# ESA Letter in Federal Way, WA: Pet Fees, Refusals & What to Ask

> Federal Way rents at 44.7% in older apartment communities. Why a nonrefundable pet fee often is not one, and what a leasing office may lawfully ask you.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/washington-emotional-support-animal/federal-way/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-08-02
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

## Key facts

- Population: 100,252
- Households renting: 44.7%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Varies by building
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## Where the fee matters most

Federal Way rents at 44.7%: about 16,000 of 35,717 occupied units on the
2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate, more than eight points
above the statewide 36.2%.

Much of that housing is mid-sized apartment communities put up in the 1980s
and 1990s, and it is among the more affordable rental stock in south King
County. Affordability is precisely why the charges attached to an animal
matter here more than they do a few miles north: the same monthly figure takes
a larger bite of a smaller income.

The leases in this market share a recognisable shape. A pet deposit, and
beside it a nonrefundable pet fee.

## When a nonrefundable fee is not one

Washington polices the naming of these charges independently of any
accommodation question, and the rule catches a lot of local paperwork.

Under RCW 59.18.285, money the tenant will never get back cannot be filed
under the heading of a deposit, not in whole, not in part. A genuinely
nonrefundable fee has to be set out in a written agreement that says as much
in terms.

Where the written agreement does not say so, the consequence is not that the
clause is void. It is that the money must be treated as a refundable deposit
under RCW 59.18.260, 59.18.270 and 59.18.280. It becomes returnable, and it
becomes subject to the itemised-statement machinery at move-out.

A line reading "nonrefundable pet deposit" is therefore doing the opposite of
what it appears to do.

## And when the charge should not exist at all

That is the position on an ordinary pet lease. Where the tenant is disabled
and the animal assists with the disability, the analysis is shorter.

WAC 162-38-100(5) does not permit an animal-specific deposit to be charged
alongside the cleaning or damage deposit the community already takes. Whether
it is styled a fee, a deposit or a monthly amount makes no difference to the
substance, which is money required because of the animal.

Subsection (4) keeps the ordinary deposit intact, on one condition: it has to
be enforced equally on all tenants. A charge that appears only where an animal
is present has failed that test by definition.

## Refusal at the door

The clearest breach is also the most common: an application declined once the
animal is mentioned, or a unit that becomes unavailable during the
conversation.

WAC 162-38-100(3) addresses it directly. Turning a disabled applicant away
over their use of an assistance animal is an unfair practice, and the
building's no-pet policy has no purchase on such an animal.

This is worth knowing before an application, because it changes the sensible
order of events, see the closing section below.

## What the office may ask

Where the disability and the disability-related need are not obvious, a
landlord is entitled to ask for information supporting them. A well-drafted
request answers that in advance.

The ceiling sits in WAC 162-38-110: probing a disabled applicant's private
circumstances further than the tenancy genuinely requires is itself an unfair
practice. The
regulation's own example is deliberately ordinary: the number of people who
will occupy the unit is a fair question, while the details of how and when
someone is assisted generally are not.

Requests for a full diagnosis, treatment history or clinical notes sit on the
wrong side of that line. Information about need does not. The practical
difference is what a supporting letter has to establish: that a professional
who has actually assessed the tenant considers the animal necessary for equal
use of the home, which can be written without disclosing a condition by name.

## Training is a public-access idea

Communities managed from outside Washington sometimes apply a trained-task
standard borrowed from public-access rules.

Washington has such a standard, RCW 49.60.040(25) defines a service animal as
an individually trained dog or miniature horse and excludes comfort and
companionship from what counts as work or tasks. The same subsection then
disapplies itself to RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.227 in respect of housing
accommodations and real estate transactions, which is the state's entire fair
housing law. In a home, the training question simply does not arise.

## Removal needs more than a complaint file

WAC 162-38-105 permits a demand for removal only where two elements are
established at once: an unreasonable risk of injury or harm to people or
property arising from the animal's presence, behaviour or actions, and a
reasonable earlier attempt to eliminate that behaviour that has failed.

Speculation will not carry it. The danger has to be present or plainly
likely. Nor does irritation count, whether it comes from the office or from
neighbours. And a problem arising in one corner of a property cannot be used
to shut the animal out of all of it.

## The ceiling on next year's rent

An accommodation that removes a monthly animal charge is worth little if the
same amount reappears at renewal under another name, and Washington now caps
how far rent can move.

RCW 59.18.700 leaves the rent untouchable for a tenancy's first twelve
months. Thereafter no twelve-month period may carry an increase greater than
the lesser of ten percent, or seven percent plus the consumer price index.
The exemptions live in RCW 59.18.710, and a landlord leaning on one has to
set out the facts supporting it in the written notice of increase.

The Department of Commerce works out the governing percentage annually and
publishes it, so the ceiling for a given year is a matter of public record
rather than something a leasing office decides. In an affordable market, that
figure is worth checking before signing a renewal.

## A year to complain

Housing complaints go to the Washington State Human Rights Commission.
Six months is the ordinary ceiling in RCW 49.60.230(2), but housing is
pulled out of it, anything under RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.225 carries
twelve months, timed from when the practice happened or stopped. The
commission runs an online portal and a toll-free line, 1-800-233-3247.

King County also operates a Civil Rights Program enforcing county
anti-discrimination law in areas including housing, at
civilrights@kingcounty.gov or 206-263-2446. Ask that office about the reach of
its jurisdiction over a specific address, and file with the state commission
within the year in any case.

## Sequence matters

Because refusal at the application stage is the risk in this market, the order
of operations is worth following deliberately.

