# ESA Letter in Minneapolis, MN: Pet Rent, Portals and Two Front Doors

> Minneapolis renters outnumber owners and the city runs its own civil rights department. What Minn. Stat. § 504B.113 removes from your lease, and where to file.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 428,579
- Households renting: 52.3%
- 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)

## A city where renters are the majority, and the process already exists

Minneapolis has 192,734 occupied homes and 100,754 of them are rented. That is
52.3 percent against 27.8 percent statewide, on the 2020-2024 American
Community Survey five-year estimate, and it makes Minneapolis one of only two
Minnesota cities on this list where renting is the majority position.

That shapes how an animal request actually goes here. Most large Minneapolis
buildings are professionally managed, which means the accommodation request you
are about to make is not a novelty. There is a form. There is a person whose
job includes it. There is a portal.

The advantage is real. So is the failure mode: what comes back is often the
policy talking rather than the statute, and the policy may be older than the
law it is supposed to reflect.

## What the statute takes off the ledger

Minnesota wrote support animals into its landlord-tenant chapter by name.
Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(c) defines a support animal as one that
provides emotional support alleviating identified symptoms or effects of a
disability, and that "does not need to be trained to perform a specific
disability-related task."

Then 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."

Read that against a Minneapolis lease and three separate line items disappear.
The one-time pet fee is a fee. The pet deposit is a deposit. The pet rent your
building bills monthly through the resident portal is a charge, and a recurring
charge is still a charge whichever system generates it. The definition of
reasonable accommodation at subd. 1(f) makes the point explicitly. It is the
waiver of a "no-pets **or pet-fee** policy."

What survives is liability for damage the animal actually does. That is settled
at the end, on evidence, rather than collected at the start on an assumption.

## Ask for the charge to come off, not for a refund later

The practical version of all this is a sequencing point.

Portal-billed pet rent has a habit of surviving an approved accommodation
because nobody ever told the billing system. The manager says yes to the
animal, the ledger keeps charging, and three months later the tenant is asking
for money back instead of asking for a line to be deleted.

Since 1 January 2025 there has been a second reason to raise it early. The 2024
amendment to § 504B.113 added subd. 3(b), which requires a landlord that
charges pet fees to disclose in the lease that those fees cannot be charged for
a service or support animal. Subd. 3(c) then lets a tenant sue to recover fees
already paid under a pet policy where the disclosure was missing, provided the
tenant shows they would have asked for an accommodation and "would likely have
received" one.

So a Minneapolis lease that says nothing about the exemption is not merely
unhelpful. It may be the thing that gets a tenant their money back.

## Breed schedules are rules, and rules are what an accommodation adjusts

Weight ceilings and breed lists are ordinary in this city's larger buildings.
They are also, precisely, policies, and the Minnesota Department of Human
Rights addresses them directly on its service and emotional support animals in
housing page. A landlord, it says, "cannot reject an assistance animal based on
stereotypes about the service or emotional support animal's breed or size," and
a decision that a particular animal is dangerous or likely to cause damage must
rest on "an individualized assessment of the specific animal's actual conduct."

The same page carries the sentence most worth knowing if you already live in
the building: "In most cases, if the tenant currently lives in the rental
property, the landlord must allow the service or emotional support animal to
live with the tenant while the verification process is happening."

That is agency guidance rather than statute. But it is the position of the
agency that would investigate the complaint, and it is worth quoting to a
manager who wants the animal gone while a file is reviewed.

## Who writes the letter, and what a landlord may not ask

Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(e) sets out a closed list: a physician, a
physician assistant, a nurse, a psychologist, a mental health professional, a
social worker, or a counselor, each licensed under the chapter the statute
names. Someone in those professions licensed in another state qualifies too,
but only where they already have "an existing treatment relationship with the
tenant."

The subdivision then rules out the shortcut in a single line: a licensed
professional "does not include any person who operates primarily to provide
certification for a service or support animal." A business that sells
certificates is defined out of the statute by what it sells. MDHR says the same
thing in plainer words on its own site, warning renters that "online websites
are eager to sell tenants certificates, letters, animal vests, or other
equipment" and that "the Minnesota Human Rights Act does not require service or
emotional support animals to be registered."

On the other side of the line, subd. 2(b) is strict about what a landlord may
demand. It "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." Confirming that a
disability exists and that the animal meets a disability-related need is the
whole of it. Your chart is not on the table.

## Two front doors, and you only get to walk through one

Minneapolis is one of just two Minnesota cities whose own agency is authorised
by its city ordinance to investigate discrimination complaints and issue
findings, the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights. Its Complaint
Investigations Division covers housing, and it states that you may file if you
experienced discrimination in Minneapolis "in the last 365 days."

The Minnesota Department of Human Rights takes the same complaint statewide,
within one year under Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3.

