# Irving ESA Guide: Texas's Most Renter-Heavy City

> Irving rents at 61.7%, the highest share of any large Texas city. What corporate apartment communities can and cannot require for a support animal.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/texas-emotional-support-animal/irving/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-07-28
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 258,060
- Households renting: 61.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): $0 for a documented ESA; ordinary pet deposits face no Texas ceiling, only the 30-day refund duty in Property Code § 92.103
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): $0 for a documented ESA; pet rent is unregulated in Texas and priced by the community
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## More Renters Than Anywhere Else in Texas

Irving is a city of about 258,060 people where 61.7% of occupied homes are
rented — the highest renter share among the twenty largest cities in the
state, ahead of Houston at 58.0% and Dallas at 57.6%.

Corporate campuses, an international airport next door, and a steady stream
of workers on temporary assignment explain most of that. The housing built
to serve them is large, professionally managed, and standardized: leasing
offices with policy manuals, application software, and pet packages priced
the same way across dozens of communities.

For an emotional support animal request, that uniformity is genuinely good
news. A community that processes hundreds of leases a year has almost
certainly handled an accommodation before. The obstacles here are procedural
rather than personal, and procedures can be worked.

## The Standard Package, and What Falls Out of It

An Irving lease typically bundles monthly pet rent, a refundable pet
deposit, a non-refundable pet fee, a breed list, and a weight cap. Some
communities add a third-party pet screening profile with its own charge.

Texas regulates none of these amounts. Property Code § 92.103 requires a
security deposit returned within 30 days after the tenant surrenders the
premises and sets no ceiling on the deposit itself, so pet pricing reflects
the market alone.

For a documented emotional support animal, the entire package resolves to
zero. Fair-housing law — the federal statute, plus Tex. Prop. Code § 301.025
of its Texas counterpart — obliges a property to adjust rules and policies
for a disabled resident, and an assistance animal is not a pet to be priced.
The breed list and the weight cap go with it, insurer preference included.

The pet screening fee deserves its own mention because it is the charge most
often defended. It is money tied to keeping a pet, in the same family as the
rest, and it cannot be required for an accommodation. Documentation goes to
the landlord directly, not through a vendor the tenant pays.

## Short Assignments and Furnished Units

A large slice of Irving's demand is temporary: a nine-month project, a
relocation while a house is found, a furnished apartment leased by an
employer for an arriving employee.

Fair-housing duties attach to dwellings, not to lease length or to whose
name signs. A furnished unit rented as someone's residence is generally
covered whether the term is three months or three years, and the employer's
involvement does not change what the property owes the resident.

The practical consequence is about routing. Send the accommodation request
in writing to whoever controls the unit — the property manager — rather than
to the relocation coordinator or the employer arranging the stay. A request
that goes only to an intermediary may never reach the party that has to act
on it, and the landlord can accurately say it never received one.

## Documentation From Somewhere Else

Irving's international workforce raises a question other Texas cities rarely
face: what happens when the letter comes from a provider abroad?

Fair-housing law asks for reliable documentation from a licensed
professional who knows the tenant's situation. The licensing part is where
an overseas letter runs into trouble, because a landlord may reasonably need
to confirm that the provider is licensed, and a credential from another
country can be difficult or impossible to verify from a leasing office.

A renter arriving from abroad is usually better served by establishing care
with a licensed provider here and obtaining a letter that a landlord can
check. Texas imposes no waiting period before such a letter may be written —
unlike California, which requires a 30-day relationship — so the timeline is
set by appointment availability rather than by statute.

## Making the Request Land in a Large Organization

The failure mode in a professionally managed community is not refusal. It is
a request that never reaches a decision-maker.

Three habits prevent it. Put the request in email rather than raising it at
the leasing counter, so the date is fixed. Address it to the property
manager by title if the name is unknown. And state the ask explicitly:
approve the animal, and remove pet rent, any pet deposit, any pet fee, and
any screening charge from the lease and the account.

Then check the first statement. Approval and billing are separate systems in
most large properties, and an animal approved by email is regularly still
charged for by software. Catching it on statement one is far easier than
disputing an accumulated balance later, which can escalate into a lease
violation notice over money that was never owed.

## Vouchers and Federally Assisted Units

Renters using a voucher administered by [DHA, Housing Solutions for North Texas](https://dhantx.com/) sometimes assume the agency
approves the animal. Ordinarily it does not — the request goes to the
landlord who owns the unit.

The protections in federally assisted housing are at least as strong. Those
properties answer to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act as well as the
Fair Housing Act, so pet rent and deposits come off a voucher holder's lease
exactly as they would for a market-rate tenant in the same building.

## The Texas Line Between ESAs and Service Animals

Irving renters new to the state often assume an emotional support animal
carries public-access rights. Texas Human Resources Code § 121.002 defines
both "assistance animal" and "service animal" as a canine specially trained
or equipped to help a person with a disability, which places an ESA outside
the chapter — shops, restaurants, and venues may refuse entry.

