# ESA Letter in Dell Rapids, SD: Who the Act Reaches

> South Dakota exempts only owner-occupied two-family dwellings. In a town with 275 rentals, working out whether your landlord is inside that is the first job.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 3,825
- Households renting: 17.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Barred as accommodation
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $25-$40/mo for pets
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Two hundred and seventy-five rented homes

Dell Rapids has **275** renting households out of 1,551 occupied homes,
**17.7 percent** on the 2020–2024 American Community Survey five-year
estimate. That is the lowest renter share of any of South Dakota's twenty
largest cities, against a statewide figure of 31.4 percent.

Median gross rent is $962, sixteen dollars above the state median, which is
high for a market this thin. The 2024 Census estimate puts the city at 3,825
people, twentieth of the state's largest municipalities, about twenty miles
north of Sioux Falls.

Two hundred and seventy-five rentals means almost no professional
management. It means individual owners: someone with a house they used to
live in, someone with the upstairs of a building on Fourth Street, someone
with a duplex. And it means the first question in any accommodation dispute
here is one that rarely comes up in Sioux Falls, whether the South Dakota
act reaches this landlord at all.

## The exemption, in full

At the end of SDCL 20-13-20:

> "The provisions of subdivisions (1), (2), and (4) do not apply to rooms or units in
> dwellings that contain living quarters for **no more than two families living
> independently of each other**, if **the owner maintains and occupies one of the living
> quarters as the owner's residence.**"

Two conditions, both required:

1. The dwelling contains living quarters for **no more than two families**.
2. The **owner** maintains and occupies **one of them** as their residence.

## Working through the Dell Rapids cases

**A duplex where the owner lives in one half.** Two families, owner in residence. Inside the
exemption.

**A house divided into three flats, owner in one.** Three families. **Outside**: the
exemption's ceiling is two, and one over is one too many.

**An owner with two rental houses who lives in a third.** Outside. The exemption is about
"rooms or units in dwellings … if the owner maintains and occupies one of the living
quarters." A rental house the owner does not live in is not a unit in the dwelling they
occupy.

**An owner with a single rental house, living across town.** Outside. This is the one that
surprises people, because it feels like the smallest possible landlord. **South Dakota has
no small-landlord exemption based on the number of properties owned.** The state exemption is
about owner-occupancy, and nothing else.

That last point is worth holding onto, because two neighbouring states do have a
number-of-properties exemption. Kansas exempts a single family house sold or rented by an
owner "who does not own or have any interest in more than three single family houses at any
one time," where no broker is used, under K.S.A. 44-1018(b)(1). And Kansas's owner-occupied
threshold is four families rather than two. South Dakota's is the narrowest of the three
states in this region.

## What the exemption switches off, and what stays

It is written against subdivisions **(1), (2), and (4)**: refusing to rent
because of disability, discriminating in the terms, conditions or privileges
of the rental, and refusing reasonable modifications at the disabled
person's expense.

**Nothing is said about subdivision (3).** That subdivision covers advertising: publicising, in any
manner at all, that a would-be tenant with a disability would be "unwelcome, objectionable, not
acceptable, or not solicited." It binds an exempt owner-occupier exactly as it binds anyone else.

## The step nobody should skip

If the state exemption does apply, that is not the end of the enquiry. It is
an exemption from **the South Dakota section**.

The federal Fair Housing Act has its own exemptions, drawn differently, and
**42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)**'s reasonable-accommodation duty is a federal
obligation that does not depend on SDCL 20-13-20 at all. The two schemes do
not line up, and a landlord outside one may be inside the other.

So the correct sequence when a Dell Rapids owner says the law does not apply
to them is: how many families does the dwelling hold, do you live in one of
them, and what about the federal Act.

## And the documentation chapter has no exemption whatsoever

SDCL 43-32-34 sits in the landlord-tenant chapter, not the human rights chapter, and carries
no owner-occupied clause. **Any** landlord may require reliable supporting documentation where
a tenant asserts a disability requiring an assistance animal, subject to the exception where
the disability or the disability-related need is "readily apparent or already known to the
landlord."

In a town of 3,800 that exception is genuinely live. Someone who has rented
to you for six years, and knows why the animal is there, may already know
within the meaning of the section. It is worth saying, politely, before
producing anything.

## What a market this small actually means

Moving is not the answer here. With 275 rentals in the city and the lowest
renter share in the state's top twenty, there is no realistic alternative
unit to sign. Sioux Falls has 34,786 rentals and is twenty miles and an
entirely different rent away.

