# ESA Letter in Midwest City, OK: Old Leases & the Right Statute

> Midwest City rents at 41.9%. Why landlords quote a 1982 guide-dog law, what the 2018 section says instead, and how the 1985 carve-out actually works.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/oklahoma-emotional-support-animal/midwest-city/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-02
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 58,505
- Households renting: 41.9%
- 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)

## An older stock, and older paperwork

Midwest City rents at 41.9%: about 10,400 of 24,888 occupied units on the
2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate. That is nearly eight
points above the statewide 34.2% and fractionally higher than Oklahoma City
next door, despite this being a city a twelfth the size.

The housing behind that figure leans mid-century: single-storey houses let
individually, and small apartment courts built when the city was young.
Buildings of that vintage tend to come with landlords who have held them a long
time, leases that have been renewed rather than redrafted, and a working
knowledge of the law that dates from whenever they last looked it up.

Which produces the characteristic Midwest City problem. Not a refusal exactly,
a citation to the wrong section.

## The statute landlords tend to find

41 O.S. § 113.1 has been on the books since 1982. A landlord may not refuse a
tenancy, or bring one to an end, because a blind, deaf or physically
handicapped tenant uses a guide, signal or service dog, **except where an
agreement signed before November 1985 banned such dogs outright**.

Read on its own it looks like the answer, and it is easy to find. It is also
almost never the relevant provision. It reaches trained dogs and three named
categories of disability, and says nothing at all about emotional support.

## The statute that governs

A few lines further down the same chapter sits 41 O.S. § 113.2, added by Laws
2018, c. 223 and effective from November of that year.

Subsection (A) defines an assistance animal as one that works, provides
assistance or performs tasks for a person with a disability, **or** one that
provides emotional support alleviating one or more identified symptoms or
effects of that disability. It goes on to say the term includes an emotional
support animal supporting a person who has a disability-related need for it.

Two sections, thirty-six years apart, in the same part of the code. When a
landlord here quotes the older one, the useful response is not an argument
about guide dogs; it is to point at the newer one.

## The 1985 date does not travel

The follow-up question in a city of long-held leases is whether an old
agreement can still limit things.

The carve-out for pre-November-1985 agreements belongs to § 113.1 and appears
nowhere in § 113.2. The 2018 section contains no grandfather clause at all. A
request under it is assessed on the tenant's disability and the
disability-related need for the animal, not on the date the tenancy started or
the lease was drafted.

## What may be asked for

Subsection (B) sets the documentation rules and starts with a threshold: is the
disability, or the disability-related need, readily apparent? Where it is, no
request is supported.

Where it is not, the landlord may seek reliable supporting documentation
covering three matters. That the tenant falls within the Fair Housing Act's
definition of disability, what accommodation is sought, and how the disability
and that accommodation connect. The landlord may also independently satisfy
themselves that the documentation is authentic.

## Why the source of the document matters

The same subsection ends with a provision that has no parallel in the other
states covered here: supporting documentation acquired through purchase or
exchange of funds for goods and services is **presumed to be fraudulent**.

Subsection (D) supplies the consequence. Obtaining an accommodation by
knowingly making a false claim of disability, or by knowingly providing
fraudulent supporting documentation, allows the landlord to move to eviction
under 41 O.S. § 132, and a prevailing landlord may recover court costs and fees
plus damages not exceeding one thousand dollars.

Knowledge is required and the presumption can be answered, so an honest tenant
with a proper letter is not the target. What it does mean is that the person
who wrote the document needs to be someone who assessed you and can respond if
the landlord telephones.

## Liability was dealt with in the same section

An owner who has held a property for decades usually frames the objection as
risk: what happens if the animal injures a neighbour.

41 O.S. § 113.2(C) removes it. Where an animal is on the premises because an
accommodation was granted under subsection (B), the landlord does not carry
liability for injuries it causes.

Damage the animal does to the property is untouched by that and remains the
tenant's to answer for at the end of the tenancy.

## Deposits, and the demand that starts the clock

41 O.S. § 115 applies regardless of how informal the letting is. The deposit
must be kept in an escrow account for the tenant, maintained in Oklahoma, at a
federally insured financial institution, and misappropriating it is
punishable by up to six months in a county jail plus a fine of twice the amount
taken.

Getting it back requires the tenant to act. A written statement itemising
anything retained is owed, and the balance is due within forty-five days after
the tenancy terminates, possession is delivered **and the tenant makes a
written demand**.

Where six months pass from termination with no written demand, the deposit
reverts to the landlord outright. Against a long-standing owner with no formal
process, a dated email demanding the money is frequently the only record that
the tenancy ended at all.

## There is nothing to register, and nothing to buy

Long-standing owners often ask to see the animal "registered", on the
assumption that some state office keeps a list.

None does. Oklahoma operates no register of assistance animals, and no agency
here issues certificates, identification cards or vests for them. Anything
offering those things is a private business selling a product, and the product
answers none of the questions § 113.2(B) actually asks.

The confusion is understandable, because Oklahoma legislated about that market
rather than ignoring it, which is exactly why bought documentation carries the
statutory presumption of fraud. A landlord asking for a registration number is
asking for something that does not exist; a landlord asking for documentation
that establishes the disability, the accommodation and the link between them is
asking for what the statute provides.

