition that had not
been diagnosed, nothing about what the dog did, and refused to treat it as
establishing anything on its own. Then the Michigan Supreme Court held, on
29 November 2022, that neither the Fair Housing Act nor MCL 37.1506a(1)(b)
requires expert-witness testimony.

Between the two, the standard is realistic and it is not satisfied by
anything bought online. Michigan's own voluntary identification programme:
for trained service animals, confers no legal privileges or protections by
the Department of Civil Rights' own account, and being told by a landlord
to register is something the department says to complain about.

## Where to go, and the clock

**Michigan Department of Civil Rights**: 1-800-482-3604, online portal, or
a Zoom appointment through Virtual Intake. **180 days** from the refusal.
Beyond that, without federal jurisdiction, MDCR points to state court and a
three-year window; MCL 37.1606(2) puts venue in Wayne County Circuit Court
or wherever the landlord has its principal place of business.

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

**Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit**: (313) 963-1274, covering
Wayne County and naming Westland in its service area, with its own
investigators.

**Legal Aid and Defender Association**, civil legal services for Wayne,
Oakland and Macomb residents who cannot afford an attorney.

Nothing in Michigan law gives a landlord a deadline to reply to you, so the
only clock running is yours. Check the certificate, get the policy in
writing, make the request in writing, and date all three.

## What Westland 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 Westland

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

- [City of Westland Residential Rental Program](https://www.cityofwestland.com/203/Residential-Rental-Program) (city agency)
- [Westland Housing Commission](https://www.cityofwestland.com/356/Housing-Commission) (housing authority)
- [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)
- [Michigan Department of Civil Rights, service animals](https://www.michigan.gov/mdcr/divisions/ada-compliance/service-animals) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I check a Westland rental before I apply?

Yes, and the city expects you to. Its Residential Rental Program tells potential renters to use the City of Westland Records Search, select the Detailed Record Search and then the Building Department, and enter the address to see whether the property has had or currently has a rental certificate. Rental dwellings may not be occupied without a Certificate of Compliance, which is valid for three years. That check tells you about the building's condition record, not about the pet policy: for that, ask for the policy in writing at the same time.

### Does the city's rental certificate have anything to do with my assistance animal?

No. Certification is a housing-condition system: registration every three years, an initial and final inspection by a building inspector, and a furnace safety and carbon monoxide test certified by a mechanical contractor before occupancy is approved. The accommodation duty is separate and 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", together with 24 C.F.R. § 100.204(a) federally.

### I have a Westland housing voucher. Does that complicate the animal request?

It adds a second protected characteristic rather than a complication. The Westland Housing Commission makes policy and budgetary decisions for the Westland Housing Voucher Program and other programmes run through the city's Housing and Community Development department. Your landlord's duty to consider an accommodation runs under MCL 37.1506a(1)(b) whoever pays the rent, and source of income is now among the characteristics the Michigan Department of Civil Rights lists as protected, so a refusal aimed at the voucher and a refusal aimed at the animal are two separate complaints that can be made together.

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

One and a half months' rent in total under MCL 554.602: about $1,737 at the city's $1,158 median gross rent. A refundable pet deposit is inside that ceiling 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". Note that the city's rental registration fees ($125 for a single-family dwelling, $175 for a duplex, $54 per apartment in a multi-family building) are the landlord's costs, not charges a tenant can be asked to cover on top of the deposit.

### The complex says its pet policy is fixed by corporate. Is that an answer?

It is an identification of whose policy needs to change, not a reason it cannot. The statute is written about "rules, policies, practices, or services", which is precisely what a corporate pet policy is. Ask who has authority to decide accommodation requests and send the request there in writing. If the answer is still no, MCL 37.1102(2) requires the accommodation "unless the person demonstrates that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship", so the next question is what hardship, specifically, and the answer belongs to them.

### What documentation will hold up here?

A letter from a licensed professional who has actually evaluated you, naming a real condition and explaining what the animal does about it. Michigan's Court of Appeals looked closely at this in Riverbrook v Fabode, where a counsellor's letter based on one telephone call (no records, no testing, no counselling) did not survive; the Michigan Supreme Court then held that no expert-witness testimony is required by the Fair Housing Act or by MCL 37.1506a(1)(b). Certificates, ID cards and registry entries bought online are not documentation, and Michigan's own voluntary identification programme confers no legal privileges or protections.

### How long do I have if the complex refuses?

180 days to file with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights on 1-800-482-3604, counted from the refusal. Beyond that, and where no federal jurisdiction applies, MDCR points to state court with a three-year window; venue under MCL 37.1606(2) is Wayne County Circuit Court or wherever the landlord has its principal place of business. HUD's window is one year under 24 C.F.R. § 103.35. No Michigan statute gives a landlord a deadline to answer, so a request left hanging still needs a date on 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=michigan-emotional-support-animal%2Fwestland