# ESA Letter in Dickinson, ND: The Fee Has a Condition

> The $1,000 fee in NDCC 47-16-07.6 arrives only after a guilty plea or conviction. An ESA letter in Dickinson is not worth less because a landlord doubts it.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 25,695
- Households renting: 39%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): No pet deposit for an ESA
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Monthly charge not capped
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The most ordinary rental market in the state

Dickinson rents at **$957**, three dollars off North Dakota's $954 median
gross rent, and the closest any of the state's twenty largest cities comes
to it. Its renter share, **39.0 percent** on the 2020–2024 American
Community Survey five-year estimate, sits under two points above the 37.1
percent statewide figure. That is 4,085 renting households out of 10,486.
The 2024 Census estimate puts Dickinson at 25,695 people, seventh in North
Dakota.

Nothing about that market is unusual, which makes it a clean place to look
at the one North Dakota statute that gets quoted at tenants more often than
any other, and quoted with the important half missing.

## A number without its condition

The sentence a Dickinson renter is likeliest to hear, in some form, is that
North Dakota lets a landlord collect a thousand dollars and evict for a fake
ESA letter.

The thousand dollars is real. It comes from **NDCC 47-16-07.6(2)**. What
travels with it, and what almost never survives the retelling, is the clause
the subsection opens with.

Here is the whole section, both parts:

> "1. An individual is guilty of an **infraction** if the individual, in an attempt to obtain a
> reasonable housing accommodation under section 47-16-07.5, **knowingly** makes a false claim of
> having a disability that requires the use of a service animal or assistance animal or
> **knowingly** provides fraudulent supporting documentation in connection with such a claim.
> 2. **If the individual pleads guilty or is convicted of an offense under subsection 1**, a lessor
> may evict a lessee and the lessor is entitled to a damage fee, **not to exceed one thousand
> dollars**, from a lessee if the lessee provides fraudulent disability documentation indicating a
> disability requiring the use of a service animal or assistance animal."

Read the first eleven words of subsection 2 and the whole shape of the thing
changes.

## What has to happen before a dollar changes hands

The eviction right and the damage fee are consequences of a **criminal
adjudication**. Not of a landlord's suspicion, not of a manager's opinion
about the letterhead, not of a company policy about which providers are
acceptable.

Something has to have been charged. A plea has to have been entered, or a
conviction has to have been entered against the tenant. Only then does
subsection 2 open.

A landlord in Stark County who reads a letter, decides he does not believe
it and sends a bill for a thousand dollars is not exercising a statutory
right. There is no statute that gives him one at that stage.

## "Infraction" is a specific word

North Dakota did not make this a misdemeanour. It made it an **infraction**.
The lowest grade of offence the state has.

That cuts in two directions and both are worth saying plainly. It is not a
felony, not a misdemeanour, and not the sort of thing that produces a
criminal record a landlord will find. And it is still an offence, still
prosecutable, and still the door that subsection 2 is on the far side of.

Descriptions that inflate it into a crime of record are wrong. So are
descriptions that treat it as nothing at all.

## The element that decides it is "knowingly"

Both branches of subsection 1 run on the same word. A false claim made
**knowingly**. Fraudulent documentation provided **knowingly**.

That is a state-of-mind element, and it is a question of fact about a
particular person on a particular day. It is not satisfied by a document
later judged thin, by a provider a landlord has never heard of, or by an
accommodation request that gets refused.

Which means the practical way to stand outside this section is not legal
argument. It is biography. A tenant who was actually assessed, by a
professional who actually formed a view, has nothing to be knowing about.
The file is what it appears to be.

## The other misrepresentation offence is not this one

North Dakota has two, and they should not be run together.

**NDCC 25-13-02.2** makes it an infraction to knowingly claim that a pet is a service animal, and
it reaches both public places under chapter 25-13 and a housing accommodation under 47-16-07.5. Its
conduct is a claim about the *animal's* status. It attaches no eviction right and no damage fee.

**NDCC 47-16-07.6** is about a claim regarding the *tenant*: a false claim of disability, or
fraudulent documentation about one. It is the only one of the two that carries the civil
consequence, and that consequence is gated on the plea or the conviction.

Different conduct, different reach, same offence grade, and only one of them
has a fee attached.

## What a landlord may actually do when he doubts a letter

He may ask for reliable supporting documentation, because **NDCC
47-16-07.5** says so, provided the building has a no-pets policy and the
disability or the need is not already apparent to him or known to him.

He may read what that section requires and check the document against it: a
physician or medical professional; not an operation that exists in this
state solely to certify animals; and a confirmation of both the disability
and the relationship between the disability and the need for the animal.

