# ESA Letter in Newark, OH: How to Ask, and What May Be Asked

> Making an assistance animal request in Newark, Ohio: what R.C. 4112.02(H)(19) requires, what a landlord may ask under (H)(17), and who helps in Licking County.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/ohio-emotional-support-animal/newark/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-09
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 51,424
- Households renting: 44.2%
- 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 request, not an announcement

Almost everything that goes wrong with an assistance animal in a rented
home goes wrong at the first step. A tenant tells the landlord the animal
is coming, or the animal simply appears, and the conversation starts as
an argument instead of a request.

Ohio law is built around a request. Its accommodation duty, at R.C.
4112.02(H)(19), makes it unlawful for a landlord

> to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies,
> practices, or services when necessary to afford a person with a
> disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit

Something has to be refused before that provision does any work, and a
refusal implies an ask.

So ask. In writing, before the animal arrives, addressed to whoever
signed the lease on the landlord's side. Say that you have a disability,
that you are requesting an exception to the pet policy as a reasonable
accommodation, and what the animal does for you. That is a request. An
email saying "my dog moves in Saturday" is not.

## What "reasonable" is actually measuring

The word does a lot of work and is widely misunderstood. It is not asking
whether your animal is reasonable, whether it is well behaved, or whether
the landlord finds the request convenient.

Two things are being measured. First, necessity: is the accommodation
needed to give you equal opportunity to use and enjoy the home. The same
enjoyment a tenant without your disability already has? Second, fit: does
what you are asking for match the need you have described?

A request for an exception to a no-pets rule, or to a weight limit, or to
a monthly animal charge, is the ordinary shape of an accommodation in
housing. It costs the landlord an exception to their own policy, and the
statute names policies as the thing exceptions get made to.

One extra point people miss. R.C. 4112.02(H)(15) and (16) reach the
disability of someone who will be living in the unit, and of anyone
associated with them. So a child's need, or a partner's, engages the same
duty even though the lease is in your name alone.

## What a Newark landlord may ask before you move in

R.C. 4112.02(H)(17) is narrower than most tenants and quite a few
landlords realise. Asking whether you, a future occupant, or someone
connected to you is disabled is unlawful, and so is asking how serious
the condition is.

Five questions survive, and only where they are put to every applicant
regardless of disability:

- whether you can meet the requirements of ownership or tenancy;
- whether you qualify for housing available only to people with
  disabilities;
- whether you qualify for a priority available to such people;
- current illegal use of a controlled substance under R.C. 2925.11;
- conviction for the illegal sale, cultivation, manufacture or
  distribution of a controlled substance.

Diagnosis is not on that list. Neither is treatment history, medical
records, or how long you have had your condition.

## And what changes the moment you ask

This is where tenants over-correct. Having read the inquiry rule, they
refuse to discuss anything at all, and a request that would have been
granted stalls instead.

The screening rule governs screening. After you have asked for an
accommodation, a narrow discussion of the need behind the request is the
process working as intended. Where neither the disability nor the need
for this animal is obvious, the landlord is entitled to ask for
information that establishes them, and supplying it is how most requests
end in a yes.

The distinction is the subject matter, not politeness. Questions aimed at
whether the accommodation is necessary belong in the conversation.
Questions aimed at cataloguing your condition do not.

## The definition Ohio's rule actually uses

The Civil Rights Commission's definitions rule, 4112-5-02(C), defines an
animal assistant as:

> any animal which aids the persons with a disability

It then illustrates with three examples: a dog that alerts someone with
impaired hearing to sounds, a dog that guides someone who cannot see, and
a monkey that fetches and retrieves for someone whose mobility is
impaired.

Note the shape. The operative word is "aids", and the examples are
offered as examples. Nothing in it turns on training credentials. But be
straight about the limit too: no Ohio court decision or Commission ruling
was found applying that phrase to an emotional support animal, so do not
build your request on the label. Build it on (H)(19), which asks about
necessity rather than category, and which covers a request to except your
animal from a policy whatever the animal is called.

## What Newark's own fair housing programme is

The City of Newark runs a Fair Housing Program funded through the
Community Development Block Grant, with a named contact, Melissa
Seville, on (740) 670-7530. The bases it covers include physical or
mental impairment.