## The route for a complaint

Oklahoma repealed its human rights commission structure in 2013, and Midwest
City has no municipal fair housing office. Complaints go to the **Attorney
General's Office of Civil Rights Enforcement**, which under 25 O.S. § 1501
holds the powers to receive, investigate, seek to conciliate and hold hearings,
and to compel witnesses and documents.

Section 1502.2(C) allows twelve months from the point the practice happened or
stopped, whichever came later, and the filing has to be sworn, written, and on
the Attorney General's own form.

Where a landlord has refused by citing § 113.1, ask for that in writing. A
refusal that names the wrong statute is a considerably more useful document
than one delivered over the phone.

It is also worth saying that most of these refusals are honest mistakes rather
than evasions. An owner who looked the question up years ago and found the 1982
provision has no particular reason to know that the legislature added a second
one in 2018. Pointing at the newer section, in writing, resolves a good number
of these disputes without anything further being needed.

For the statutes behind these rules, see the
[Oklahoma ESA law guide](/blog/oklahoma-emotional-support-animal/), and our
[guide to getting an ESA letter](/blog/articles/how-to-get-esa-letter/) for what
a defensible letter contains.

## What Midwest City landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse a reasonable accommodation request to keep an assistance animal, which 41 O.S. § 113.2(A) defines to include an emotional support animal providing support to a person with a disability-related need
- Cannot demand supporting documentation at all where the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent
- Cannot apply the narrow guide-dog rule in 41 O.S. § 113.1 to an emotional support animal request, since that section covers trained dogs for blind, deaf and physically handicapped tenants
- Cannot treat the public-access rules in 7 O.S. § 19.1 as the housing standard, because that section governs public conveyances and public accommodations rather than dwellings
- Cannot refuse reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where necessary to afford equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling, under 25 O.S. § 1452(16)(b)
- Cannot hold a deposit anywhere but an escrow account in Oklahoma at a federally insured institution, misappropriation being punishable by jail and a fine of up to twice the amount taken
- Cannot keep any part of a deposit without an itemised written statement, and must return the balance within forty-five days of termination, delivery of possession and the tenant's written demand

**Can:**
- May request reliable supporting documentation where the disability or need is not apparent, and may independently verify that the documentation is authentic
- May treat supporting documentation acquired through purchase or exchange of funds for goods and services as presumptively fraudulent, under 41 O.S. § 113.2(B)
- May pursue eviction under 41 O.S. § 132 and recover costs, fees and damages up to one thousand dollars where a tenant knowingly made a false claim of disability or knowingly supplied fraudulent documentation
- May require a surety bond guaranteeing restoration before permitting a physical modification of the premises, under 25 O.S. § 1452(16)(a)
- May hold the tenant responsible for damage the animal actually causes, assessed at move-out like any other damage

## How to get an ESA letter in Midwest City

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

- [Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights Enforcement](https://oag.ok.gov/civil-rights-enforcement) (state agency)
- [Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma](https://legalaidok.org/) (legal aid)
- [Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency](https://www.ohfa.org/) (housing agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### My landlord quoted a law about guide dogs. Is that the right one?

Almost certainly not. 41 O.S. § 113.1 dates from 1982 and stops a landlord refusing or ending a tenancy over a blind, deaf or physically handicapped tenant's guide, signal or service dog, with a carve-out for agreements signed before November 1985. It is confined to trained dogs and three named categories of disability. The provision covering an emotional support animal is § 113.2, added in 2018, and it sits a few lines further down the same chapter.

### What does the 2018 section actually say?

Under 41 O.S. § 113.2(A) the term reaches any animal whose emotional support eases identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability, and the subsection goes on to confirm that an emotional support animal counts where the person has a disability-related need for one. It is one of the clearest statements of the point in any state's landlord and tenant code.

### Can an old lease signed years ago still limit my rights?

The 1985 carve-out belongs to § 113.1 and does not carry across to § 113.2, which contains no equivalent grandfather clause. An accommodation request under the 2018 section is judged on the tenant's disability and the disability-related need for the animal, not on when the rental agreement was signed.

### What can the landlord ask me to provide?

Nothing at all where the disability and the disability-related need are readily apparent. Where they are not, § 113.2(B) allows a request for reliable supporting documentation covering three matters (that you meet the Fair Housing Act definition of disability, what accommodation is needed, and how the two connect), and permits the landlord to check independently that the documentation is authentic.

### Does it matter that I paid for my letter?

In Oklahoma it does. Section 113.2(B) provides that supporting documentation acquired through purchase or exchange of funds for goods and services is presumed fraudulent, which puts the tenant relying on it at a disadvantage from the start. Under § 113.2(D), knowingly making a false claim or knowingly supplying fraudulent documentation supports eviction under 41 O.S. § 132 plus costs, fees and damages up to one thousand dollars for a prevailing landlord.

### Who takes a complaint here?

The Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights Enforcement, under 25 O.S. § 1501, Oklahoma repealed its human rights commission structure in 2013 and Midwest City has no municipal office of its own. Section 1502.2(C) allows one year from the date the practice occurred or terminated, whichever is later, and the complaint must be in writing, under oath, on the prescribed form.

### How much of Midwest City rents?

About 41.9%, or roughly 10,400 of 24,888 occupied housing units, on the 2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate. That is nearly eight points above the statewide 34.2% and marginally higher than Oklahoma City next door at 41.4%, despite Midwest City being a fraction of the size.

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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=oklahoma-emotional-support-animal%2Fmidwest-city