# ESA Letter in Medford, OR: Two Duties, Two Different Bills

> ORS 659A.145 has a rules duty and a modifications duty, and only one of them is free. What a Rogue Valley renter with a house and a yard needs to separate.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 86,301
- Households renting: 43.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$50/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Houses and duplexes, not apartment blocks

Medford rents 15,211 of its 34,813 occupied homes, 43.7 percent on the 2020–2024
American Community Survey five-year estimate, seven points above Oregon's 36.7
percent. Median gross rent is $1,376, below the $1,525 statewide figure and in
the lower half of the state's twenty largest cities, which is what distance from
the Willamette Valley job market buys you.

The 2024 Census estimate puts Medford at 86,301, eighth in Oregon and much the
largest place in the Rogue Valley.

What matters here is the shape of the stock rather than the price. Medford rents
a lot of **houses**: detached single-family homes and small duplexes, many of
them fifty or seventy years old, rather than purpose-built apartment complexes
from the last two decades. A tenant in that kind of property who needs an
assistance animal runs into a question a fourth-floor apartment tenant never
does: the animal is fine, but the property needs something.

An unfenced yard needs a gate. A back step needs a ramp. A screen door needs a
latch that works. And at that point the request stops being one request and
becomes two, under two different subsections, with two very different rules about
who pays.

## The rules duty, and the property duty

ORS 659A.145(2) sets both out, one after the other, and it is worth reading them
side by side because the difference is easy to miss and expensive to miss.

Subsection (2)(f): the property:

> "Refusing to permit, at the expense of the individual with a disability,
> reasonable modifications of existing premises occupied or to be occupied by the
> individual if the modifications may be necessary to afford the individual full
> enjoyment of the premises. However, in the case of a rental, the landlord may,
> when it is reasonable to do so, condition permission for a reasonable
> modification on the renter agreeing to restore the interior of the premises to
> the condition that existed before the modification, reasonable wear and tear
> excepted."

Subsection (2)(g) — the rules:

> "Refusing to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or
> services when the accommodations may be necessary to afford the individual with
> a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling."

A **modification** changes the building. An **accommodation** changes a rule. Your
animal, despite a no-pets clause, is an accommodation. The gate is a modification.

## Only one of them is free

Look at where the money sits in each sentence.

Subsection (2)(f) contains the words "**at the expense of the individual with a
disability**." The landlord's duty is to *permit* the modification, not to fund
it. A tenant who wants a gate pays for the gate.

Subsection (2)(g) contains no cost language at all. There is nothing in it about
expense, contribution or reimbursement, because an exception to a rule does not
cost anything to make. Permission to keep the animal is free, and a landlord who
tries to price it is not applying (2)(f). They are charging for something the
statute gives away.

The modifications subsection also has a tail the accommodations subsection lacks.
On a rental, the landlord may, "when it is reasonable to do so", condition
permission on the tenant agreeing to restore the premises afterwards, "reasonable
wear and tear excepted." Two boundaries sit inside that: it must be reasonable to
require, and the restoration duty reaches the **interior**.

## Ask for both, but ask for them separately

The practical advice for a Medford house tenancy is simple and it saves a lot of
argument.

Make the accommodation request first and on its own terms: a clinician has
determined this animal is necessary because of a disability, and you are asking
for an exception to the pet rule under ORS 659A.145(2)(g). That request is free
and it is the one that determines whether you keep your animal.

Then, if the property needs something physical, raise it as a separate
modification request under (2)(f), name it as such, and be explicit that you
expect to pay for it and will discuss restoration.

Keeping them apart matters in both directions. A landlord who is allowed to blur
them will bill you for the accommodation on the theory that all disability
requests come at the tenant's expense, which is what (2)(f) says and (2)(g)
plainly does not. And a landlord who is genuinely uneasy about the fence, the cost
or the restoration can refuse the modification while still having no answer at all
to the animal.

## What the tenancy costs either way

The financial rules for the animal itself do not move because you have agreed to
pay for a gate.

ORS 90.300(4) provides that a landlord "may not charge a tenant a pet security
deposit for keeping a service animal or companion animal that a tenant with a
disability requires as a reasonable accommodation under fair housing laws." ORS
90.302(1) allows no fee the section does not list, so recurring pet rent for a
required accommodation goes too. What stays is a plain security deposit (lawful
as long as the animal did not inflate it), and your own liability for anything
the animal breaks.

Two Medford-specific misconceptions worth naming. **Training is not the housing
test**: ORS 659A.143(1)(a)'s "individually trained" definition opens with "As
used in this section," and that section covers shops, restaurants and government
offices, not homes. And a **small landlord is not exempt**: ORS 659A.145 has no
owner-occupied carve-out on its face, and the only exemptions in ORS 659A.421 are
about shared bath or bedroom facilities and about housing for older persons.
Neither reaches disability. In a city that rents as many owner-adjacent houses as
Medford does, that assumption comes up constantly and it is wrong about Oregon
law.

