# ESA Letter in Eden Prairie, MN: The 60-Day Form Is Not Your Deadline

> Eden Prairie's ADA grievance window covers city programs, not landlords. What Minn. Stat. § 504B.113 deletes from a lease, and the one-year clock that governs.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 62,905
- Households renting: 23.9%
- 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)

## Four stations, and a suburb where most households own

Eden Prairie had an estimated 62,905 residents on 1 July 2024 (Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2024). Of its 25,665 occupied homes, 6,128
are rented: 23.9 percent, on the 2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year
estimate, under the 27.8 percent statewide share.

That is the picture before the trains. The METRO Green Line Extension will, in
the Metropolitan Council's words, "extend the METRO Green Line approximately 14.5
miles from downtown Minneapolis through St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and
Eden Prairie," opening in 2027. Four of its sixteen stations land here (SouthWest
Station, Town Center Station, Golden Triangle and City West), more than any other
suburb on the route. Golden Triangle holds C.H. Robinson's headquarters at 14701
Charlson Road, and new buildings near stations carry pet price sheets.

## The 60-day form that is not about your landlord

Eden Prairie's Human Rights and Diversity Commission runs one formal grievance
process: an ADA Grievance Procedure, and it carries a hard deadline: a grievance
goes in "no later than 60 calendar days after the alleged violation."

Now read its scope. The procedure "may be used by anyone who wishes to file a
complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of
services, activities, programs or benefits by the City of Eden Prairie."

By the City. A city program, a city facility, a city service, not your
landlord.

It is the most expensive misreading here. A renter refused in March
finds the city's grievance page, reads "60 calendar days," and gives up in May.
Ten months they still had, gone.

The deadline that governs a housing discrimination claim is Minn. Stat.
§ 363A.28, subd. 3: one year to bring a civil action, file a charge with a local
commission, or file a charge with the commissioner. One year, not sixty days.
That subdivision suspends the year during a voluntary arbitration, conciliation,
mediation or grievance process, and bars a respondent who joins one without
notifying the department from pleading the limitation period.

If your complaint really is against a city program, an access barrier at a
municipal building, that form is right, and Paja Xiong at 952-949-8394, 8080
Mitchell Road, is the staff contact. Against a leasing office it is the wrong
door and the wrong clock.

## Advisory capacity, and the decision it spares you

The commission's charter is blunt. Its duty is to "act in an advisory capacity to
the City on matters of diversity, civil and human rights, and the Americans with
Disabilities Act." It advises the council; it takes no charges and issues no
findings.

The state agrees. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights says 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 a city ordinance, and that local commissions "are not affiliated
with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights."

One upside: Minn. Stat. § 363A.07, subd. 3 provides that filing a charge with
one agency "shall preclude the option of filing the same charge
with the other agency", a choice made once and never unmade. Here it never
arises, because no local body can take a charge. Your route is the state, or
court.

## The chapter that names the animal, and the lines it deletes

Minnesota wrote support animals into its landlord-tenant chapter by name.
Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(c) defines one as an animal providing emotional
support that alleviates identified symptoms or effects of a disability, and which
"does not need to be trained to perform a specific disability-related task."
Subd. 1(d) counts a prospective tenant as a tenant, so the protection is live
while you are still applying.

Subd. 3(a) handles the money: 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." Subd. 1(f) makes the accommodation
the waiver of a "no-pets or pet-fee policy," so a building with a rate card is
reached as squarely as one with a ban. Three lines go: the pet fee, the pet
deposit, the monthly pet rent. Liability for damage the animal causes stays.

Your ordinary security deposit is untouched, and Minnesota sets no ceiling on it,
which is why subd. 3(a) rather than a dollar cap is the protection.
Minn. Stat. § 504B.178 makes it earn one percent simple non-compounded interest
and requires it back, with interest or a written statement of the specific reason
for withholding, within three weeks of the tenancy ending, and proving that
reason is the landlord's burden.

## When the lease says nothing, the silence is worth money

Since 2024, subd. 3(b) has made a lease disclosure mandatory wherever pet fees
are charged: the lease has to say the fees do not reach a service or support
animal. Subd. 3(c) supplies the remedy. Money already handed over under a pet
policy (fee, charge or deposit) can be recovered by suit where the disclosure
was absent, provided the tenant shows an accommodation would have been requested
and "would likely have received" one. Hunt for it in your lease. If it is
missing, photograph the page.

## What your letter carries, and what nobody may ask for

Subd. 1(e) names who may sign, and the list is closed: physicians licensed by the
Board of Medical Practice, physician assistants, nurses, psychologists, mental
health professionals, social workers and counselors. Someone in those professions
licensed elsewhere qualifies only where an existing treatment relationship with
you is already in place. Then the side door shuts, a licensed professional "does
not include any person who operates primarily to provide certification for a
service or support animal." Minnesota keeps no registry.

Subd. 2(a) lets a landlord ask for documentation but forbids it where the
disability or the need is "readily apparent or already known." Under subd. 2(b) a
landlord "must not require the tenant to disclose or provide access to medical
records or medical providers."

Qualifying is measured by Minn. Stat. § 363A.03, subd. 12: an impairment
that "materially limits" a major life activity, a record of one, being regarded
as having one, or one "episodic or in remission." That is broader wording than
the federal "substantially limits."

## Real statutes aimed at somebody else

Minn. Stat. § 256C.025, subd. 4 mentions housing and says a person "shall not be
required to pay extra compensation", but only a person totally or partially
blind, deaf, or with a physical disability who has a service dog. A mental-health
disability is outside it.

Subd. 5, added in 2025, covers a service dog in training supervised by an
Assistance Dogs International or International Guide Dog Federation accredited
organisation, and lets a landlord or a homeowners association board demand
written certification from it. That is the only place Minnesota law allows
outside certification, and it is not about an emotional support animal.