Apply and be screened on income, credit and rental history: a disability is
not a proper screening subject, and nothing obliges an applicant to raise one
while a decision is pending. Once the application has been approved and before
the lease is signed, put the accommodation request in writing.

Keep it about the disability-related need and what the animal does that makes
ordinary use of the home possible. Washington issues no certificates and keeps
no register, so a purchased credential adds nothing. Then keep the reply,
whatever form it arrives in.

If the answer is no, the refusal itself is the thing worth preserving, in
writing where possible, with the date it was given. A year sounds generous
until the paperwork has to be reconstructed from memory.

For the statutes behind these rules, see the
[Washington ESA law guide](/blog/washington-emotional-support-animal/), and our
[guide to getting an ESA letter](/blog/articles/how-to-get-esa-letter/) for what
belongs in the supporting documentation.

## What Federal Way landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot apply the trained-task definition of a service animal to a housing request, because RCW 49.60.040(25) states that the subsection does not apply to RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.227 for housing accommodations or real estate transactions
- Cannot refuse to make reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where that accommodation may be necessary to afford a person with a sensory, mental or physical disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling
- Cannot apply a no-pet policy to the assistance animal of a person with a disability, under WAC 162-38-100(3)
- Cannot charge a pet deposit on top of any standard cleaning or damage deposit, which WAC 162-38-100(5) makes an unfair practice outright
- Cannot demand that the animal be removed unless its presence, behaviour or actions pose an unreasonable risk of injury or harm and a reasonable attempt to correct that behaviour has already failed, under WAC 162-38-105
- Cannot treat staff or neighbour annoyance at the animal as the kind of risk that justifies removal, and cannot exclude it from the whole property over a risk confined to part of it
- Cannot inquire into matters personal to a disabled applicant beyond what is necessary and appropriate to the landlord-tenant relationship, under WAC 162-38-110
- Cannot require a waiver of rights or a hold-harmless as a condition of the transaction because a disabled person or a person with an assistance animal will occupy the property, under WAC 162-38-120
- Cannot collect any deposit at all without a written agreement and a signed move-in checklist, or keep any of it without a documented statement within thirty days

**Can:**
- May charge its standard cleaning or damage deposit, provided the same deposit is enforced equally on every tenant, which WAC 162-38-100(4) expressly permits
- May ask for information supporting the disability and the disability-related need for the animal where neither is readily apparent
- May hold the tenant responsible for damage the animal actually causes, substantiated at move-out by invoices or estimates like any other charge
- May fall outside the accommodation duty entirely in two narrow cases under RCW 49.60.222(2): an unadvertised single-family house let by an owner holding no more than three, and an owner-occupied dwelling of no more than four units, though the section's other prohibitions still apply

## How to get an ESA letter in Federal Way

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

- [King County Civil Rights Program](https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/executive/governance-leadership/equity-social-justice/office-of-equity-racial-social-justice/civil-rights-program) (county agency)
- [Washington State Human Rights Commission](https://www.hum.wa.gov/fair-housing) (state agency)
- [Northwest Justice Project](https://nwjustice.org/get-legal-help) (legal aid)
- [Washington Law Help](https://www.washingtonlawhelp.org/) (self help)

## Frequently asked questions

### The lease has a nonrefundable pet fee. Is that lawful?

It depends on what the paperwork says and who the animal is for. RCW 59.18.285 prohibits designating nonrefundable money as a deposit, and requires a written rental agreement clearly stating that a fee is nonrefundable; where the agreement does not, the money must be treated as a refundable deposit. Separately, where the tenant is disabled and the animal assists with that disability, WAC 162-38-100(5) does not permit the animal-specific charge at all.

### Can a community here refuse to rent to me because of the animal?

No. WAC 162-38-100(3) makes it an unfair practice for a landlord to refuse to rent to a person with a disability because that person uses an assistance animal, and provides that a no-pet policy cannot be applied to the animal. Refusal at the application stage is the clearest form of the practice the regulation prohibits.

### How much can the office ask about my condition?

Enough to assess the request, and no more. Where the disability and the disability-related need are not readily apparent, asking for supporting information is legitimate. WAC 162-38-110 then sets the limit, making it an unfair practice to inquire into matters personal to a disabled applicant beyond what is necessary and appropriate to the landlord-tenant relationship, which is why a demand for full clinical records is a different thing from a request about need.

### Does the animal have to be a trained dog to count?

Not for housing. The trained dog-or-miniature-horse test in RCW 49.60.040(25) ends by disapplying itself to RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.227 wherever housing accommodations or real estate transactions are concerned, and those sections are the whole of the state's fair housing law. The question that remains is whether the tenant has a disability and needs the animal in order to use and enjoy the home equally.

### Management wants the animal removed after complaints. What is the standard?

WAC 162-38-105 requires two findings, not one: an unreasonable risk of injury or harm to people or property arising from the animal, and a reasonable earlier attempt to eliminate the behaviour that has failed. Risk must be immediate or reasonably foreseeable rather than remote or speculative, annoyance among staff or residents is expressly excluded, and a risk confined to part of a property will not support removal from all of it.

### How long do I have to file, and with whom?

A year, with the Washington State Human Rights Commission. RCW 49.60.230(2) applies six months to discrimination complaints generally and then carves housing out, allowing twelve months for a real estate matter under RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.225 from the date the practice occurred or terminated. King County also runs a Civil Rights Program covering housing among other areas, at 206-263-2446.

### What share of Federal Way rents?

About 44.7%, or roughly 16,000 of 35,717 occupied housing units, on the 2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate. That sits between Renton at 45.6% and Kent at 42.8%, and more than eight points above the statewide figure of 36.2%.

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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=washington-emotional-support-animal%2Ffederal-way