Here is the part to read before you do anything. 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." Not both. Not first one, then
the other if it goes badly. The choice is made when you file, and in most of
Minnesota it never arises. Most cities have no body that can take a charge at
all. In Minneapolis it is a real decision, so make it deliberately.

The same subdivision puts one duty on the city side: where the state Act offers
protections or remedies the city ordinance does not, the local commission is
required to tell you so.

## If neither door appeals, there is a third

You do not have to file a charge anywhere. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1 lets
a person bring a civil action "directly to district court," with no charge and
no administrative step first, and subd. 6 entitles either side to a jury.

The remedies are the reason that route exists. Subd. 8(a) says the court "shall
order" a respondent found to have discriminated to pay compensatory damages,
"including mental anguish or suffering, in an amount up to three times the
actual damages sustained."

For most people none of that is where this ends. It ends with a line item
removed from a portal. But it is useful to know that the building's last
argument is not the last word, and that the document holding the whole thing up
is an ordinary letter from a clinician who actually treats you.

For a first call, HOME Line's tenant hotline handles Minnesota renters'
questions at no charge, and Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid covers Hennepin County. The
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (which operates over 5,000 housing units,
including 42 high-rises, and administers more than 7,000 vouchers) has its own
accommodation process for the residents it houses.

## What Minneapolis 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 Minneapolis

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

- [Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights, file a discrimination complaint](https://www.minneapolismn.gov/government/departments/civil-rights/complaint-investigations/discrimination-complaint-overview/complaint-form/) (city agency)
- [Minnesota Department of Human Rights](https://mn.gov/mdhr/) (state agency)
- [Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid](https://mylegalaid.org/get-legal-help/) (legal aid)
- [HOME Line, Minnesota tenant hotline](https://homelinemn.org/) (tenant org)

## Frequently asked questions

### Should I file with the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights or with the state?

Decide before you file, because you only get one. 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." The Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights takes complaints about discrimination that happened inside city limits and publishes its window as 365 days. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights takes them statewide within one year. The same subdivision also requires the local agency to tell you about any protections the state Act gives that the city ordinance does not.

### My building charges pet rent through the resident portal. Does that count as a fee?

Yes. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 3(a) bars an "additional fee, charge, or deposit" for a service or support animal, and a recurring monthly charge is a charge whichever system bills it. In a city where most large buildings are professionally managed, this is the most common form the problem takes: nobody says no to the animal, the portal simply keeps the pet rent line on the account. Ask for it to be removed as part of the accommodation rather than asking for a refund afterwards.

### Can a Minneapolis building refuse my support animal because of its breed?

Not on the breed alone. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights states on its service and emotional support animals in housing page that a landlord "cannot reject an assistance animal based on stereotypes about the service or emotional support animal's breed or size," and that when deciding a particular animal is dangerous or likely to cause property damage, "a landlord must make the decision based on an individualized assessment of the specific animal's actual conduct." Breed schedules are common in Minneapolis buildings, and they are rules, which is exactly what an accommodation adjusts.

### I already live here and my landlord is still checking my paperwork. Does my animal have to leave?

Generally no. The Minnesota Department of Human Rights states that "in most cases, if the tenant currently lives in the rental property, the landlord must allow the service or emotional support animal to live with the tenant while the verification process is happening." That is agency guidance rather than statute, but it is the enforcing agency's own published position, and it is worth quoting back to a manager who wants the animal out while the file is reviewed.

### Does my letter have to come from someone in Minnesota?

No, but the relationship matters. Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(e) lets a physician, physician assistant, nurse, psychologist, mental health professional, social worker or counselor licensed in another state write it, provided that professional "has an existing treatment relationship with the tenant." That last condition is the whole point. A clinician you already see who happens to be licensed elsewhere is inside the statute; a website that pairs you with a stranger for the afternoon is not, and the same subdivision excludes anyone who "operates primarily to provide certification for a service or support animal."

### Minneapolis is a majority-renter city. Does that change how these requests get handled?

In practice, yes. With 100,754 of 192,734 occupied homes rented, the tenant asking about an animal in Minneapolis is not an unusual case for the building. Most large managers have a written accommodation process and a form. That is mostly an advantage, because the process exists. The risk is different here: the answer you get is often the policy talking rather than the statute, and a policy written before the 2024 amendment to Minn. Stat. § 504B.113 may not reflect what the lease is now required to disclose.

### What if the building just stops responding to my request?

Silence is not a denial you have to accept, and the clock does not stop for it. You have one year under Minn. Stat. § 363A.28, subd. 3, and three ways to use it: the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, or a civil action. Minn. Stat. § 363A.33, subd. 1 lets you go "directly to district court" without filing a charge at all, and subd. 6 gives either side a jury. HOME Line's tenant hotline is the quickest first call for a Minneapolis renter who is not sure which of those is proportionate.

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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%2Fminneapolis