# ESA Letter in Burnsville, MN: A Renting Suburb at the I-35 Split

> Burnsville rents 35.3% of its homes and runs no human rights commission. What Minn. Stat. § 504B.113 deletes from a pet addendum, and who to call.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/minnesota-emotional-support-animal/burnsville/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-11
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 64,864
- Households renting: 35.3%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Varies by building
- 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)

## Two interstates meet here, and so does a third of the housing stock

The city's economic development page places Burnsville as "a diverse business
community located at the intersection of two major interstates -- I-35W and
I-35E," home to "2,500 successful businesses."

A junction like that pulls in workers, and workers rent. Burnsville has 25,891
occupied homes and 9,151 of them are rented, 35.3 percent on the 2020-2024
American Community Survey five-year estimate, against 27.8 percent across
Minnesota. Its Vintage 2024 estimate put the population at 64,864.

Eleven of Minnesota's twenty largest cities rent above the state rate, and
Burnsville has the sixth-highest share of the twenty, the most rented of the
Dakota County cities on this list. Leasing offices here treat animal
requests as routine paperwork, which is why the paperwork repays close
reading.

## A pet addendum, meet the section written for it

Minnesota did not leave the support animal to a general duty of accommodation
that never says "animal." It wrote one into the landlord-tenant chapter, under
a heading: Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, "Service and Support Animal Documentation."

Subd. 1(c) settles the argument a manager usually opens with. A support animal
is one that "provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified
symptoms or effects of a person's disability" and that "does not need to be
trained to perform a specific disability-related task." Training is off the
table by definition.

Subd. 1(d) folds a prospective tenant into the word "tenant," so the section
already works while you are touring a Burnsville building. Nearby, Minn. Stat.
§ 504B.114, enacted in 2023, bars a landlord from requiring that a cat or dog
be declawed or devocalized; a clause that tries is "void and unenforceable."

## Pet rent is a charge, and the ban reaches charges

Subd. 1(f) defines a reasonable accommodation as waiving a "no-pets or pet-fee
policy." Both halves matter in a city of managed apartment buildings, where the
obstacle is rarely a flat ban. It is a price list.

Subd. 3(a) is the line that does the work: a landlord "must not require a
tenant with a reasonable accommodation under this section to pay an additional
fee, charge, or deposit for the service or support animal." Three lines on a
Burnsville pet addendum answer to it. The one-time pet fee is a fee. The pet
deposit is a deposit. The monthly pet rent is a charge, and a charge does not
stop being one because software issues it every first of the month. What
survives is liability for damage the animal actually causes, decided at the end
on evidence rather than pre-collected on suspicion.

Your ordinary security deposit survives too. Minnesota sets no ceiling on its
amount, which is why a fee ban rather than a dollar limit is what protects a
renter here. Minn. Stat. § 504B.178 gives it 1 percent simple non-compounded
interest a year and requires it back, with that interest or a written statement
of the specific reason for withholding, within three weeks of the tenancy
ending.

## The disclosure your lease may have skipped

Subd. 3(b) binds any landlord who charges pet fees at all: the lease must
disclose that they cannot be charged for a service or support animal. Hunt for
that sentence in your addendum.

If it is absent, subd. 3(c) turns the omission into money. A tenant may sue to
recover fees, charges or deposits already paid under the pet policy, on showing
they would have asked for an accommodation and "would likely have received"
one. A Burnsville lease that prices animals and never mentions the exemption is
not merely incomplete. It hands the tenant a claim.

## Who Minnesota lets sign, and the industry it defined out

Subd. 1(e) is a closed list: someone licensed by the Board of Medical Practice
under chapter 147, a physician assistant under 147A, a nurse or psychologist
under 148, a mental health professional under 148B, a social worker under 148E,
a counselor under 148F. One of those professionals licensed by another state
counts too, but only where an existing treatment relationship with you is
already in place.

The subdivision then closes with a sentence that deletes an online market: "A
licensed professional does not include any person who operates primarily to
provide certification for a service or support animal." A seller of documents
is excluded by what it sells.

What a landlord may ask is narrower than most addenda suggest. Subd. 2(a)
allows a documentation request but forbids one where the disability or the
disability-related need is "readily apparent or already known." Subd. 2(b)
limits the document to confirming the disability and its link to the need for
the animal, and adds that a landlord "must not require the tenant to disclose
or provide access to medical records or medical providers or provide any other
information or documentation of a person's physical or mental disability."

## Two sections that sound close and are not

Minn. Stat. § 256C.025, subd. 4 is misquoted most. It does mention housing, and
it does say a person "shall not be required to pay extra compensation." It also
reaches only a person "totally or partially blind, or person who is deaf, or
person with a physical disability" who has a service dog. A renter whose
disability is a mental health condition sits outside it.