What that page does not carry is a filing deadline, and a local deadline
would not displace the statutory one anyway. Work to the state's
clock. Under R.C. 4112.05(B)(1) you get twelve months from the act, and
what you file is a sworn written charge with the Ohio Civil Rights
Commission. Housing is the category the section treats generously: most
other non-employment complaints get half as long.

## The legal aid office on West Locust Street

Newark has something most Ohio cities this size do not: a legal aid office
in town whose service area is stated plainly. Legal Aid of Southeast and
Central Ohio runs an office at 15 West Locust Street, Suite A, covering four
counties from here: Knox, Licking, Muskingum and Perry. Its housing pages
name discrimination based on protected classes, including disability, among
the problems it covers.

One naming quirk to expect. The city's fair housing page still refers to
South Eastern Ohio Legal Services, the predecessor organisation. LASCO is
the merged entity, and it is the name to use when you call.

## Licking County's numbers, and Licking County's forum

Tenants occupy 8,964 of Newark's 20,276 occupied homes. That is 44.2%,
better than eleven points clear of Ohio's 32.8%, from five-year estimates
covering 2020 to 2024. The city's 2024 population estimate is 51,424,
every bit of it inside Licking County.

The Commission lists Licking under its Columbus Regional office at 30
East Broad St., 4th Floor, on (614) 466-5928. That is intake routing
rather than a jurisdictional boundary: the Commission's own page asks
you to pick the county where the harm happened, and counties appear under
more than one office.

If you would rather sue than file a charge, R.C. 4112.055(A)(1) gives a
year for that too. The venue follows the practice: common pleas in the
county where it happened, which for a Newark tenancy means Licking. Both
sides can demand a jury, and the court has power to appoint you a lawyer
and to let the case run without payment of costs.

## Money, and the address you must remember to give

An approved animal assistant costs nothing extra. The Commission's rule
entitles a tenant with a disability to keep one on leased premises
without paying any extra charge for it, while leaving that tenant liable
for damage the animal actually does.

Your ordinary security deposit is untouched by that, and uncapped in
Ohio. R.C. 5321.16 does set a procedure: once the agreement ends and you
have handed back possession, the landlord has thirty days to send an
itemised written notice of any deductions along with whatever is left.
The section also carries a trap worth knowing before you need it. Fail to
give the landlord a **written forwarding address** and you lose damages
and attorney fees, even against a landlord who was plainly in the wrong.
Put the address in writing when you hand back the keys.

## Before you send the request

No Ohio agency registers assistance animals. A certificate, an ID card or
a listing bought online proves nothing to a Newark landlord, to the
Commission, or to a Licking County judge, because none of them is the
question the law asks.

A good file is short and specific. Your dated written request. A letter
written for you lately by a licensed professional who has examined you,
explaining in their own words why this animal matters for your condition.
And whatever reply came back, kept exactly as it arrived. Recent and
personal beats old and generic every time, and if the answer is no, the year
starts running from that no.

## What Newark landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services when necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit, including associated public and common use areas, under R.C. 4112.02(H)(19)
- Cannot require a tenant with a disability to pay any extra charge for an animal assistant kept on leased premises, under Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(C)
- Cannot rely on the no-higher-degree-of-care limit in R.C. 4112.024(F) against an accommodation request, because that limit reaches only divisions (H)(1) to (18) and the accommodation duty is (H)(19)
- Cannot ask whether an applicant, a prospective occupant or an associated individual has a disability, or ask about its nature or severity, outside the five inquiries listed at R.C. 4112.02(H)(17) and only where those are put to every applicant
- Cannot claim a small-landlord or owner-occupied exemption, because R.C. 4112.024 grants none that reaches disability
- Cannot condition permission for a reasonable modification on a security deposit larger than the one customarily required of all tenants, under R.C. 4112.02(H)(18)(b)
- Cannot segregate the placement of a tenant with a disability in a particular unit, floor, building or complex without that tenant's request or consent, under Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(A)(1)(d)
- Cannot discriminate because of the disability of a household member or of an individual associated with them, rather than of the person signing the lease, under R.C. 4112.02(H)(15) and (16)
- Cannot keep any part of a deposit without an itemised written notice and the amount due within thirty days of termination and delivery of possession, under R.C. 5321.16(B)
- Cannot coerce, intimidate, threaten or interfere with a tenant exercising a right granted by division (H), under R.C. 4112.02(H)(12), or retaliate against someone who opposed a discriminatory practice or filed a charge, under R.C. 4112.02(I)

