# ESA Letter in Pasco, WA: Rented Houses, HOAs & Household Members

> Pasco rents at just 29.1%, mostly houses inside HOA subdivisions. Which rulebook governs the animal, and when the disability belongs to someone else at home.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 81,724
- Households renting: 29.1%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Varies by building
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Varies by building
- Breed/weight limits common: sometimes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## An ownership city with a rented edge

Pasco rents at 29.1%: roughly 7,200 of 24,748 occupied units on the
2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate. That is seven points
below the statewide 36.2% and the second-lowest share among Washington's
twenty largest cities, behind only Sammamish.

The contrast with the other half of the Tri-Cities is sharp. Kennewick, across
the river, rents at 38.7% and carries most of the region's apartment stock.
Pasco's rental housing is overwhelmingly single-family, and a large share of
it sits in newer subdivisions where a homeowners association sets rules
alongside whatever the lease says.

For a tenant with an assistance animal, that produces the defining local
question. There are two rulebooks, and neither was written with this situation
in mind.

## Both rulebooks are covered

The instinct is to treat the association as outside the tenancy relationship
entirely, since no one signed anything with it.

WAC 162-38-040 takes a different approach, stretching the word well past the
person who signed the lease. It reaches whoever controls how the property is
used by virtue of an ownership interest, and then itemises them: owners
letting property, trustees, receivers, **whoever controls the common areas**,
and anyone acting as their agent.

A body that controls the common areas and enforces subdivision rules is inside
that description. WAC 162-38-100(3) therefore applies to it: a no-pet policy
cannot be applied to the assistance animal of a person with a disability, and
refusing housing on that basis is an unfair practice.

The practical consequence is that a landlord who says "the HOA won't allow it"
has not identified an obstacle outside the law. They have identified a second
body subject to it.

## When the charge is passed through

Associations levy their own animal charges, and owners of let houses pass them
straight through as a lease term.

WAC 162-38-100(5) does not permit an animal-specific deposit to sit alongside
the ordinary cleaning or damage deposit where the tenant is disabled and the
animal assists with the disability. Where the money originates with an
association and arrives via the owner, it is still a charge demanded because
of the animal.

What survives is the deposit under subsection (4): the standard cleaning or
damage deposit, enforced equally on every tenant.

## When the disability belongs to someone else

Pasco households are often larger and more multi-generational than the state
average, and the person the animal supports is frequently not the person on
the lease. Landlords sometimes treat that as ending the discussion.

WAC 162-38-060 says otherwise. The disability that triggers the protection may
be the renter's, or that of somebody living in the dwelling or about to move
into it, **or that of anyone associated with the renter at all**, three
routes, only one of which requires the signatory to be the disabled person.

A request made for a child, a parent or a partner living in the home is
therefore properly made. The duty attaches to the household, not solely to the
signatory.

## No training, no register

RCW 49.60.040(25) contains the definition landlords tend to find first: a
service animal is an individually trained dog or miniature horse, and comfort
or companionship does not amount to work or a task.

Its final sentence removes that subsection from RCW 49.60.222 through
49.60.227 with respect to housing accommodations and real estate transactions.
Those sections are Washington's fair housing law entire, which leaves the
training requirement governing employment and public places, and nothing at
all in a tenancy.

There is also nothing to register. No Washington agency records assistance
animals or issues certificates, cards or vests for them, so material bought
online addresses none of the questions the regulation puts.

## The move-in record and what it protects

In a market of individually let houses this provision decides more disputes
than any regulation about animals.

RCW 59.18.260 prohibits collecting any deposit unless the rental agreement is
in writing and a checklist or statement, specifically describing the condition
and cleanliness of the premises, is signed and dated by both landlord and
tenant at the start of the tenancy. The tenant keeps a copy and may request
one free replacement.

Where the step was skipped, the landlord is liable to the tenant for the
amount of the deposit. When damage is later blamed on an animal, the missing
move-in record is the landlord's evidential gap.

## Thirty days after the keys go back

Under RCW 59.18.280 the landlord has thirty days from the end of the tenancy
and the handover of an empty house to justify, in writing and item by item,
anything kept from the deposit, attaching the estimates or invoices behind
each damage charge and returning the balance.

Nothing may be withheld for wear resulting from ordinary use. A landlord who
lets the 30 days pass becomes liable for the whole deposit and is barred from
asserting any claim to it.

## What removal requires

Any demand that the animal leave has to clear two bars under WAC 162-38-105.
The animal's conduct must place people or property in unreasonable danger,
and somebody must already have tried, sensibly and without success, to put
that conduct right.