Subd. 5, added in 2025, covers a service dog in training supervised by an
organization accredited by Assistance Dogs International or the International
Guide Dog Federation, and lets a landlord or homeowners association board
demand that organization's written certification. It is the one corner of
Minnesota law where outside certification may be demanded of a renter, and an
emotional support animal is nowhere in it.

The petty misdemeanor at Minn. Stat. § 609.833 governs public accommodations,
not apartments; in housing, § 504B.113, subd. 4 and 5 let a landlord deny a
request built on knowingly false information. Civil, no fine.

## Three advisory commissions, and no intake desk among them

Burnsville's roster of city boards and commissions is short: the Economic
Development Commission, the Parks and Natural Resources Commission and the
Planning Commission, plus youth seats. The city sums up their job in one line:
these groups "research, review, and make recommendations to the City Council on
policy issues." No human rights, civil rights or equity body appears, and
nothing on the roster receives a complaint.

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights states
that "currently, only the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department and Saint Paul's
Department of Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity are authorized" to
investigate and issue findings under their own city ordinances.

For a Burnsville renter this subtracts a decision, not an option. Minn. Stat.
§ 363A.07, subd. 3 says filing with one agency "shall preclude the option of
filing the same charge with the other agency". A choice that cannot arise
where there is no local agency to pick. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3 gives
you one year, running to the Commissioner of Human Rights or to court, and
suspended while a voluntary mediation, conciliation, arbitration or grievance
process runs.

Name the wrong when you file. A refusal to rent because of disability is Minn.
Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1(1); a fee left on the account after an approved
accommodation is subd. 1(2), on the "terms, conditions or privileges" of a
rental; pressure after you ask is subd. 6.

## One year on the clock, and who to call inside Dakota County

The Dakota County Community Development Agency is the housing authority here.
Since 1975 it has been, in its own words, "dedicated to providing local, state
and federal rental assistance programs to residents of Dakota County," and it
runs Housing Choice Vouchers for over 2,700 households, on (651) 675-4400. Its
fair housing page lists the HUD Fair Housing Hotline on 1-800-669-9777, the
Minnesota Department of Human Rights on 651-296-5663, the Housing Equity Law
Project on 651-222-5863 and the Housing Discrimination Law Project on
612-827-3774.

Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services covers Dakota County among the 33
counties it serves, across "a full range of civil matters," with intake on
877-696-6529. HOME Line takes Minnesota tenants' calls at no charge, and it is
the cheapest first move of all.

Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1 lets you file a civil action "directly to
district court" with nothing to exhaust first; subd. 6 gives either side a
jury. Subd. 8(a) says the court "shall order" compensatory
damages "including mental anguish or suffering, in an amount up to three times
the actual damages sustained."

Most requests end far earlier, with a leasing office deleting one recurring
line from an account.

## What Burnsville landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- A landlord may not charge an additional fee, charge or deposit for an approved service or support animal (Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 3(a)). Pet rent, pet deposits and one-time pet fees all fall away; liability for actual damage the animal causes does not.
- A landlord may not require a tenant to hand over medical records, give access to medical providers, or supply any other documentation of the disability itself (§ 504B.113, subd. 2(b)). The letter confirms the disability and the need for the animal; it does not open the file.
- Cannot rely on a certificate bought from a registry website. Anyone "who operates primarily to provide certification for a service or support animal" is excluded from the statutory list by name (§ 504B.113, subd. 1(e)), so such a certificate is not documentation from a licensed professional.
- A support animal does not have to be trained to do any task (§ 504B.113, subd. 1(c)(2)). A landlord may not refuse the accommodation for want of training records.
- A landlord may not make declawing or devocalization a condition of keeping an animal, advertise to discourage applicants who refuse, or write the requirement into a lease; such a clause is void and unenforceable (Minn. Stat. § 504B.114).
- Cannot charge for the animal or refuse the accommodation without exposure to a claim of discrimination in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental under Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1(2).
- A landlord may not coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant for asking (Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 6).

**Can:**
- A landlord may ask for supporting documentation, but not where the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known to the landlord (§ 504B.113, subd. 2(a)).
- The letter must come from a licensed professional on the statutory list: a physician, physician assistant, nurse, psychologist, mental health professional, social worker or counselor licensed in Minnesota, or the same professions licensed in another state where there is an existing treatment relationship (§ 504B.113, subd. 1(e)).
- The protection covers a prospective tenant as well as a current one, because "tenant" is defined to include both (§ 504B.113, subd. 1(d)). The request can be made during the application.
- A landlord that charges pet fees at all must disclose in the lease that they cannot be charged for a service or support animal (§ 504B.113, subd. 3(b)), and a tenant who paid because that disclosure was missing may sue to get the money back (subd. 3(c)).
- A security deposit must be returned with one percent annual interest, or a written statement of the specific reason for withholding it furnished, within three weeks of the tenancy ending, and the landlord carries the burden of proving the reason (Minn. Stat. § 504B.178, subds. 2, 3).
- May set an ordinary security deposit at any amount, because Minnesota caps none. That is precisely why the fee ban rather than a dollar ceiling is what protects a tenant with a support animal.
- A tenant who knowingly misrepresents a disability or supplies fraudulent documentation can have the application or the animal request denied, and can face eviction for a lease breach (§ 504B.113, subds. 4-5).

