# ESA Letter in Box Elder, SD: The Priciest Cap in the State

> Box Elder has South Dakota's highest rents at $1,491. SDCL 43-32-6.1's one-month deposit cap is worth more here — and its exception is narrower than it looks.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 13,887
- Households renting: 51.8%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $35-$75/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The most expensive rental market in South Dakota is not Sioux Falls

Box Elder's median gross rent is **$1,491** on the 2020–2024 American
Community Survey five-year estimate. Rapid City, next door, is $1,109. Sioux
Falls is $1,035. The state median is $946.

That makes Box Elder the highest-rent city in South Dakota by a wide margin,
about fifty-eight percent above the state figure, and the fact surprises
almost everyone, because Box Elder is the ninth largest place in the state
at 13,887 people on the 2024 Census estimate.

It is also one of the most renter-heavy: 2,422 of 4,679 occupied homes are rented,
**51.8 percent**, third of the state's twenty largest cities behind Vermillion and
Brookings.

Both numbers have the same explanation. Box Elder adjoins Ellsworth Air
Force Base. Its housing market is built around short tenancies, arriving
households who need somewhere immediately, and demand that does not soften.

## Which is why the deposit cap is worth reading carefully here

SDCL 43-32-6.1:

> "Any deposit of money, the function of which is to secure the performance of a
> residential rental agreement or any part of such an agreement, shall be deemed to be a
> security deposit. A lessor of residential premises may not demand or receive a security
> deposit, **however denominated**, in an amount or value in excess of **one month's
> rent** except that a larger deposit **may be agreed upon between the lessor and the
> lessee where special conditions pose a danger to maintenance of the premises**."

Everywhere in South Dakota the cap is one month's rent. In Aberdeen that is
$762. In Box Elder it is close to $1,500, and a landlord who wants a deposit
plus a pet charge is reaching past a number that already matters.

So the exception at the end of the sentence gets more use in this city than
anywhere else in the state. It should get less.

## Two conditions, and both are required

Read the exception as the statute wrote it:

1. The larger deposit **may be agreed upon between the lessor and the lessee**.
2. **Where special conditions pose a danger to maintenance of the premises.**

The first is agreement. Not a term inserted into a standard lease and presented at
signing as non-negotiable. The section says "agreed upon between," which contemplates
two parties reaching something.

The second is the substantive one, and it is a description of a circumstance, not of an
animal. "Special conditions" that "pose a danger to maintenance of the premises" is
language about the state of the property or the use being made of it. Nothing in chapter
43-32 defines an ordinary household animal as a special condition, and reading one in
would swallow the cap: every pet would carry an exception, which is not what an exception
is for.

## And the prior question, which comes first

None of that decides whether the charge should exist. For an assistance
animal that is a genuine accommodation, it should not.

South Dakota has no statute barring a pet fee in terms. The charge comes off under SDCL
20-13-20(2), which makes it an unfair or discriminatory practice to discriminate because
of disability in "the terms, conditions, or privileges" of a rental, and under **42 U.S.C.
§ 3604(f)(3)(B)**, the federal Fair Housing Act's reasonable-accommodation duty. The state
duty in SDCL 20-13-23.7 requires good faith efforts to reasonably accommodate a disabled
person in housing unless the accommodation would impose undue hardship.

Keep the two levels apart. 20-13-20(2) says the charge should not be made.
43-32-6.1 says that even where a charge is lawful, everything the landlord
holds counts against the same one-month ceiling, labels included.

## Fast turnover, and the deadline it creates

Box Elder tenancies end abruptly and often end with a move out of state.
SDCL 43-32-24 sets the rules:

- **Twenty-one days** from termination *and* receipt of the tenant's mailing address or
  delivery instructions, for return of the deposit or a written statement of the specific
  reason for withholding.
- **Forty-five days**, on request, for an itemised accounting.
- Withholding limited to remedying defaults in rent and other funds due, and restoring the
  premises to their condition at the start of the tenancy, ordinary wear and tear excepted.
- A lessor who fails to comply "**forfeits all rights to withhold any portion of the
  deposit.**"

The clock does not start until the landlord has an address. A tenant who
leaves for a new assignment without giving one in writing has not started
the twenty-one days, and at Box Elder deposit sizes that is an expensive
omission.

## What this page does not cover

Housing on the installation itself is a different arrangement with its own
process. No South Dakota statute retrieved for this material speaks to it,
and nothing here should be read as describing it. What is described above is
the private rental market in the City of Box Elder, which is where most of
the demand lands.

## If the accommodation is refused

SDCL 20-13-31 allows **180 days** from when the practice occurred, with no
discovery language in the section, filed with the Division of Human Rights
in the Department of Labor and Regulation. For a household that may relocate
inside that window, the date of the refusal is fixed and absence does not
extend it, put the request and the refusal in writing at the time.

## Arriving with the request already made

In a market where households sign leases before they have seen the town, the
sequence matters.

An accommodation can be requested at application, not only after moving in.
Doing it then avoids the awkward position of having agreed a pet deposit in
the lease and asking for it back afterwards, which is a harder conversation
than declining to agree it in the first place.

It also puts the documentation question in front of you early, while there
is still time to sort out a clinician, rather than in week two of a tenancy
with a charge already running.

**And keep the paperwork portable.** A determination obtained for one Box Elder tenancy is the same
determination at the next address, here or elsewhere. Households that move often lose more requests
to lost documents than to landlords.