**Can:**
- May decline where the specific tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would cause substantial physical damage to the property of others, under R.C. 4112.024(D), but bears the burden under Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(E), and speculative evidence will not suffice under 4112-5-07(F)
- May ask for information establishing the disability and the disability-related need for the animal where neither is obvious, that being the enquiry the accommodation analysis actually calls for
- May hold the tenant liable for damage the animal actually causes, which Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(C) states in the same sentence that bars the extra charge
- May set the security deposit at any amount, Ohio imposing no cap, but must pay five per cent annual interest on the excess over fifty dollars or one month's rent, whichever is greater, where the tenant stays six months or more, under R.C. 5321.16(A)

## How to get an ESA letter in Newark

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

- [Ohio Civil Rights Commission](https://civ.ohio.gov/) (state agency)
- [City of Newark Fair Housing Program](https://www.newarkohio.gov/fair-housing-landlord-services/) (city agency)
- [Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio](https://www.lasco.org/) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I actually make an assistance animal request to a Newark landlord?

In writing, before the animal arrives, to whoever signs for the landlord. Say that you have a disability, that you are asking for an exception to the pet policy as a reasonable accommodation, and what the animal does for you. R.C. 4112.02(H)(19) only bites once an accommodation has been refused, so a request has to exist first. Attach a current letter from a licensed professional who has assessed you, keep a copy of everything, and note the date you sent it.

### What can a Newark landlord ask me about my disability?

At screening, very little. R.C. 4112.02(H)(17) makes it unlawful to ask whether an applicant, a prospective occupant or an associated person has a disability, or about its nature or severity. Only five questions survive that ban, and a landlord may put them only if every applicant gets them: whether you can meet what the tenancy requires, whether you qualify for disability-restricted housing, whether you qualify for a disability priority, current illegal controlled-substance use, and a conviction for distributing a controlled substance. A diagnosis is not among them, and neither are your medical records.

### Once I have asked, can the landlord ask me questions about it?

Yes, and refusing to engage is a common way a good request stalls. The screening rule governs screening. Once you request an accommodation, a focused discussion of your disability-related need is what the process is for, and where neither the disability nor the need for the animal is obvious a landlord may ask for information establishing them. The line is subject matter: questions about whether the accommodation is necessary belong in the conversation, questions cataloguing your condition do not.

### What does "reasonable" mean in Ohio's accommodation rule?

It is not a judgement about your animal's behaviour or the landlord's convenience. R.C. 4112.02(H)(19) asks whether the accommodation is necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling unit, including associated public and common use areas, so the questions are whether the need is real and whether what you asked for fits it. An exception to a no-pets rule, a weight cap or an animal charge is the ordinary shape such a request takes.

### Does the animal have to be needed by the person who signed the lease?

No. R.C. 4112.02(H)(15) and (16) extend the duty to the disability of a person residing in or intending to reside in the unit after it is rented, and to any individual associated with that person. A child, a partner or another household member's disability-related need engages the same obligation. The request should still be made clearly and in writing, and should explain whose need the animal meets and what it does for them.

### Where is the legal aid office for Licking County?

In Newark itself. Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio keeps its Newark office at 15 West Locust Street, Suite A, and that office handles Knox, Licking, Muskingum and Perry counties. Its housing pages list discrimination based on protected classes, disability among them. Expect a naming quirk: the city's fair housing page still refers to South Eastern Ohio Legal Services, the predecessor organisation. LASCO is the merged entity and the name to use when you call.

### What does the City of Newark Fair Housing Program do, and how long do I have?

It is a Community Development Block Grant funded programme with a named contact, Melissa Seville, on (740) 670-7530, and the bases it covers include physical or mental impairment. It publishes no deadline of its own, and a local programme could not displace the statutory clock in any event. Work to the state's: R.C. 4112.05(B)(1) allows one year from the act to file a written, sworn charge with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, twice the six months most other non-employment claims get.

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