# ESA Letter in Beulah, ND: Pet Rent Sits Outside the Cap

> North Dakota caps the pet deposit and names the animal, but no ND statute caps monthly pet rent. A Beulah ESA letter has to work in both places.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/north-dakota-emotional-support-animal/beulah/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-05
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 3,047
- Households renting: 27.8%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): ESA excluded by statute
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Uncapped by ND statute
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The charge that falls between two chapters

A Beulah landlord can attach money to an animal in two different shapes, and
North Dakota law treats the two shapes completely differently.

Shape one is a **deposit**, a sum taken up front and held. The Century Code
has a section about that, it caps it, and it names the assistance animal out
of it in so many words.

Shape two is **pet rent**: thirty or forty dollars added to every month's
cheque, forever, never returned because it was never a deposit. Search the
retrieved landlord-tenant text for a section capping that and there isn't
one. North Dakota has no statutory ceiling on monthly pet rent, for any
animal.

That gap is not a loophole a landlord invented. It is what the code looks
like when a legislature regulates one instrument thoroughly and simply does
not address the other. Knowing which side of the gap a charge sits on
decides which sentence you use against it, and one of the two sentences is a
great deal easier to use than the other.

## What NDCC 47-16-07.1 covers, and how far "however denominated" goes

The deposit section opens with a phrase that looks like it might swallow everything:

> "The lessor of real property or a dwelling who requires money as a security deposit, **however
> denominated**, shall deposit the money in a federally insured interest-bearing savings or
> checking account for the benefit of the tenant. … **A lessor may not demand or receive security,
> however denominated, in an amount or value in excess of one month's rent**…"

"However denominated" is doing real work. It means a landlord cannot escape the cap by calling a
security deposit a "move-in fee" or a "holding charge": the label does not decide the question,
the function does. The two exceptions in subsection 1 are narrow and specific: up to two months
may be taken as an incentive to rent to someone with a felony conviction, or from someone who has
had a judgment entered against them for violating a previous rental agreement.

But every word of that sentence is about **security**. It regulates money
held against future loss. A recurring monthly premium is not held against
anything; it is simply part of the price of the tenancy. On the retrieved
text, 47-16-07.1 does not reach it by name.

## Where the deposit rule is at its strongest

It is worth seeing how much better the deposit side of the gap is, because
it sets the standard the monthly charge is measured against.

**NDCC 47-16-07.1(2):**

> "A lessor may charge a lessee a pet security deposit for keeping an animal **that is not a
> service animal or companion animal required by a tenant with a disability as a reasonable
> accommodation under fair housing laws**. A pet security deposit may not exceed the greater of
> two thousand five hundred dollars or an amount equivalent to two months' rent."

The animal is written out of the charge by description. A tenant does not
have to reason toward that result; the subsection states it. Note also that
the pet cap is the **larger** of the two numbers in the section (the greater
of $2,500 or two months' rent), which is a trap in the other direction and
not one that touches an animal the subsection excludes anyway.

That is the comparison worth holding on to. On the deposit, North Dakota
hands you a sentence. On the monthly charge, it hands you nothing, and you
build the argument yourself.

## The provision that does reach a monthly charge

Build it from the Housing Discrimination Act, not from the landlord-tenant code.

**NDCC 14-02.5-06(2):**

> "A person may not discriminate against an individual in the **terms, conditions, or privileges**
> of sale or rental of a dwelling or in the provision of services or facilities in connection with
> the dwelling **because of a disability** of that individual"

A monthly pet charge is unmistakably a term of the tenancy. So the argument
has three moves, and each one has to be sound.

First, the animal is in the home **because of a disability**, as an
accommodation the tenant needs. Second, the charge is attached to that
animal and to nothing else. Third, a charge applied because of a disability
is a term of the rental imposed because of the disability, which is what
14-02.5-06(2) prohibits.

Two other provisions stand behind it. **NDCC 14-02.5-02(2)** contains the
same terms-and-conditions prohibition in the chapter's general list of
protected characteristics, and **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** is the federal
accommodation duty, with far more enforcement history around fees attached
to assistance animals than any North Dakota text has.

