# ESA Letter in Maple Grove, MN: Pet Fees, Paperwork, One Deadline

> Fewer than one Maple Grove home in five is rented and the city has no rights commission. What Minn. Stat. § 504B.113 deletes from a lease, and who to call.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 72,739
- Households renting: 17.7%
- 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)

## Retail by the million, and a rental market under one in five

Maple Grove is a place people drive to for work. The city's business page
counts "more than 5.3 million square feet of retail space, including 25 retail
centers, over 100 dining options, and 10 hotels." It reports "an increase of
over 12,500 jobs" since 2011 and projects total employment of 47,000 by 2040.
Medical device and health-tech manufacturing accounts for 17 percent of
private sector jobs, and over 2,100 acres are still undeveloped.

The housing behind it is mostly owned. Of Maple Grove's 27,811 occupied homes,
4,919 are rented, 17.7 percent on the 2020-2024 American Community Survey
five-year estimate, against 27.8 percent statewide. The Population Estimates
Program put the city at 72,739 residents on 1 July 2024. Among Minnesota's
twenty largest cities, Maple Grove is one of the least rented: fewer than one
home in five.

## When nobody at the leasing desk has done this before

Two things follow from a 17.7 percent renter share.

The first is unfamiliarity. Where four homes in five are owner-occupied, the
landlord reading your request may never have seen one. What comes back is
often not a refusal but a stall: a promise to check, a form nobody can find.
Unfamiliar is not hostile, and it answers better to a citation than an
argument.

The second is the rental stock. A city with over 2,100 undeveloped acres keeps
adding apartments, and newer apartment communities are the ones most likely to
price a written pet policy: a deposit at move-in, pet rent every month,
sometimes both. That is what the statute below switches off.

## The pet price list, and the subdivision that switches it off

Minnesota named the support animal in its landlord-tenant chapter rather than
leaving it to a general accommodation duty. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(c)
defines a support animal as one providing emotional support that alleviates
identified symptoms or effects of a disability, and that "does not need to be
trained to perform a specific disability-related task." Subd. 1(f) defines the
accommodation as waiving a "no-pets or pet-fee policy", the price list named
beside the ban.

Subd. 3(a) does 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." Deposit, one-time fee and
monthly pet rent all sit inside those three words. What survives is liability
for damage the animal actually causes, assessed on evidence afterwards.

Your ordinary security deposit is untouched. Minnesota sets no ceiling on it,
which is why a fee ban rather than a dollar limit protects you. Under Minn.
Stat. § 504B.178 it earns one percent simple non-compounded interest and must
come back within three weeks of the tenancy ending: with that interest, or
with a written statement of the specific reason for withholding, which the
landlord bears the burden of proving.

Subd. 3(b) puts a duty on any landlord whose leases carry pet charges: the
lease itself has to say those charges do not reach a service or support
animal. Where that line is absent, subd. 3(c) opens a claim for money already
handed over, provided you show you would have asked and "would likely have
received" an accommodation.

## The letter, its author, and the file nobody gets to open

Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(e) closes the list of who may write your
documentation: a nurse, a psychologist, a counselor, a social worker, a mental
health professional, a physician assistant, or someone licensed by the Board
of Medical Practice. One licensed in another state also counts, but only where
they already have an existing treatment relationship with you. The subdivision
then shuts the shortcut: a licensed professional "does not include any person
who operates primarily to provide certification for a service or support
animal."

Subd. 2(a) lets a landlord ask for documentation, but not where the disability
or the need is "readily apparent or already known." Subd. 2(b) fixes the
contents: the disability, and its relationship to the need for the animal. It
also bars a landlord from requiring a 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."

Who counts as disabled comes from 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 would
materially limit when active. Materially — where the federal wording says
substantially.

## Near misses in the statute book

Landlords do quote real statutes here. They exist, and they aim elsewhere.

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

Subd. 5, added in 2025, extends those rights to a service dog in training
supervised by an organisation accredited by Assistance Dogs International or
the International Guide Dog Federation, and lets a landlord require written
certification from that organisation. It is the only place Minnesota law lets
a housing provider demand outside paperwork, and it has nothing to do with an
emotional support animal. No registry, no card to buy.

Minn. Stat. § 609.833 makes misrepresenting a service animal a petty
misdemeanor, in a place of public accommodation, not in housing. In housing
the consequence sits in § 504B.113, subds. 4 and 5: knowingly misrepresenting
a disability or supplying fraudulent documentation lets the landlord deny the
request. Civil, not criminal.

## Arbor, lakes, parks, planning, transit, and no rights commission

Maple Grove publishes a complete roster of its boards and commissions, and the
gap is obvious: an Arbor Committee, a Lake Quality Commission, a Parks and
Recreation Board, a Planning Commission, a Transit and Mobility Committee. The
city's sitemap confirms those are the only commission-type bodies on the site.
No human rights commission, no civil rights body, no equity body.

The state confirms it. 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
conduct investigations and issue findings under their city ordinances.

That absence removes a decision, not a right. Minn. Stat. § 363A.07, subd. 3
makes filing with one agency "preclude the option of filing the same charge
with the other agency": a real fork in Minneapolis, a non-event here. No
second agency exists to forfeit.

The city runs no housing authority either. Rental assistance here comes from
Metro HRA, the Metropolitan Council's agency, which "provides housing for more
than 7,200 households throughout Anoka, Carver, and suburban Hennepin and
Ramsey counties." Maple Grove is suburban Hennepin. Metro HRA issues vouchers;
it does not investigate discrimination.