That changes what a good outcome looks like. In a large market a refusal is
a reason to look elsewhere; in Dell Rapids the accommodation you obtain in
the unit you already have is very likely the whole result. Which puts the
weight on the quality of the request rather than on what happens if it
fails.

## The rest of it

Charges attached to the animal come off under SDCL 20-13-20(2), where the section applies,
and under the federal Act. Whatever the landlord holds is capped by SDCL 43-32-6.1 at one month's
rent, "however denominated." Under SDCL 43-32-24 the money or a written explanation is due
twenty-one days after the tenancy ends and your address reaches them, and a lessor who misses that
loses the right to hold back anything at all. SDCL 20-13-31 gives 180 days from a
refusal, with no discovery language, and time spent working out whether an exemption applies
counts against that window like any other.

## Asking about the building without making it an interrogation

The exemption question has to be answered, and it does not have to be asked
adversarially.

"How many units are in the building, and do you live in one of them?" is a question with an ordinary
answer, and most owners give it without thinking about statutes at all.

What that answer does is tell you which conversation you are in. Inside the
exemption, the state section is off and the federal Act is the live
question. Outside it, SDCL 20-13-20(2) applies to the charge and SDCL
20-13-23.7 to the refusal. Either way the documentation is the same, which
is why it is worth having before the question is asked.

## What works on an individual

Start with a clinician you already see. Most Dell Rapids residents' care
runs through Sioux Falls: the deepest clinical bench in South Dakota, and
still two to four months for a new patient, with several large practices
declining housing documentation as standing policy.

If that is not available, a licensed evaluation covers the same ground
deliberately, a licensed clinician resolves the two questions and then
either records the conclusion or tells you they will not. The second outcome
is what makes the first mean anything.

Against a landlord who may genuinely be exempt from part of the state act,
the argument that does the most work is the one that never needed the
statute: a real document, a reasonable request, and a neighbour who has no
good reason to refuse.

## What Dell Rapids 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 Dell Rapids

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

- [SD Division of Human Rights](https://dlr.sd.gov/human_rights/default.aspx) (state civil rights agency)
- [Inter-Lakes Community Action Partnership](https://www.interlakescap.com/) (community action agency)
- [Sioux Falls Housing](https://www.siouxfallshousing.org/) (local housing authority)
- [Dakota Plains Legal Services](https://www.dpls.org/) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### My Dell Rapids landlord owns two houses and lives in neither. Are they exempt?

Not under SDCL 20-13-20. That section's exemption is about a dwelling containing living quarters for no more than two families "if the owner maintains and occupies one of the living quarters as the owner's residence." An owner who lives somewhere else does not satisfy it, however small their portfolio. South Dakota has no small-landlord exemption based on the number of properties owned.

### Does Kansas or Montana have a broader version?

Both are wider. Kansas exempts buildings for no more than four families where the owner occupies one, under K.S.A. 44-1018(b)(2), and separately exempts an owner with an interest in no more than three single family houses renting without a broker. Montana's MCA 49-2-305(2) covers rental of sleeping rooms in an owner-occupied residence renting no more than three rooms. South Dakota's two-family ceiling is the narrowest of the three.

### If the exemption does apply, is that the end of it?

No, and this is the step most often skipped. The exemption is from the South Dakota section. The federal Fair Housing Act has its own exemptions, drawn differently, and 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)'s reasonable accommodation duty is a federal obligation. Where a landlord claims the state exemption, the federal question has to be asked separately rather than treated as answered.

### Which parts of SDCL 20-13-20 survive the exemption?

Subdivision (3), the advertising provision. The exemption is written against subdivisions (1), (2) and (4) only, so even an exempt owner-occupier may not advertise or publicise in a manner indicating that a rental by a person with a disability is unwelcome, objectionable, not acceptable or not solicited.

### Can a small landlord still ask me for documentation?

Yes. SDCL 43-32-34 sits in the landlord-tenant chapter and has no owner-occupied exemption at all. Any landlord may require reliable supporting documentation, unless the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known to them, which in a town of 3,800 is a real possibility worth raising before producing paperwork.

### There are 275 rentals in Dell Rapids. What does that mean practically?

That moving is not an answer. With the lowest renter share of any of South Dakota's twenty largest cities and a market this small, a refusal here cannot be solved by signing somewhere else in town. The realistic goal is an accommodation in the unit you have, which puts more weight on the quality of the request than on the threat behind it.

### How long do I have to file if I am refused?

180 days, measured under SDCL 20-13-31 from the refusal and not from anything later. The charge goes to the Division of Human Rights within the Department of Labor and Regulation. The section carries no discovery language, so the weeks spent establishing whether an exemption reaches your landlord come out of the same window.

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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%2Fdell-rapids