# ESA Letter in Springfield, OH: Pet Fees, Deposits and Ohio Law

> Ohio caps no pet fee and Springfield cannot cap one either. How the accommodation rule removes the charge, and the deposit trap that costs tenants money.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 58,138
- Households renting: 47.6%
- 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)

## Nobody caps anything here, not the state, not the city

Springfield tenants who go looking for the legal maximum on a pet deposit are
looking for something Ohio never wrote.

The legislature set no ceiling on a residential security deposit. It has never
regulated pet rent, pet fees or non-refundable animal charges in any form.
R.C. 5321.16, the deposit section, is about interest and about what happens at
move-out. It says nothing about how large the deposit may be.

And Springfield cannot fill the gap. R.C. 5321.19 closes the subject to
local government: the obligations running between landlord and tenant are
the legislature's business, rent control included. A city commission here
can pass housing and safety codes. It cannot pass a pet-fee limit.

Springfield rents at 47.6%: 11,730 of its 24,650 occupied homes, on the
2020-2024 five-year American Community Survey figures, where the statewide
share is 32.8%. For all of those households the number on the lease is simply
the number, and no statute exists to argue it down.

## The rule that does not cap the charge, but deletes it

Which is exactly why the accommodation argument matters so much in Ohio, and
why it is worth reading the Civil Rights Commission's rule in full rather than
in summary:

> Every person with a disability who has an animal assistant or who obtains an
> animal assistant shall be entitled to keep the animal assistant on the
> premises purchased, leased, rented, assigned, or subleased by such person
> with a disability. He or she shall not be required to pay any extra charge
> for such animal assistant but shall be liable for damage done by the animal
> assistant to the premises.

That is Ohio Administrative Code 4112-5-07(C). Its language is old, earliest
effective date 1971, and it is unusually blunt for a housing regulation.

Notice what it is not. It is not a limit, a schedule, or a reasonable-amount
test. Extra charges do not shrink for an approved assistance animal; they stop
applying. An accommodation does not get you a better deal inside the pet
programme. It takes you out of it.

## What you still owe

The same sentence keeps you liable for damage the animal does to the premises,
and this is the part tenants sometimes skip.

That liability is not a fee, a deposit or a monthly charge. It is ordinary
responsibility for actual harm, proved after the fact. A landlord who insists
on money up front "in case" is charging for a risk, which the rule forbids. A
landlord who bills you at move-out for a chewed door frame is doing something
the rule expressly allows.

Understanding that distinction is what makes a Springfield tenant's position
credible. You are not asking to be exempt from consequences. You are asking not
to be charged in advance for having a disability.

## Your deposit, and the interest most tenants never see

R.C. 5321.16 does contain one number. Take whichever is greater, fifty dollars
or a month's rent; anything the deposit exceeds that by earns five per cent a
year, computed and paid annually, and only if you stay in possession for six
months or more.

Work that through. A deposit equal to one month's rent earns nothing at all. A
deposit of two months' rent earns interest on the second month only. Most
Springfield tenancies fall in the first case, which is why the provision is
better understood as a mild disincentive to enormous deposits than as a benefit
to plan around.

## The written forwarding address, and the money it costs to forget

The move-out rules are where an otherwise strong tenant loses.

Thirty days is the window. It starts when the rental agreement ends and
possession goes back, and inside it the landlord owes you a written notice
itemising every deduction, delivered together with whatever balance is
left. If they fail, you may recover
the money due, **plus damages equal to the amount wrongfully withheld**, plus
reasonable attorney fees.

One condition sits quietly in the same section, though. A **written forwarding
address** has to go to the landlord, and the tenant who never sends one loses
the damages and the fees. The underlying money may still be
recoverable; the doubling and the fees are gone.

So do it deliberately. Write the new address in an email or a letter, date it,
send it at the same time you return the keys, and keep proof. It takes two
minutes and it is the difference between recovering a withheld eight hundred
dollars and recovering sixteen hundred with your lawyer paid.

## The no-fee rule you will find online, and why it is not yours

One statute keeps turning up in searches about animal fees in Ohio, and it is
the wrong one. R.C. 955.43 says no person shall charge a fee for an assistance
dog, which sounds decisive until you read where it bites.

Its subjects are buses and other public conveyances, hotels and lodging houses,
schools, and the places of accommodation, amusement or resort that the general
public is invited into. Its beneficiaries are people who are blind, deaf,
hearing impaired or mobility impaired. It is a public-places statute from start
to finish.

Your apartment is not a place of public accommodation, and quoting that section
at a landlord invites a correct rebuttal that costs you credibility. The
housing provision is the Commission's rule quoted above.

## Springfield has no fair housing office, and that is worth knowing early

Some Ohio cities run their own civil rights or fair housing bodies, and where
one exists it is a second place to file. Springfield does not have one.

The city's Neighborhood Impact Division exists, but it administers Community
Development Block Grant work, housing programmes and neighbourhood spending,
and describes no complaint intake. There is no municipal commission that
receives a discrimination charge from a tenant.

That is a clean answer rather than a bad one. It means Clark County tenants
have exactly two routes and only one deadline to track, instead of a shorter
local clock running underneath the state one.