## The form that does not start your clock, and the calls that help

MDHR takes housing complaints statewide and offers an online consultation and
inquiry form. Read the line the department prints on that page before relying
on it: "Filling out this form does not mean you filed a charge of
discrimination." MDHR reviews your submission first. The form is an opening,
not a filing.

The deadline keeps running meanwhile. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3 gives one
year to bring a civil action or file a charge with the commissioner. That year
is suspended during voluntary arbitration, conciliation, mediation or a
grievance process, and a landlord who joins one without telling the department
cannot later plead the limitation period. Negotiating is safe. Assuming a web
form stopped the clock is not.

Minn. Stat. § 363A.09 covers the conduct: subd. 1(1) for refusing to rent
because of disability, subd. 1(2) for discriminating in "the terms, conditions
or privileges" of a rental, subd. 6 for interfering with anyone exercising
these rights.

You may also skip the agency. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1 allows a civil
action "directly to district court," no charge first; subd. 6 gives either
side a jury; subd. 8(a) says a court finding discrimination "shall order"
compensatory damages "including mental anguish or suffering, in an amount up
to three times the actual damages sustained."

Start with a phone call. HOME Line answers Minnesota tenants free on
612-728-5767. Central Minnesota Legal Services' Minneapolis office is "serving
Hennepin and Anoka counties," intake 1-877-696-6529. Either can tell you
whether the pet line on your Maple Grove lease is one the statute already
deleted.

## What Maple Grove 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 Maple Grove

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

- [Minnesota Department of Human Rights, consultation and inquiry form](https://mn.gov/mdhr/intake/consultationinquiryform/) (state agency)
- [Central Minnesota Legal Services, Minneapolis office (Hennepin and Anoka counties)](https://centralmnlegal.org/contact/minneapolis/) (legal aid)
- [HOME Line, free Minnesota tenant hotline](https://homelinemn.org/) (tenant org)
- [Metro HRA, Metropolitan Council rental assistance for suburban Hennepin County](https://metrocouncil.org/Housing/Services/Metro-HRA-Rental-Assistance.aspx) (housing authority)

## Frequently asked questions

### Maple Grove's commission roster has no human rights body. Does that leave me with nothing local?

It leaves you with one route instead of two, which is simpler rather than weaker. The city's boards and commissions roster lists an Arbor Committee, a Lake Quality Commission, a Parks and Recreation Board, a Planning Commission and a Transit and Mobility Committee, and the city sitemap confirms those are the only commission-type bodies on the site. 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 their own city ordinances. So your charge goes to the commissioner, or straight to district court, within one year under Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3. The one-agency election in Minn. Stat. § 363A.07, subd. 3 never bites here, because there is no second agency to give up.

### I filled in the MDHR inquiry form online. Is my charge filed now?

No, and the department says so on the form itself: "Filling out this form does not mean you filed a charge of discrimination." MDHR reviews what you submit before anything is charged. Treat the form as an opening move, not a filing, and keep your own calendar. Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3 allows one year to bring a civil action or file a charge with the commissioner, and a pending inquiry does not itself stop that year running.

### Maple Grove has no housing authority. Does Metro HRA decide my animal request?

No. Metro HRA is the Metropolitan Council's rental assistance agency and it "provides housing for more than 7,200 households throughout Anoka, Carver, and suburban Hennepin and Ramsey counties." Maple Grove is suburban Hennepin, so it is the voucher agency for this city, but vouchers are its job. It does not investigate discrimination and it issues no findings on an accommodation request. The person who must answer your request is your landlord, under Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, and the agency that reviews a refusal is the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

### The management company says the pet fee is standard across every building it runs. Does that change anything?

No. 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." It does not carve out charges that are applied consistently. A uniform policy is still a policy, and subd. 1(f) defines the accommodation as waiving a "no-pets or pet-fee policy". The uniformity is the thing being waived. Under Minn. Stat. § 363A.09, subd. 1(2) a charge imposed because of disability is discrimination in the "terms, conditions or privileges" of the rental.

### My lease says any cat must be declawed. Can a Maple Grove landlord require that?

No. Minn. Stat. § 504B.114, enacted in 2023, bars a landlord from requiring declawing or devocalization, from refusing occupancy because a tenant will not agree to it, and from advertising in a way that discourages such applicants. A lease provision that requires it is "void and unenforceable." A city attorney, county attorney or the attorney general may sue, with penalties of up to $1,000 per advertisement and up to $1,000 per animal. This applies to any animal in the unit, not only one approved as a support animal.

### My support animal has no training at all. Does that sink the request?

No, and Minnesota says so in the definition. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(c) describes a support animal as one that provides emotional support alleviating one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability, and adds that it "does not need to be trained to perform a specific disability-related task." Training is what separates a service animal from a support animal in other parts of the law; it is not a condition of the accommodation under this section. What your documentation has to establish under subd. 2(b) is the disability and the relationship between the disability and the need for the animal.

### I cannot afford a lawyer. Is district court realistically open to me?

It may be. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1 lets a person bring a civil action "directly to district court" with no charge filed first and no administrative step to exhaust. Subd. 4 lets the court appoint an attorney and authorise the action to be commenced without payment of fees, costs or security, note that this covers commencing the action. Subd. 7 gives the court discretion to award attorney's fees to the prevailing party, and subd. 6 entitles either side to a jury. Before any of that, HOME Line's free tenant hotline on 612-728-5767 and Central Minnesota Legal Services in Minneapolis on 1-877-696-6529 cost nothing to call.

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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%2Fmaple-grove