# Altoona ESA Rules: First-Time Landlords and Act 118

> Altoona is 36.1% renters, mostly small owners. What a landlord may verify under Act 118, why improvised checks fail, and where Blair County tenants get help.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/pennsylvania-emotional-support-animal/altoona/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-07-29
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 42,719
- Households renting: 36.1%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): $0 for a documented assistance animal; other deposits are limited to two months' rent in the first year and one month afterward
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $0 for a documented assistance animal; recurring animal charges are pet terms rather than accommodation terms
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## A Small-Landlord Market

Altoona counted about 42,719 residents in the 2024 Census Bureau estimate,
and 36.1% of its households rent — above Pennsylvania's 30.7% statewide share
but the lowest proportion among the state's larger cities, across roughly
6,800 renter households.

Most of that supply is single-family houses and small conversions held by
individual owners. The person deciding an accommodation request has usually
never decided one before, and the failure mode is improvisation rather than
hostility: a demand for a phone call with the letter-writer, a notarized
signature, a second opinion, a form found online.

## What Act 118 Actually Allows

The statute is short enough to end most of that.

Section 3(a) permits a housing provider to require documentation of the
disability and the disability-related need **only if** that disability or need
is not readily apparent or known to the provider. Where the need is already
evident, there is no documentation step to complete.

Section 3(b) then fixes what the documentation must be, in three parts: in
writing, reliable and based on direct knowledge, and describing the
disability-related need for the animal.

Read together, those two subsections are the whole verification framework
Pennsylvania gives a landlord. Everything outside them — the phone call, the
notary, the mandatory template — is an addition the statute does not
describe.

## What an Owner Should Do With Genuine Doubt

Landlords do occasionally receive documents that look manufactured, and Act
118 anticipates that without inviting self-help.

Under § 5, a person who intentionally misrepresents entitlement to an
assistance or service animal — or who makes materially false statements in
order to obtain documentation — commits a misdemeanor of the third degree. Section 6 makes
falsifying documents, or fitting an animal that does not qualify with a
harness, collar, vest or sign of the kind used by assistance or service
animals, a summary offense carrying a fine of up to $1,000.

Those are matters for the authorities. They are not a license for a housing
provider to build an approval process of its own, and a landlord who
understands that the Commonwealth already polices falsification tends to
relax about the paperwork in front of them.

## The Duty Being Applied

Section 5(h)(3.2) of the Human Relations Act supplies the obligation, and it
reads as a prohibition: a housing provider may not refuse reasonable
accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where those
accommodations may be necessary to afford a person equal opportunity to use
and enjoy a housing accommodation. There is no threshold based on how many
properties an owner holds.

Federal law says the same thing independently: 24 C.F.R. § 100.204 makes
refusing reasonable accommodations unlawful where necessary to afford a person
with a handicap equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling unit, including
public and common use areas.

## No Registry, No Certificate

Pennsylvania issues no ESA registration and no state credential. Where an
Altoona landlord asks for certification, the accurate answer is that no such
thing exists here and that Act 118 describes a letter instead — from someone
with direct knowledge of the tenant's situation, in writing, explaining the
disability-related need.

## Money and Deposits

An approved assistance animal is not a pet, so pet rent, pet fees and pet
deposits do not apply to it. The tenant remains responsible for damage the
animal causes.

The Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 caps the deposit itself at two months'
rent during the first year of a lease and one month's rent in the second and
subsequent years, requires a written list of damages and the balance within
thirty days of the tenant vacating, and makes a landlord who fails to comply
liable in assumpsit to double the amount wrongfully withheld. In a market
where tenancies run long, the year-two reduction is the term most often
missed.

## Housing Only

Act 118 defines a service animal separately, by reference to the Americans
with Disabilities Act and the Human Relations Act. What an Altoona tenant is
requesting is the right to keep the animal at home, and a landlord who raises
public access has answered a question nobody asked.

## Asking After Many Years

Altoona tenancies tend to run long, and a request raised after several years
often draws the response that the arrangement has worked until now.

That is an observation about history rather than an answer under the statute.
Act 118 imposes no timing rule on the tenant, and the question it asks is
what the documentation shows today. Conditions change, treatment changes, and
a request made in year six is assessed on the same three-part test as one
made at signing.

## Getting It in Writing With Someone You Know

Small-town tenancies often run on a good personal relationship, which makes
tenants reluctant to formalize anything. The written request is not an
escalation; it is the only thing that survives a sale, a death, or a family
member taking over the property.

A short note — what is being asked for, what is attached, and the date — costs
nothing and protects both sides. Landlords generally prefer it too, because
it tells them exactly what they are agreeing to.

## What the Tenant Owes in Return

The protection is not one-sided. A tenant remains liable for damage the
animal causes to the property, assessed at move-out on the same footing as
any other damage, and a landlord is entitled to hold that liability against
the deposit in the ordinary way.

What a landlord may not do is convert that risk into money collected in
advance. The statute moves animal costs from an upfront premium to a bill
based on what actually happened, which is a fair trade and worth saying out
loud when a first-time owner worries about the exposure.