## How to get an ESA letter in Burnsville

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

- [Minnesota Department of Human Rights](https://mn.gov/mdhr/) (state agency)
- [Dakota County CDA, rental assistance programs, (651) 675-4400](https://www.dakotacda.org/housing-resources/rental-assistance/) (housing authority)
- [Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, how we can help, intake 877-696-6529](https://www.smrls.org/how-we-can-help) (legal aid)
- [HOME Line, free Minnesota tenant hotline](https://homelinemn.org/) (tenant org)

## Frequently asked questions

### I looked for a Burnsville human rights commission and could not find one. Did I miss it?

No. The city's complete list of advisory bodies is the Economic Development Commission, the Parks and Natural Resources Commission and the Planning Commission, plus youth seats, and the page describes all of them the same way: these groups "research, review, and make recommendations to the City Council on policy issues." None takes complaints. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights confirms the wider position, stating that "currently, only the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department and Saint Paul's Department of Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity are authorized" to investigate and issue findings under their own city ordinances. Your charge goes to the state department, within one year under Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3.

### The Dakota County CDA runs vouchers here. Can it order my landlord to accept the animal?

It is not the enforcement body for a discrimination claim. The Dakota County Community Development Agency has been "dedicated to providing local, state and federal rental assistance programs to residents of Dakota County" since 1975 and administers Housing Choice Vouchers for over 2,700 households, on (651) 675-4400. What it can do is point you at the right desk. Its fair housing page carries four numbers: HUD's Fair Housing Hotline (1-800-669-9777), the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (651-296-5663), the Housing Equity Law Project (651-222-5863) and the Housing Discrimination Law Project (612-827-3774). The accommodation duty itself sits on your landlord under Minn. Stat. § 504B.113.

### My leasing office says the monthly pet charge is set by corporate and cannot be removed. Now what?

Corporate policy does not outrank the statute. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 3(a) says a landlord "must not require a tenant with a reasonable accommodation under this section to pay an additional fee, charge, or deposit for the service or support animal," and a recurring monthly amount is a charge no matter which system generates it. Subd. 1(f) puts it beyond argument by defining the accommodation as a waiver of a "no-pets or pet-fee policy." Put the request in writing, cite the subdivision, and ask for the line to be removed from the account rather than credited back later.

### I am touring apartments near the I-35 split and have not applied yet. When does the protection start?

Before the application, not after the lease. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(d) defines "tenant" to include a prospective tenant, so the fee ban and the documentation limits are already in force while you are viewing units and filling in forms. Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1(3) reaches discriminatory advertisements, application forms and inquiries as well, and subd. 1(1) covers an outright refusal to rent because of disability. If a leasing office quotes you a pet fee for an animal you have documentation for, that conversation is happening inside the statute already.

### My disability is not something anyone can see. Can a Burnsville landlord insist on paperwork?

A landlord may ask, within limits. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 2(a) permits a documentation request but forbids one where the disability or the disability-related need is "readily apparent or already known." Subd. 2(b) then confines the document to a licensed professional's confirmation of the disability and of the link between it and the need for the animal, and states that the landlord "must not require the tenant to disclose or provide access to medical records or medical providers or provide any other information or documentation of a person's physical or mental disability." The underlying test comes from Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 12: an impairment that "materially limits" a major life activity, broader wording than the federal standard, and expressly reaching an impairment that is "episodic or in remission."

### How much can a Burnsville landlord hold as an ordinary security deposit, and when does it come back?

Minnesota sets no cap on the amount, which is precisely why the fee ban in Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 3(a) rather than a dollar ceiling is what protects you on the animal. The ordinary deposit is governed by Minn. Stat. § 504B.178: it earns 1% simple non-compounded interest a year, and within three weeks of the tenancy ending the landlord must return it with that interest or send a written statement of the specific reason for withholding. Only unpaid rent or restoring the premises "ordinary wear and tear excepted" may be withheld, the landlord carries the burden of proving the reason, and any clause purporting to waive the section is void.

### The landlord will approve my cat if I have her declawed first. Is that a lawful condition?

No. Minn. Stat. § 504B.114, enacted in 2023, bars a landlord from requiring that a cat or dog be declawed or devocalized, from refusing occupancy because an applicant declines, and from advertising in a way that discourages such applicants. A lease provision imposing the condition is "void and unenforceable," and a city attorney, county attorney or the attorney general may sue, with penalties of up to $1,000 per animal and up to $1,000 per advertisement. Separately, attaching a condition to an approved accommodation that a tenant without an animal would never face is a matter of the "terms, conditions or privileges" of the rental under Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1(2).

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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=minnesota-emotional-support-animal%2Fburnsville