## Where a Clark County charge goes, and by when

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission takes housing charges statewide and lists
Clark County with its Dayton Regional office. The Commission's own filing page
sets out its limits: six months for public accommodation, credit and
disability-in-higher-education complaints, **one year for housing**, two years
for employment.

The statute behind that is R.C. 4112.05(B)(1): the charge must be in writing,
sworn, and delivered inside the year. A hundred days is then the Commission's
own target for finishing a preliminary investigation and deciding what to do
next.

The alternative is court. R.C. 4112.055(A)(1) allows suit inside those same
twelve months, brought where the discrimination occurred, Clark, for a
Springfield tenancy. Either party may demand a jury; the judge may appoint an
attorney.

Legal Aid of Western Ohio covers Clark County as a free civil legal aid
provider. It does not list housing discrimination among its published practice
areas, so treat it as a call worth making rather than a guaranteed route.

## Making the request so a refusal costs the landlord something

R.C. 4112.02(H)(19) does the legal work. Refuse the accommodation and you have
committed an unlawful discriminatory practice, provided the thing refused was a
change to some rule or policy or practice or service, and provided a person
with a disability needed that change for equal use and enjoyment of the home. A
pet fee is a term of a policy. Asking to be excused from it is asking for an
accommodation.

Ask in writing, before the animal arrives if you can, and say plainly that
you are requesting an accommodation. Whether you need the animal to live
normally in your own home is a clinical question before it becomes a legal
one. So the paper that answers it comes from an assessment: recent,
particular, and signed by a licensed professional who has examined you. Not
a certificate, not an ID card, not a listing someone sold you. Ohio keeps no
such list, and nothing bought online has ever decided a housing charge in
this state.

## What Springfield 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 Springfield

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

- [Ohio Civil Rights Commission](https://civ.ohio.gov/) (state agency)
- [Ohio Civil Rights Commission, Filing a Charge](https://civ.ohio.gov/how-to-file-a-charge/filing-a-charge) (state agency)
- [Legal Aid of Western Ohio](https://www.lawolaw.org/) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a legal limit on what a Springfield landlord can charge as a pet deposit?

No, and it is important to understand why. Ohio has never capped a residential security deposit, and R.C. 5321.16 does not mention pet fees or pet rent at all. R.C. 5321.19 then bars any Ohio political subdivision from regulating the rights and obligations of parties to a rental agreement, so Springfield cannot impose a cap of its own. That leaves accommodation law doing all the work: Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(C) removes the extra charge for an approved animal assistant instead of limiting it.

### Do I get interest on my security deposit in Ohio?

Sometimes, and only on part of it. R.C. 5321.16 requires five per cent interest per annum on the amount of a deposit that exceeds fifty dollars or one month's rent, whichever is greater, computed and paid annually, and only where you remain in possession for six months or more. A deposit equal to one month's rent therefore earns nothing. A deposit of two months' rent earns interest on the second month. This is the closest thing Ohio has to a deposit rule, and it is not a cap.

### What is the forwarding address trap when I move out of a Springfield rental?

It is the mistake that costs tenants their remedy. R.C. 5321.16 requires the landlord to deliver an itemised written notice of any deductions, with the balance owed, within thirty days after the rental agreement ends and possession is returned. But the tenant must give the landlord a written forwarding address, and a tenant who does not is not entitled to damages or attorney fees. Put your new address in writing, keep proof you sent it, and do it at the same time you hand back the keys.

### What happens if my landlord keeps my deposit anyway?

R.C. 5321.16 gives a tenant who complied with the forwarding-address requirement the money that is actually due, plus damages equal to the amount wrongfully withheld, plus reasonable attorney fees. In practice that means the wrongfully withheld portion can be recovered twice over. Note that this is ordinary landlord-tenant law and applies to any deduction, including one described as animal damage, and Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(C) does leave you liable for damage your assistance animal genuinely causes.

### I read that a landlord cannot charge a fee for an assistance dog. Does that cover my apartment?

The rule you have probably found is R.C. 955.43, and it does not reach a tenancy. That section gives a person who is blind, deaf, hearing impaired or mobility impaired, accompanied by an assistance dog, full and equal access to public conveyances, hotels, places of public accommodation, amusement or resort and schools, and bars a fee for the dog in those places. Housing runs on a different provision: Ohio Admin. Code 4112-5-07(C), the Civil Rights Commission's own rule for leased premises.

### Does Springfield have a fair housing office I can complain to?

No. Nothing in city government takes housing discrimination complaints. The Neighborhood Impact Division handles Community Development Block Grant administration and describes no complaint intake, and there is no municipal civil rights commission. That is not unusual in Ohio and it does not affect your rights. A Clark County complaint goes to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which lists the county with its Dayton Regional office, or to the Clark County Court of Common Pleas.

### Can Legal Aid of Western Ohio help with an ESA problem in Clark County?

Legal Aid of Western Ohio is a free civil legal aid provider whose service area includes Clark County, and it is worth calling. It does not itemise housing discrimination among its published practice areas, so this page makes no promise about whether it will take an accommodation case. Describe the whole problem when you call: a tenant fighting over an animal is often also facing a notice to leave or a deposit dispute, and those are squarely landlord-tenant matters.

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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=ohio-emotional-support-animal%2Fspringfield