What he may not do is skip to a penalty. The refusal of an accommodation is itself governed,
**NDCC 14-02.5-06(3)(b)** makes it discrimination to refuse "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 complaint about a refusal goes to the North
Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights within one year, under 14-02.5-18(1).

## Being outside the section as a matter of fact

Everything above is defensive, and defence is the weaker half of this. The
stronger half is that 47-16-07.6 has no purchase on a real evaluation, and
the reason is straightforward: there is nothing false to know about.

Start with a provider who already treats you. In Dickinson that route is
genuinely worth trying first and genuinely thin. Stark County's independent
practice capacity is limited, the oil west turns over its population faster
than it builds clinical relationships, and the specialist care that would
produce a considered disability finding is concentrated a hundred miles east
in Bismarck or further. Community Action Dickinson serves eight counties
from here, but it is an anti-poverty agency, rent and energy assistance, not
disability determinations. A clinician who has seen you once may properly
decline to make a finding rather than make one they cannot support.

Where that route is closed, a licensed evaluation is the same examination
arranged on purpose. A licensed professional works out whether a disability
exists and whether this animal answers a need it creates, then writes down
both conclusions or declines to. A provider whose answer is settled before
you arrive is selling the thing 47-16-07.6 describes, and buying it is the
fact pattern the section was drafted around.

The penalty in that section is real, and it has a gate in front of it. The
way past the gate is never to be the person it was written for.

## What Dickinson 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 Dickinson

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

- [City of Dickinson](https://www.dickinsongov.com/) (city government)
- [Stark County](https://www.starkcountynd.gov/) (county government)
- [Community Action Dickinson](https://dickinsoncap.org/) (community action agency)
- [Legal Services of North Dakota](https://lsnd.org/) (legal aid)
- [ND Department of Labor and Human Rights, Housing discrimination](https://www.nd.gov/labor/human-rights/housing) (fair housing)

## Frequently asked questions

### My landlord says he can charge me $1,000 if he decides my letter is fake. Can he?

Not on his own decision. NDCC 47-16-07.6(2) opens with the words "If the individual pleads guilty or is convicted of an offense under subsection 1." Both the eviction right and the damage fee of up to one thousand dollars sit behind that clause. Until there has been a plea or a conviction on the subsection 1 infraction, the section gives a landlord no fee at all, however strongly he doubts the paperwork.

### How serious is an infraction in North Dakota?

It is the state's lowest grade of offence. NDCC 47-16-07.6(1) uses that exact word, and it should not be upgraded in either direction. It is not a felony, not a misdemeanour, and not the sort of conviction that shows up as a criminal record a leasing office will find. It is also a real offence rather than nothing, and it is the gate that subsection 2's civil consequences sit behind.

### What does "knowingly" mean in practice here?

It is a state-of-mind element, and both branches of the offence carry it: a false claim made knowingly, or fraudulent documentation provided knowingly. That makes it a question of fact about a particular person rather than a judgment about a document's quality. A tenant who was genuinely assessed, by a professional who genuinely formed a view, has nothing to know about. A thin document is not the same thing as a knowing one.

### Is NDCC 25-13-02.2 the same offence?

No, and the two should be kept apart. 25-13-02.2 covers knowingly claiming that a pet is a service animal, and it reaches both public places under chapter 25-13 and a housing accommodation under 47-16-07.5. Its subject is the animal's status. NDCC 47-16-07.6 covers a false claim about the tenant's disability or fraudulent documentation about it. Both are infractions; only 47-16-07.6 attaches an eviction right and a damage fee, and only after a plea or conviction.

### Can a landlord evict me just because he doubts the documentation?

Nothing in NDCC 47-16-07.6 gives him that. The eviction right in subsection 2 is conditioned on the same criminal adjudication as the fee. Separately, refusing the accommodation may itself be unlawful: NDCC 14-02.5-06(3)(b) makes a refusal to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services a form of discrimination, and a complaint about one goes to the North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights within a year under 14-02.5-18(1).

### Does buying a certificate online put me inside 47-16-07.6?

It moves you toward the fact pattern the section describes, and it does not help you in the first place. A seller whose entire North Dakota business is issuing certification for service or assistance animals is the operation NDCC 47-16-07.5 excludes, so its document is not reliable supporting documentation under that section. Buying one costs money and produces paper that fails the statute it was bought for.

### Community Action Dickinson covers eight counties. Can they write my documentation?

No, and it is worth knowing before making the call. Community Action Dickinson is an anti-poverty agency: its work runs to rent, energy and household assistance across Adams, Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Golden Valley, Hettinger, Slope and Stark counties, plus its Williston office. Nothing in that remit is a disability determination. NDCC 47-16-07.5 asks for a physician or medical professional, which is a clinical role rather than a caseworker's.

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