# ESA Letter in Lincoln, ND: Two Findings, Not One

> NDCC 47-16-07.5 asks a Lincoln, North Dakota ESA letter to confirm the disability and the relationship to the need. The second finding is the skipped one.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 4,502
- Households renting: 7.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Excluded by 47-16-07.1(2)
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$50/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Lincoln, North Dakota: 4,502 people on Burleigh County's edge

This page is about Lincoln in **Burleigh County, North Dakota**, a city of
4,502 on the 2024 Census estimate whose offices are on Santee Road, a few
minutes southeast of Bismarck. It is fifteenth largest in North Dakota. It
is not the much larger city that shares its name in another state, and
nothing on this page is about that one.

The housing numbers here have to be handled with care. The 2020–2024
American Community Survey five-year estimate counts about 1,613 occupied
homes in Lincoln and roughly **125 of them rented**, with a margin of error
on that count of about 102: nearly as large as the estimate itself. What
survives that margin is a single sentence: Lincoln is a strongly
owner-occupied Bismarck-area suburb. What does not survive it is any
statement about the city's rent level or its rank among North Dakota cities,
and none is made here.

The reliable figures around Lincoln are the ones worth using. North Dakota
rents **37.1 percent** of its 331,063 occupied homes at a median gross rent
of **$954**. Next door, Bismarck rents 34.5 percent at $999, and Mandan
across the Missouri rents 31.0 percent. The lowest reliable renter share of
the state's twenty largest cities. The Bismarck–Mandan area is North
Dakota's owner-occupied core, and Lincoln sits inside it.

For the renting minority here, one sentence of North Dakota law decides more
than anything else in the code.

## One sentence, two findings

**NDCC 47-16-07.5**, third sentence:

> "Reliable supporting documentation must confirm the tenant's **disability** **and** the
> **relationship between the tenant's disability and the need for the requested accommodation**."

Two findings joined by an "and." Not one finding with a description
attached. Not a diagnosis with an animal mentioned somewhere near it. Two
separate conclusions a professional has to have reached, both of which have
to appear.

North Dakota is unusual in writing this down at all. Most states in this
corpus leave the content of the document to federal guidance and to
argument. Here it is statutory text, which is good news for a tenant who has
the two findings and bad news for one who has a document containing only the
first.

## Finding one: the disability

Chapter 14-02.5 defines the term the housing right runs on, at **14-02.5-01(6)**:

> "'Disability' means a **mental or physical impairment that substantially limits at least one
> major life activity**, a record of this impairment, or **being regarded as having this
> impairment**. The term does not include current illegal use or addiction to any drug or illegal
> or federally controlled substance and does not apply to an individual because of an individual's
> sexual orientation or because that individual is a transvestite."

Two things to notice. North Dakota keeps the "regarded as" branch with no accommodation carve-out
attached to it, some states withhold accommodations from that branch and this one does not. And
the exclusion is for *current* illegal drug use, not for a history of it.

This is the finding most documents do contain. A clinician who treats you
can usually state it, because it is close to what they were already
assessing.

## Finding two: the relationship, and why it goes missing

The second finding is about **this accommodation**, not about the condition.
It asks whether the need for the animal follows from the disability, a
question about what having the animal in the home does for the person's
ability to use and enjoy it.

Here is what does not satisfy it, and each of these is common in documents
that arrive at a Burleigh County leasing office:

A diagnosis and a signature. That is finding one, twice.

A sentence beginning "the patient reports that the animal helps." That reports the tenant's view
rather than the professional's. The statute asks the documentation to confirm the relationship,
which requires the writer to have concluded something.

A form with the animal's name, breed and photograph filled in. Nothing about
an animal's identity speaks to the second finding, and North Dakota has no
registry, certificate or identification card that could substitute for it.

A template letter where the disability line is the only variable. A
relationship that is stated the same way for every tenant is not a finding
about any tenant.

The second finding is the one that gets skipped because it is the one that
cannot be produced by paperwork. It requires a professional to have formed a
view about a particular person and a particular animal.

## Who can make them

The same section says: "a physician or medical professional who does not operate in this state
solely to provide certification for service or assistance animals."

That phrase is broader than the "licensed mental health professional" other states use, and it
carries one exclusion, aimed at an operation whose entire North Dakota business is issuing
certificates, not at clinicians licensed elsewhere. Read the practical consequence rather than the
grammar: the sentence rules out the one kind of writer who could never make the second finding,
because they never examined anybody.

## A suburb where everything upstream is in Bismarck

Lincoln's institutional geography is unusually short, and it is worth
knowing before a dispute starts.