Also worth reading, because it is the same rule seen from the other end: **NDCC 14-02.5-06(3)(b)**
makes discrimination include "a refusal to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies,
practices, or services if the accommodation may be necessary to afford the individual equal
opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." A pet-rent schedule is a policy. Waiving it for an
animal that is not a pet is the accommodation.

## Notice what the first move is

Steps two and three are legal reasoning, and reasoning survives being
disputed. Step one is not reasoning at all. It is a **fact** (either the
animal is required as an accommodation for a disability or it is not), and
it is the only step in the chain a landlord's adviser can attack without
arguing about statutes.

Which is exactly the step North Dakota describes elsewhere in its code.
47-16-07.5 asks for documentation from a physician or medical professional
confirming the tenant's disability **and** the relationship between that
disability and the need for the accommodation. Those two findings are step
one, written down.

## Beulah's numbers, and why they are an estimate

Beulah had 3,047 people on the 2024 Census estimate, seventeenth of North
Dakota's twenty largest cities, west of the Missouri in Mercer County. The
2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate puts 351 of its 1,264
occupied homes in renters' hands, about 27.8 percent, and its median gross
rent at $1,075.

Treat that rent figure as a range rather than a number. It carries a margin
of roughly ±$366 on a sample of 351 renting households, which is wide enough
that Beulah could plausibly sit either well above or well below the $954
statewide median. When arithmetic matters, the state figure is the sounder
anchor.

Local offices are spread out here in a way that catches people. Mercer
County's are in **Stanton**, the Dakota Central Human Service Zone counter
is in **Washburn**, and the community action agency covering Mercer County
is **CAP Region VII in Bismarck**. A housing discrimination complaint goes
to the North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights, within one year of
the last date of harm.

## What the argument rests on

If you already see a clinician, ask them first. A professional who knows
your history can speak to both findings without reconstructing anything, and
no document beats that. The friction in Mercer County is genuine, though:
independent practices are scarce, most specialist mental-health capacity in
North Dakota sits in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks and Minot, and a clinician
you have seen twice may quite properly decline to make a finding rather than
make one they cannot stand behind.

Where that is the position, a licensed evaluation is the deliberate version
of the same appointment. Someone licensed works through whether a disability
exists, then whether this animal answers it, and records what they
concluded, including a no, which happens and is part of why the yes carries
weight.

North Dakota gave you a sentence for the deposit and left you to argue the
monthly charge. An argument is only as strong as the fact it starts from,
and the fact is the one a professional has to establish.

## What Beulah landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where the accommodation may be necessary to afford an individual with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: NDCC 14-02.5-06(3)(b).
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental, or in the services and facilities provided with it: NDCC 14-02.5-06(2).
- May not charge a pet security deposit for a service animal or companion animal required by a tenant with a disability as a reasonable accommodation under fair housing laws, NDCC 47-16-07.1(2) excludes that animal by name.
- May not demand or receive security, however denominated, in excess of one month's rent, except for a felony-conviction incentive or where a judgment has been entered for violating a previous rental agreement: NDCC 47-16-07.1(1).
- May not require that the documentation come from a North Dakota clinician. The statute excludes a provider who operates in this state solely to provide certification for service or assistance animals; it does not require an in-state one, NDCC 47-16-07.5.
- May not claim the thousand-dollar damage fee or the eviction right in NDCC 47-16-07.6(2) on suspicion alone. Both arise only if the tenant pleads guilty to or is convicted of the subsection 1 infraction.

**Can:**
- May require reliable supporting documentation where the dwelling is subject to a no-pets policy (but not where the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known), NDCC 47-16-07.5.
- Must itemize any part of a deposit kept and deliver or mail it within thirty days after termination of the lease and delivery of possession, and is liable for treble damages for money withheld without reasonable justification, NDCC 47-16-07.1(3)–(4).
- May still apply the deposit to damage actually caused by an animal or by the tenant's negligence, NDCC 47-16-07.1(3)(a). The carve-out removes the charge in advance, not the bill for real damage.
- May decline where the tenancy would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others, NDCC 14-02.5-06(6).
- Is outside the state accommodation duty only in the narrow cases NDCC 14-02.5-09 describes: an owner-occupied dwelling of not more than four families, or a single-family house let by an owner of no more than three, without a broker, once in twenty-four months. The federal Fair Housing Act and chapter 47-16 are unaffected by that exemption.