Minn. Stat. § 609.833 makes misrepresenting a service animal a petty
misdemeanour, in a place of public accommodation only. In housing, § 504B.113,
subd. 4 and 5 let a landlord deny the request.

Minn. Stat. § 504B.114 voids lease terms requiring declawing or devocalisation,
with penalties up to $1,000 per animal. And Minn. Stat. § 504B.261 does let a
landlord require an extra damage deposit, but it turns on a disability
accessible unit plus a rent subsidy, not on an accommodation request. Never blend
the two.

## Where an Eden Prairie renter gets an answer

Eden Prairie runs no housing authority. Rental assistance here comes from Metro
HRA, the Metropolitan Council's housing agency, on (612) 602-1428.

If the answer is no, Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1(2) reaches discrimination in
"the terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental. The limb a fee is challenged
under. Subd. 1(1) reaches a refusal to rent because of disability; subd. 6 bars
punishing you for asking.

No charge is required first. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1 allows a civil action
"directly to district court," subd. 6 gives either side a jury, and 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." Federal
law runs a separate clock: 42 U.S.C. § 3610(a)(1)(A)(i) gives HUD one year to
receive a housing complaint.

HOME Line's free tenant hotline is 612-728-5767, with Spanish at 612-255-8870,
Somali at 612-255-8860 and Hmong at 612-255-7104. Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid's
housing program serves Hennepin County; intake is 1-877-696-6529. Write the date
of the refusal at the top of your file, and the one-year mark beside it, not
sixty days.

## What Eden Prairie 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 Eden Prairie

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

- [Minnesota Department of Human Rights](https://mn.gov/mdhr/) (state agency)
- [Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, Housing (serves Hennepin County)](https://mylegalaid.org/how-we-help/housing/) (legal aid)
- [HOME Line, Minnesota tenant hotline](https://homelinemn.org/) (tenant org)
- [Metro HRA, Metropolitan Council rental assistance](https://metrocouncil.org/Housing/Services/Metro-HRA-Rental-Assistance.aspx) (housing authority)

## Frequently asked questions

### Eden Prairie's disability grievance form says 60 calendar days. Is that my deadline for a landlord problem?

No, and this is the most costly mix-up available in this city. The City of Eden Prairie's ADA Grievance Procedure does say a grievance must be filed "no later than 60 calendar days after the alleged violation," but the same document limits itself to a complaint "alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in the provision of services, activities, programs or benefits by the City of Eden Prairie." A private landlord is not a City program. For a housing discrimination claim, Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3 sets the window at one year, measured to a civil action, a charge with a local commission, or a charge with the commissioner. Treating the 60-day figure as your housing deadline would surrender ten months you still had.

### Can the Human Rights and Diversity Commission investigate my apartment manager?

It cannot. The commission's stated duty is to "act in an advisory capacity to the City on matters of diversity, civil and human rights, and the Americans with Disabilities Act." It advises the city council; it does not take charges against private housing providers or issue findings. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights confirms the boundary, stating that "currently, only the Minneapolis Civil Rights Department and Saint Paul's Department of Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity are authorized" to conduct investigations and issue findings under a city ordinance, and that local commissions "are not affiliated with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights."

### Do I have to choose between a city agency and the state before I file?

Not in Eden Prairie, which is one worry you can drop. Minn. Stat. § 363A.07, subd. 3 says that filing a charge with one agency "shall preclude the option of filing the same charge with the other agency," and in the two Minnesota cities with an authorized municipal agency that is a permanent decision. Eden Prairie has no body that can accept a housing charge, so the choice never arises here. Your options are a charge with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights within the one year set by Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3, or a civil action under Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1.

### My building publishes a pet fee, a pet deposit and monthly pet rent. Which of those survive an approved support animal?

None of the three. 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 each of those words maps onto one line of a standard price sheet. Subd. 1(f) makes clear that the accommodation is the waiver of a "no-pets or pet-fee policy," so a pet-friendly building with a rate card is covered as fully as one that bans animals. What remains is your liability for damage the animal actually causes, which is assessed on evidence afterwards rather than collected up front.

### Who is allowed to write my documentation, and does a clinician licensed outside Minnesota count?

Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(e) reaches counselors, social workers, mental health professionals, psychologists, nurses, physician assistants, and anyone licensed by the Board of Medical Practice, and nobody else. Someone in one of those professions licensed in another state also qualifies, but only where that professional already has an existing treatment relationship with you. The subdivision then excludes "any person who operates primarily to provide certification for a service or support animal," which rules out the businesses selling instant paperwork. Minnesota has no support animal registry and there is no card, vest or certificate to buy.

### My Eden Prairie lease lists pet charges but never mentions support animals. Does that omission matter?

It may be worth money to you. Under Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 3(b), a landlord whose lease carries pet fees has to state in that lease that the fees do not reach a service or support animal. Subd. 3(c) supplies the consequence: a tenant may sue to recover fees, charges or deposits already paid under a pet policy where that disclosure was absent, on showing they would have asked for an accommodation and "would likely have received" one. If the sentence is absent from your lease, photograph the page before anything gets amended.

### Where does an Eden Prairie renter get help, and who runs rental assistance here?

Eden Prairie does not operate its own housing authority. Rental assistance in the city is administered by Metro HRA, the Metropolitan Council's housing agency, reachable at (612) 602-1428. For tenant questions, HOME Line's free hotline is 612-728-5767, with Spanish at 612-255-8870, Somali at 612-255-8860 and Hmong at 612-255-7104. Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid's housing program serves Hennepin County and takes intake calls at 1-877-696-6529. A charge itself goes to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

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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%2Feden-prairie