Section 121.006 makes it an offense to intentionally represent that an
animal qualifies when it has no such training, carrying a fine of up to
$1,000 plus 30 hours of community service since September 1, 2023. Texas
runs no ESA registry, and no certificate purchased online is documentation.

## If the Request Is Refused

It goes to the Texas Workforce Commission, the agency Property Code §
301.0015 handed the Texas Fair Housing Act. Section 301.081 asks for a sworn
written filing made inside a year of the conduct. A HUD complaint may run in
parallel, though HUD withdrew the 2020 assistance-animal guidance it had
used to assess these requests, effective September 17, 2025.

[Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas](https://www.lanwt.org/) provides free civil legal help to people who qualify financially, and
the [Texas Tenants' Union](https://txtenants.org/) counsels renters through lease disputes.

## Renewals, Extensions, and a Second Ask

Assignment-driven tenancies get extended in short increments, and each
extension regenerates the lease documents.

That regeneration is where an approved accommodation quietly disappears. The
new paperwork is produced from a template that classifies the animal as a
pet, and the pet charges reappear on a lease the tenant is asked to sign
quickly.

The habit worth building is to read the renewal for animal terms before
signing and to reference the original approval by date in writing when
returning it. A property is not entitled to fresh documentation at every
renewal where the need is ongoing, but it is entitled to have its own file
reflect what it approved — and pointing at the date is faster than
rebuilding the case.

Statewide context lives in the [Texas ESA guide](/blog/texas-emotional-support-animal/), documentation guidance in our [guide to getting an ESA letter](/blog/articles/how-to-get-esa-letter/), and
denial analysis in [what a landlord can and cannot do](/blog/articles/can-landlord-deny-emotional-support-animal/).

## What Irving landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot charge pet rent, a pet deposit, or a pet fee for a documented emotional support animal
- Cannot enforce a breed list or a weight limit against an assistance animal
- Cannot demand a diagnosis, therapy notes, or medical records as the price of approving the animal
- Cannot refuse the request simply because the building advertises a no-pets policy

**Can:**
- May ask for reliable documentation from a licensed professional confirming the disability-related need
- May deny or later remove a specific animal that poses a direct threat to others or causes substantial property damage
- May hold the tenant responsible for repairing actual damage the animal causes

## How to get an ESA letter in Irving

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

- [DHA, Housing Solutions for North Texas](https://dhantx.com/) (housing authority)
- [Texas Tenants' Union](https://txtenants.org/) (tenant advocacy)
- [Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas](https://www.lanwt.org/) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Irving really the most renter-heavy large city in Texas?

By the 2019-2023 American Community Survey five-year estimates, yes: 61.7% of Irving's occupied housing units are renter-occupied, ahead of Houston at 58.0% and Dallas at 57.6%. For an ESA owner that means most neighbors are also tenants of professionally managed communities, where pet policies are standardized and accommodation requests are routine to process once they are put in writing.

### I am in Irving on a short-term work assignment. Does my ESA request still apply?

Yes, if the unit is leased as a residence. Fair-housing duties attach to dwellings regardless of the lease term or whether an employer signs it, so a furnished corporate apartment is generally covered. Send the request in writing to whoever controls the unit rather than to the employer arranging the stay.

### My Irving community requires a pet screening profile before approving animals. Do I have to pay it?

No. A pet screening subscription or profile fee is a pet charge and cannot be required for an assistance animal. The landlord may ask for reliable documentation from a licensed professional, submitted directly, but cannot condition the accommodation on purchasing access to an outside platform.

### Can an Irving landlord charge pet rent for an emotional support animal?

No. Documentation from a licensed professional moves the animal out of the pet column and into the accommodation column, and pet rent, pet deposits, and non-refundable pet fees belong only in the pet column. Those items leave the lease. Liability for repairing damage the animal causes stays with the tenant.

### My ESA letter is from a provider outside the United States. Will an Irving landlord accept it?

It depends on whether the provider is licensed to practice and can be verified as such. Fair-housing law asks for reliable documentation from a licensed professional who knows the tenant's situation, and a landlord may reasonably need to confirm the license. A renter arriving from abroad is usually better served by establishing care with a licensed provider here.

### Does a breed restriction apply to my support dog in Irving?

No. Breed lists and weight caps are pet policies and cannot be enforced against an assistance animal as blanket rules, even where a community says its insurer requires them. A landlord may act only against a specific animal shown to pose a direct threat or to have caused substantial property damage.

### How long does an Irving renter have to file a complaint?

One year, measured from the date the discriminatory housing practice occurred or ended. Property Code § 301.081 wants the complaint in writing and sworn to before that first anniversary passes, and § 301.0015 sends it to the Texas Workforce Commission. Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas advises renters who qualify financially.

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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=texas-emotional-support-animal%2Firving