## How to get an ESA letter in Beulah

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

- [Mercer County, North Dakota](https://www.mercercountynd.com/) (county government)
- [Dakota Central Human Service Zone (Mercer County)](https://www.hhs.nd.gov/service-locations/human-service/zones/dakota-central) (state agency)
- [Community Action Partnership Region VII (Bismarck)](https://www.capnd.org/programsandinitiatives/regions/bismarck/) (community action agency)
- [ND Department of Labor and Human Rights - Housing Discrimination](https://www.nd.gov/labor/human-rights/housing) (fair housing)

## Frequently asked questions

### My Beulah landlord charges pet rent every month. Does North Dakota cap that?

No. NDCC 47-16-07.1 is a security deposit statute. It reaches money required as security however denominated, which stops a landlord relabelling a deposit as a fee, but a recurring monthly premium is part of the price of the tenancy rather than money held against future loss. No provision retrieved for this material sets a ceiling on monthly pet rent for any animal in North Dakota.

### So what actually removes the monthly charge for an assistance animal?

NDCC 14-02.5-06(2), which bars discrimination against an individual in the terms, conditions, or privileges of the rental of a dwelling because of that individual's disability. A monthly pet charge is a term of the tenancy. If the animal is in the home because of a disability, the charge attaches to the disability. NDCC 14-02.5-02(2) states the same prohibition in the chapter's general list, and 42 U.S.C. section 3604(f)(3)(B) is the federal accommodation duty behind both.

### Why is the deposit easier to deal with than the monthly charge?

Because one is a sentence and the other is an argument. NDCC 47-16-07.1(2) allows a pet security deposit only for an animal that is not a service animal or companion animal required as a reasonable accommodation, so the animal is written out by description. The monthly charge takes three steps: the animal is present because of a disability, the charge attaches to the animal, and a charge applied because of a disability is a prohibited term. Steps two and three are reasoning. Step one is a fact.

### Can a landlord relabel the charge as a non-refundable pet fee?

Relabelling does not decide the question. NDCC 47-16-07.1(1) reaches security however denominated, so a sum functioning as a deposit is treated as one whatever it is called on the lease. What the retrieved text does not do is address a genuinely recurring monthly charge by name, so a fee structured that way is dealt with through the discrimination provisions rather than the deposit statute. Being straight about which of the two you are facing is what decides the argument to make.

### The ACS says Beulah's median rent is $1,075. How reliable is that?

Not very, at this sample size. The estimate rests on roughly 351 renting households and carries a margin of about $366 in either direction, so the true figure could sit meaningfully above or below the $954 North Dakota median. Beulah's renter share of about 27.8 percent comes from the same small sample. Both are the best estimates available and neither is precise enough to build an argument on; the statewide figure is the sounder comparison.

### Mercer County's offices are in Stanton and the human service zone is in Washburn. Who takes a housing complaint?

The North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights, which administers the Housing Discrimination Act, and its published deadline is one year from the last date of harm. NDCC 14-02.5-18(1) says the same thing in statute. A separate route exists in district court under NDCC 14-02.5-39, with two years from the occurrence or termination of the practice and no requirement to have filed with the department first.

### If the landlord drops the pet rent but asks for a pet deposit instead, what then?

That moves the charge onto the ground where North Dakota law is at its clearest. NDCC 47-16-07.1(2) permits the pet security deposit for an animal that is not one required by a tenant with a disability as a reasonable accommodation under fair housing laws, so it is not available for a documented assistance animal at all. The ordinary security deposit under subsection 1, capped at one month's rent, is still payable like any other tenant's.

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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=north-dakota-emotional-support-animal%2Fbeulah