## The step that has to happen first

Start with a clinician who already sees you. For a household that has moved
recently that is a harder sentence than it looks: continuity of care across
a move is exactly what arriving families do not have, records take time to
transfer, and a new clinician who has seen you twice may reasonably decline
to make a disability finding yet. West River capacity is concentrated in
Rapid City, and new-patient waits there run to months.

Where that route is not open, a licensed evaluation is the same examination
arranged on purpose, someone licensed settling whether a disability exists
and whether this animal answers it, then writing the determination or
explaining that they cannot. Both endings are real, and a service whose
answer is settled before you arrive is the operation SDCL 43-32-35 was
drafted to exclude.

In the state's most expensive rental market, that document is what stands
between a required accommodation and a lawful charge on the highest rent in
South Dakota.

## What Box Elder landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- May not require documentation at all where the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known to them, SDCL 43-32-34, second sentence.
- May not discriminate because of disability in the terms, conditions or privileges of the rental, SDCL 20-13-20(2). A pet deposit or monthly pet charge on a required accommodation is caught here.
- May not take a security deposit above one month's rent "however denominated", SDCL 43-32-6.1, so a pet fee cannot be stacked on top of a full deposit by renaming it.

**Can:**
- May require reliable supporting documentation where a tenant asserts a disability requiring an assistance animal, SDCL 43-32-34. This is an express statutory right and arguing that a South Dakota landlord may not ask is simply wrong.
- May insist the documentation confirm both the disability and the relationship between the disability and the need for the animal, and that it come from a licensed health care provider who does not operate in South Dakota solely to certify animals, SDCL 43-32-35.
- Must make good faith efforts to reasonably accommodate a person with a disability in housing, unless the accommodation would impose undue hardship, SDCL 20-13-23.7, with punitive damages available under SDCL 20-13-35.1.
- Must return the deposit or give written reasons within twenty-one days of termination, and forfeits all right to withhold anything by failing to, SDCL 43-32-24.
- May evict and claim a damage fee of up to one thousand dollars where a tenant knowingly makes a false claim of disability or knowingly supplies fraudulent documentation, SDCL 43-32-36.
- Is not required by the chapter to modify the property, incur additional expenses or exercise a higher degree of care, SDCL 20-13-21.1. Waiving a no-pets rule asks for none of those things.

## How to get an ESA letter in Box Elder

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

- [City of Box Elder](https://www.boxeldersd.gov/) (city government)
- [Western South Dakota Community Action](https://www.wsdca.org/) (community action agency)
- [SD Division of Human Rights](https://dlr.sd.gov/human_rights/default.aspx) (state civil rights agency)
- [Disability Rights South Dakota](https://drsdlaw.org/) (disability rights org)

## Frequently asked questions

### My Box Elder landlord wants more than one month's rent as a deposit. Can they?

Only on the statute's terms, which are narrow. SDCL 43-32-6.1 caps a residential security deposit "however denominated" at one month's rent, "except that a larger deposit may be agreed upon between the lessor and the lessee where special conditions pose a danger to maintenance of the premises." That requires both agreement and a special condition that poses a danger to maintenance. It is not a landlord's discretionary uplift.

### Is an animal a "special condition" for that purpose?

The statute does not say so, and nothing in chapter 43-32 suggests it. The clause describes a circumstance that threatens the upkeep of the premises, agreed to by both parties. A household cat or dog is not that, and a landlord using the clause as a standing pet surcharge has read a general exception into a specific one.

### Why does the cap matter more in Box Elder than elsewhere?

Because the numbers are bigger here. Box Elder's $1,491 median gross rent is the highest in South Dakota, above Rapid City's $1,109 and Sioux Falls's $1,035 and some fifty-eight percent above the $946 state median. A one-month cap is a one-month cap everywhere, but in this city that is close to fifteen hundred dollars, and an unlawful pet charge on top of it is a serious amount of money.

### Should there be a pet deposit for my assistance animal at all?

Not where the accommodation is genuine. South Dakota has no statute banning the charge in terms; it falls away under SDCL 20-13-20(2), which makes disability discrimination in "the terms, conditions, or privileges" of a rental an unfair or discriminatory practice, and under the federal Fair Housing Act. The cap in 43-32-6.1 does a different job: it limits what may lawfully be held, whatever the labels say.

### Does living near the base change my rights?

Not as a matter of South Dakota law. Chapter 20-13 and chapter 43-32 apply to private rentals in Box Elder like anywhere else in the state, and this page addresses those. Housing provided on the installation itself is a different arrangement with its own process, and no South Dakota statute retrieved for this page speaks to it.

### Turnover here is fast. Does that affect the deposit rules?

It affects how often they come up. SDCL 43-32-24 requires the deposit returned or written reasons given within twenty-one days of termination and receipt of your mailing address, an itemised accounting within forty-five days on request, and forfeits all right to withhold if the lessor fails to comply. On a short tenancy that ends with a move out of state, giving the forwarding address in writing is the step that starts the clock.

### How long do I have if the accommodation is refused?

180 days from the refusal, under SDCL 20-13-31, filed with the Division of Human Rights. The section has no discovery language, and a tenant who deploys shortly after a refusal should treat the date of that refusal as fixed rather than assuming absence extends it.

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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=south-dakota-emotional-support-animal%2Fbox-elder