## Which brings it back to the determination

Both subsections stand on one unproved thing: a person **with a disability**,
for whom what is asked for "may be necessary." Oregon has enumerated no
professions, built no register and endorsed no document, so the question is
settled by an examination or it is not settled.

If you have a therapist, counsellor or prescriber, ask them. They know your
history, the work is largely done, and it costs no more than the appointment.
Jackson County's constraint is supply: the Rogue Valley has notably fewer
outpatient mental health providers per resident than the Willamette Valley,
several-month waits are ordinary, and some practices decline housing letters
outright as policy.

Where it is not open, a licensed evaluation is the same work done on purpose. A
clinician licensed in Oregon examines whether there is a disability and whether
the animal accommodates it, and delivers a finding that may disappoint you. That
possibility is the evidence an examination occurred at all.

It is worth having before the gate conversation rather than after it. A tenant who
can establish the disability is negotiating about a fence, at their own expense,
having already secured the animal for free. A tenant who cannot is negotiating
about everything at once, with a landlord who has begun to wonder whether any of
it was necessary.

## What Medford landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not refuse to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it is necessary to give a disabled tenant equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling: ORS 659A.145(2)(g). A no-pets policy is a rule, and the accommodation is an exception to it.
- May not charge a pet security deposit for a service animal or companion animal the tenant requires as a reasonable accommodation, ORS 90.300(4), which names the companion animal in the statute itself.
- May not charge any fee at the beginning of the tenancy for an anticipated expense, and may charge only the fees ORS 90.302 lists, each described in a written rental agreement.
- May not make a distinction or restriction against a renter in the price, terms, conditions or privileges of the tenancy because of disability: ORS 659A.145(2)(c).

**Can:**
- May still charge a noncompliance fee for failure to clean up a service or companion animal's waste from common areas, but only after a written warning notice, only for a second or later occurrence within a year, and capped at $50 under ORS 90.302(3).
- May still hold the tenant liable for damage the animal actually does, and may still take an ordinary security deposit, provided it is not larger because of the animal.
- Faces a disparate-impact claim under ORS 659A.425 where a facially neutral policy hits disabled tenants harder than tenants generally, weighed against the policy's business purpose and any less discriminatory alternative.

## How to get an ESA letter in Medford

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

- [Housing Authority of Jackson County](https://www.hajc.net/) (housing authority)
- [Fair Housing Council of Oregon](https://www.fhco.org/) (fair housing nonprofit)
- [Oregon Law Center](https://oregonlawcenter.org/) (legal aid)
- [BOLI, Fair Housing](https://www.oregon.gov/boli/civil-rights/Pages/fair-housing.aspx) (state agency)

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between a modification and an accommodation in Oregon?

A modification changes the property; an accommodation changes a rule. ORS 659A.145(2)(f) covers "reasonable modifications of existing premises", physical changes such as a gate, a ramp or a different latch. ORS 659A.145(2)(g) covers "reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services," which is where permission to keep an assistance animal despite a no-pets clause lives. They are different subsections with different rules attached.

### Who pays for a physical modification?

You do. ORS 659A.145(2)(f) frames the duty as refusing to permit modifications "at the expense of the individual with a disability." The landlord's obligation is to permit, not to fund. That is the single largest practical difference from subsection (2)(g), which contains no cost-shifting language at all, an accommodation to a rule costs the landlord nothing to grant and the tenant nothing to receive.

### Can my Medford landlord make me undo the change when I leave?

On a rental, yes, within limits. ORS 659A.145(2)(f) provides that "in the case of a rental, the landlord may, when it is reasonable to do so, condition permission for a reasonable modification on the renter agreeing to restore the interior of the premises to the condition that existed before the modification, reasonable wear and tear excepted." Note two boundaries: it applies where reasonable to require, and it reaches the interior.

### My animal is fine. I just need a gate on the yard. Which subsection is that?

Both, in sequence. Permission to keep the animal despite a no-pets rule is an accommodation under ORS 659A.145(2)(g), at no cost. Installing the gate is a modification under (2)(f), at your expense and possibly subject to restoration. Asking for them together is sensible; conflating them is how a landlord ends up billing you for the accommodation or refusing the animal because of the gate.

### Can a Medford landlord charge a pet deposit for my assistance animal?

No. ORS 90.300(4) provides that a landlord "may not charge a tenant a pet security deposit for keeping a service animal or companion animal that a tenant with a disability requires as a reasonable accommodation under fair housing laws." That bar is not affected by any modification you have agreed to pay for. They are separate questions under separate statutes.

### Does my animal need training to qualify in Medford?

No. The trained-animal wording is ORS 659A.143(1)(a), and the statute confines it to that section. One about premises open to the public. A dwelling is governed by ORS 659A.145, which asks whether an accommodation may be necessary and says nothing about training.

### My landlord owns three houses and lives in one of them. Is he exempt?

Oregon's section says nothing about the size of a landlord's portfolio or whether they live on site. ORS 659A.421 carries exactly two exemptions. One about unrelated people of opposite sex necessarily sharing bath or bedroom facilities, one about familial status in housing for older persons, and disability is outside both.

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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=oregon-emotional-support-animal%2Fmedford