Risk has to be immediate or reasonably foreseeable rather than remote or
speculative. Annoyance among neighbours or staff does not qualify. And where
the concern arises in part of a property, the animal may not be barred from
all of it. A point with obvious application to a subdivision's shared paths
and common areas.

## Paying the deposit in stages

House lettings here often ask for a deposit and the first month together, and
tenants rarely know the payment can be split as of right.

RCW 59.18.610 obliges a landlord who receives a written request to accept
deposits, nonrefundable fees and last month's rent in instalments, three
consecutive equal monthly payments where the term runs three months or more,
two where it is shorter. No fee may be added and no interest charged for
taking that route, and the schedule has to be written down and signed by both
sides.

Refusal is not costless: the section exposes the landlord to a statutory
penalty of one month's rent plus reasonable attorneys' fees. The duty is
triggered by the written request, so it needs to exist as a document. The same
section also caps any fee taken merely to hold a property at twenty-five
percent of the first month's rent.

## Filing from the Tri-Cities

There is no municipal civil rights office in Pasco. Formal housing
discrimination complaints go to the Washington State Human Rights Commission,
and the timetable favours housing: RCW 49.60.230(2) allows six months for
discrimination complaints generally, then gives a real estate matter under
RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.225 a full year from the date the practice
occurred or terminated. Filing runs through the commission's online portal,
and it publishes a toll-free line at 1-800-233-3247.

The Fair Housing Center of Washington states that it serves 23 counties across
Western and Central Washington, which takes in this area. It is private rather
than governmental, so it is a source of help understanding a problem rather
than a forum that decides one.

Where an association is involved, ask for its decision in writing and for the
rule it relies on. In a two-rulebook city, knowing which body actually said no
is what makes the complaint straightforward to frame.

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 Pasco 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 Pasco

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

- [Fair Housing Center of Washington](https://www.fhcwashington.org/) (fair housing)
- [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 house I rent is in an HOA subdivision. Whose animal rules apply?

Both sets, and both are subject to the same chapter. For this chapter WAC 162-38-040 stretches the word to reach whoever controls how the property is used by virtue of owning it, and it names common-area controllers and owners' agents among them. WAC 162-38-100(3) then bars a no-pet policy being applied to the assistance animal of a person with a disability.

### The animal is for my son, not for me. Does the request still stand?

Yes. Under WAC 162-38-060 the disability that matters need not belong to the person who signed. The regulation reaches discrimination because of the disability of the renter, of anyone residing in or intending to reside in the dwelling, or of any person associated with that renter, so a household member's disability supports the request in the same way.

### Can an association fine me over the animal?

A charge levied because of the animal runs into the same rule as a landlord's. WAC 162-38-100(5) does not allow an animal-specific deposit alongside the ordinary cleaning or damage deposit where the tenant is disabled and the animal assists with the disability, and the source of the demand does not alter what it is. Where an association's charge is passed through by the owner, it arrives as part of the tenancy.

### Does my animal need to be trained or registered?

Neither. RCW 49.60.040(25) sets out a trained dog-or-miniature-horse test and excludes comfort and companionship from work or tasks, but that subsection lifts itself off RCW 49.60.222 through 49.60.227 wherever housing accommodations or real estate transactions are concerned. The whole of the state's fair housing law. Washington also operates no register of assistance animals and issues no certificates for them.

### There is no local office here. Who takes a complaint?

The Washington State Human Rights Commission, which covers the state as a whole. RCW 49.60.230(2)(a) allows a year for a housing or real estate matter, against six months for other discrimination complaints. The Fair Housing Center of Washington publishes a service area of 23 counties across Western and Central Washington reaching this region, though it is a private organisation rather than an enforcement agency.

### What must my landlord do about the deposit when I leave?

Deliver a full and specific written statement of the basis for keeping any of it, with copies of estimates received or invoices paid substantiating the damage charges, within 30 days of the tenancy ending and the house being vacated, together with any refund. Wear from ordinary use cannot be charged for. A landlord who misses the deadline is liable for the full deposit and is barred from asserting any claim to it.

### How much of Pasco actually rents?

About 29.1%: some 7,200 of its 24,748 occupied housing units, on the 2020-2024 American Community Survey five-year estimate. Only Sammamish, at 17.4%, sits lower among the state's twenty largest cities, and Pasco runs a full seven points under the 36.2% Washington average.

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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%2Fpasco