## Where the Right Stops

Act 118 defines a service animal separately, by reference to the Americans
with Disabilities Act and the Human Relations Act, and an emotional support
animal falls outside that category. What § 5(h)(3.2) secures is the ability
to keep the animal at home without a charge attached to it.

A shop or restaurant in Altoona may decline the animal at its door without
any conflict with the housing rules, and keeping the two questions apart in
the request avoids handing a landlord an argument that was never in issue.

## Two Claims, Two Timetables

A tenancy that ends badly can generate both an accommodation complaint and a
deposit claim. They run separately: the discrimination complaint goes to the
Commission within 180 days of the act complained of, while a deposit claim
under the Landlord and Tenant Act is pursued in court.

Keeping them distinct prevents the common failure, where an argument about a
few hundred dollars quietly consumes the six months available for the more
serious claim.

## Local Help and the Clock

MidPenn Legal Services provides free civil legal services across eighteen
central Pennsylvania counties including Blair. Disability Rights Pennsylvania covers protection and advocacy work across
the Commonwealth, and the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network publishes a
county-by-county directory of programs.

Complaints go to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, and § 9(h) of
the Human Relations Act allows 180 days from the alleged act of
discrimination — roughly six months, and among the shortest windows in the
country. With an inexperienced landlord the productive first move is a
written request citing the subsections; with an unresponsive one, it is a
dated follow-up. Our [guide to landlord denials](/blog/articles/can-landlord-deny-emotional-support-animal/) walks through the assessment, and
the [Pennsylvania ESA law overview](/blog/pennsylvania-emotional-support-animal/) collects the statewide rules.

## What Altoona landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where the accommodation may be necessary for equal opportunity to use and enjoy a housing accommodation
- Cannot request documentation at all where the disability or the disability-related need is already readily apparent or known to the provider
- Cannot treat an emotional support animal as outside the rules, since Act 118 defines an assistance animal to include an ESA that qualifies as a reasonable accommodation
- Cannot require more than two months' rent as a security deposit in the first year of a lease, or more than one month's rent in later years
- Cannot keep any part of a deposit without providing a written list of damages and returning the balance within thirty days, on pain of liability for double the amount wrongfully withheld

**Can:**
- May require documentation where the disability or the need is not readily apparent, and may insist that it be in writing
- May insist that the documentation be reliable and based on direct knowledge and that it describe the disability-related need for the animal
- May report suspected misrepresentation, which Act 118 grades as a misdemeanor of the third degree for falsely claiming entitlement and as a summary offense carrying a fine of up to $1,000 for misrepresenting an animal

## How to get an ESA letter in Altoona

1. **Check that you qualify** — Answer a short screening about how your condition affects daily life in Altoona. No diagnosis paperwork needed up front. (About 5 minutes — free)
2. **Connect with a licensed professional** — You are matched with a provider licensed for Pennsylvania 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. (95% of applicants qualify)
4. **Receive your signed letter** — Your letter arrives on the professional's letterhead with their license number — the documentation Pennsylvania 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 Altoona. (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 Altoona

- [MidPenn Legal Services](https://www.midpenn.org/) (legal aid)
- [Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission](https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/phrc.html) (government)
- [Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network](https://www.palegalaid.net/) (legal information)
- [Disability Rights Pennsylvania](https://www.disabilityrightspa.org/) (advocacy)

## Frequently asked questions

### My Altoona landlord owns one house. Do the rules apply?

Yes. Section 5(h)(3.2) of the Human Relations Act contains no threshold based on portfolio size, and Act 118 governs the documentation regardless of who owns the property. The duty attaches to letting a dwelling.

### Can an owner invent their own verification steps?

Act 118 sets the limits. Section 3(a) allows a request only where the disability or need is not readily apparent, and § 3(b) fixes what the documentation must be — in writing, reliable and based on direct knowledge, describing the disability-related need. A demand beyond that adds a requirement the statute does not describe.

### What if the landlord suspects the letter is fake?

Act 118 provides a route that does not involve refusing on suspicion. Section 5 makes intentionally misrepresenting entitlement, or making materially false statements to obtain documentation, a misdemeanor of the third degree — a matter for the authorities rather than for an improvised approval process.

### Is there any Pennsylvania registry to point to?

No. The Commonwealth operates no ESA registry and issues no certificates or identification cards for these animals. What Act 118 contemplates is a letter from someone with direct knowledge of the tenant's situation.

### How long do I have to complain in Altoona?

180 days from the alleged act of discrimination, under § 9(h), with the complaint going to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. That is roughly six months, and it runs from the refusal rather than from the day negotiations break down.

### Who provides legal help in Blair County?

MidPenn Legal Services provides free civil legal services across eighteen central Pennsylvania counties including Blair. Disability Rights Pennsylvania is the statewide protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities.

### Can a deposit be increased because of the animal?

No. Deposits are capped at two months' rent in the first year and one month afterward for every tenancy, and no part of a deposit may be attributed to an approved assistance animal.

---

Get evaluated by a licensed provider: https://my.supportanimal.com/qualify?sa_source=blog&sa_medium=referral&sa_campaign=esa-guides&sa_content=markdown&ref=blog&sa_term=pennsylvania-emotional-support-animal%2Faltoona