The landlord or property manager for a Lincoln rental is frequently a
Bismarck business. The public housing body covering this city is the
**Burleigh County Housing Authority**, established under North Dakota
Century Code chapter 23-11 and administered through the county. The
community action agency serving Burleigh County works out of Bismarck. And
the **North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights** (the agency that
takes housing discrimination complaints statewide, on the one-year clock in
**NDCC 14-02.5-18(1)**) is on East Boulevard Avenue in Bismarck, minutes
from here.

For a Lincoln tenant that is an advantage most North Dakota renters do not
have. Every institution that matters to a housing accommodation dispute is
inside a short drive, and none of the distance problems that shape the
western half of this state apply.

## Which makes the appointment the only hard part

Start with a clinician who is already treating you. Someone with a history
with you is best placed to reach both findings, and if that route is open it
should be taken.

Its friction is not distance here, Bismarck is one of the four North Dakota
cities where specialist mental-health capacity is concentrated. The friction
is the second finding. A prescriber managing a medication, a counsellor
working through a short course of sessions, a primary care provider seeing
you twice a year: each can often state the disability and may genuinely be
unable to state the relationship between it and this animal, because
assessing that was never part of what they were doing. Declining to write it
is the correct thing for them to do.

Where that happens, a licensed evaluation is the same assessment arranged
deliberately. A licensed professional examines whether a disability exists
and whether the accommodation follows from it, and records both findings, or
records that they do not follow. That second outcome is not a failure of the
process; it is the reason the first outcome means anything, and it is what
separates an evaluation from the certificate 47-16-07.5's exclusion clause
was written about.

North Dakota's legislature described a document with two findings in it. A
tenant in Lincoln can only hold that document if somebody made both.

## What Lincoln 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 Lincoln

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

- [City of Lincoln, ND](https://www.cityoflincolnnd.com/) (city government)
- [Burleigh County](https://www.burleigh.gov/) (county government)
- [Burleigh County Housing Authority](https://www.burleigh.gov/boards/housing-authority/) (local housing authority)
- [CAP 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

### What exactly does NDCC 47-16-07.5 require documentation to say?

Two things, joined by an "and": documentation "must confirm the tenant's disability and the relationship between the tenant's disability and the need for the requested accommodation." Those are two separate conclusions a professional has to have reached, not one conclusion with a description attached. North Dakota is unusual in putting that requirement in statutory text rather than leaving it to guidance.

### My letter states my diagnosis and is signed. Is that enough here?

That is the first finding on its own. A diagnosis establishes the impairment; it says nothing about why this accommodation follows from it. So does a line reporting that the patient says the animal helps, which records the tenant's view rather than the writer's conclusion. The second finding needs the professional to have formed a view about this person and this animal, and a document that skips it is short of what the section describes.

### Who counts as a "physician or medical professional" for a Lincoln, North Dakota tenancy?

The statute uses that phrase rather than the narrower "licensed mental health professional" other states use, and attaches one exclusion: documentation "may be provided by a physician or medical professional who does not operate in this state solely to provide certification for service or assistance animals." That is a double negative aimed at certificate operations. It is not a requirement that the writer be licensed in North Dakota, and the section sets no in-person visit rule.

### Does "regarded as" having an impairment count in North Dakota housing?

Yes. NDCC 14-02.5-01(6) defines disability as "a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits at least one major life activity, a record of this impairment, or being regarded as having this impairment," with no carve-out attached to that third branch. Some states withhold accommodations from it and this chapter does not. The definition excludes current illegal use of or addiction to a drug or federally controlled substance.

### Can a form naming my animal's breed and photograph satisfy the second finding?

No, and nothing about the animal's identity speaks to it. North Dakota has no assistance animal registry, certificate, database or state identification card for housing; NDCC 47-16-07.5 asks for documentation from a professional rather than a card. The only photo credential in the code is the trainer identification in NDCC 25-13-02.1, which belongs to a trainer for public places under a chapter that does not reach dwellings.

### Lincoln is small. Where does a housing complaint from here actually go?

To the North Dakota Department of Labor and Human Rights, which administers chapter 14-02.5 statewide from East Boulevard Avenue in Bismarck, minutes away, on the one-year clock in NDCC 14-02.5-18(1). The public housing body covering the city is the Burleigh County Housing Authority, a county authority under NDCC ch. 23-11, and the community action agency serving Burleigh County works out of Bismarck as well.

### Is renting in Lincoln, North Dakota like renting in Bismarck?

Institutionally, often yes: a Lincoln rental is frequently managed from Bismarck, and the county, housing authority and enforcement agency are all Bismarck-based. Statistically the two are not comparable from this data: Bismarck's 34.5 percent renter share and $999 median gross rent are reliable figures, while Lincoln's own rental sample is small enough that its share and rent carry margins too wide to state as facts about the city.

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