# ESA Letter in Wyoming: The Law Names It, Nobody Enforces It

> Wyoming law names the emotional support animal at W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv). Its Fair Housing Act has no enforcer, so a Wyoming ESA letter complaint goes to HUD.

- Source: https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/
- Publisher: Support Animal (supportanimal.com)
- Updated: 2026-09-10
- License note: informational content; not legal or medical advice.

**Summary:** Wyoming wrote better assistance-animal law than most states and then left out the last step. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) defines an "assistance animal" as one that works or performs tasks for a person with a disability "or provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability" — the emotional support animal, named, with no training requirement — and W.S. 35-13-201(c) says a person "shall not be discriminated against in the leasing or rental of residential property because the person has an assistance animal." The definition and the housing sentence sit in the same article, so nothing walls one off from the other. Wyoming then enacted a full Fair Housing Act in 2015, whose W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii) copies the federal reasonable-accommodation duty almost word for word. The missing step is the enforcer: W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii) defines the "enforcing authority" as a Wyoming agency or nonprofit "accepted as an enforcing authority for Wyoming by the department of housing and urban development," and HUD has accepted none. A federal advisory committee found in January 2025 that the Governor has assigned that authority to nobody and that Wyoming residents must file with HUD's Region VIII office in Denver, Colorado. So the Act's twenty-odd administrative sections describe a procedure nobody performs, and what is live in Wyoming is the two-year private action in district court under W.S. 40-26-139, the misdemeanor in W.S. 35-13-203(a), and the federal Fair Housing Act.

## Wyoming wrote the sentence other states argue about

Most states ban disability discrimination in housing, say nothing about animals, and leave a tenant
to argue from a general prohibition down to one animal in one apartment. Montana went further and
wrote the emotional support animal out of its service-animal definition by name. Delaware used the
right words, "support animal", no pet deposit — then defined that animal as one "individually
trained to do work or perform tasks".

Wyoming got it right in a single subsection. **W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** defines an assistance animal
as one that works or performs tasks for a person with a disability, **"or provides emotional support
that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability."** No
training on that second branch. And the definitions section opens **"As used in this article"** — the
same article that contains **W.S. 35-13-201(c)**:

> "A person shall not be discriminated against in the leasing or rental of residential property
> because the person has an assistance animal, which shall be permitted in leased or rented
> residential property in accordance with the federal Fair Housing Act."

No wall stands between the definition and the housing sentence. That
connection is exactly what Delaware and Montana lack, and it is why a
Wyoming tenant starts from a stronger textual position than most. Then
Wyoming left out the last step.

## The Act with nobody behind it

In 2015 the legislature passed Senate File 132, the **Wyoming Fair Housing Act**, effective 1 July
2015. It is not a token statute. **W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii)** copies the federal reasonable-accommodation
duty almost word for word: discrimination includes "a refusal to make a reasonable accommodation in
rules, policies, practices or services if the accommodation may be necessary to afford the
individual equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." Subsection (b) reaches the terms,
conditions and privileges of a tenancy. Forty-five sections follow.

Every one of those procedural sections is a duty of "the **enforcing authority**". And
**W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii)** defines that term as "a Wyoming state agency or nonprofit incorporated in
Wyoming that has been **accepted as an enforcing authority for Wyoming by the department of housing
and urban development**."

HUD has accepted none. In January 2025 the Wyoming Advisory Committee to the **U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights** put it on the record: "The Governor of Wyoming has not yet assigned enforcement
authority of the Wyoming Fair Housing Act to any state or local entity," and HUD "has not certified
that the Wyoming Fair Housing Act is 'substantially equivalent' to the federal Fair Housing Act."

Check the other side in one place. The Wyoming Secretary of State publishes the list of every agency
that makes rules in this state, **eighty-one of them**. There is no fair housing commission on it,
no human rights commission, no civil rights division. The only body in the neighbourhood is the
Department of Workforce Services, which handles **employment** discrimination and does not touch
housing. So W.S. 40-26-118's one-year deadline to file "with the enforcing authority" is a deadline
to file with nobody.

## What is actually live, and where you actually go

**The two-year civil action.** **W.S. 40-26-139** lets an aggrieved person file in Wyoming district
court "not later than the second year after the date of the occurrence or the termination of an
alleged discriminatory housing practice." Subsection (c) makes it available "whether a complaint has
been filed under W.S. 40-26-118 and without regard to the status of any complaint filed under that
section", no exhaustion. Because it runs to a court rather than the authority, this section works,
and **W.S. 40-26-140** puts actual *and punitive* damages, attorney's fees and costs on the table.
One caveat travels with it: **W.S. 40-26-143** lets a court award fees "to the prevailing party" and
costs "against the nonprevailing party", both directions.

**The federal route, run from another state.** The USCCR report found that Wyoming residents "are
required to submit their complaint to the HUD's Denver Regional Office in the neighboring state of
Colorado." There is a HUD field office in Casper; the report notes it has no fair-housing officer, so
complaints route to Region VIII either way.

**A misdemeanor that is real on paper.** **W.S. 35-13-203(a)** makes it an offence, fined up to $750,
to deny or interfere with "any place or facility referenced in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c)", and
(c) is the leasing sentence. But it is charged by a prosecutor at their discretion, carries no
damages and no private remedy, and no Wyoming prosecution of a landlord under it was located.

## Deposits: no cap, and nonrefundable is allowed

Search the **Residential Rental Property Act**, W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211: for the word
"pet". It is not there. Neither is "animal". Wyoming's landlord-tenant statute has no pet-deposit
provision, so no assistance-animal carve-out either. There is also **no deposit cap** — not one
month, not a dollar figure — and **W.S. 1-21-1207** contemplates nonrefundable deposits directly: the
agreement "shall state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable," with written notice when
it is taken. Disclosure, not limitation.

So the whole weight sits on the fair-housing side. For an assistance animal
the charge should not exist, not because a deposit statute says so, but
because **W.S. 40-26-107(b) and (c)(ii)** and **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)** do not
let a landlord price the accommodation, and because W.S. 35-13-201(c) says
the animal shall be permitted.

When a tenancy ends, **W.S. 1-21-1208(a)** gives the owner thirty days (or fifteen days after
receiving your new mailing address, **whichever is later**), to deliver the balance and a written
itemization, "without interest", extended by thirty more days if there is damage. It also puts a duty
on **you**: notify the owner within thirty days where payment can be sent, or the clock never starts.

W.S. 35-13-201(c) also ends by imposing something: "The person shall be liable for any damage done by
his assistance animal to the premises or facilities of the leased or rented residential property."
Wyoming is unusual in saying so in the same breath as the right. That is liability for damage which
actually happens — not a fee — and it means the statute has already answered a landlord's likeliest
objection without letting them charge for the risk in advance.

## Exemptions, and the two things they cannot switch off

**W.S. 40-26-110(b)** exempts "W.S. 40-26-103 and 40-26-105 through 40-26-109" for a dwelling of not
more than four families where the owner occupies one. Count the range: it contains **40-26-107**, the
disability section, so a genuinely owner-occupied Wyoming fourplex is outside the state Act's
accommodation duty. A second exemption at **W.S. 40-26-110(a)** covers an owner of not more than
three single-family houses renting without a broker, narrower than it sounds, at one rental per
twenty-four months.

Two things survive both. **W.S. 35-13-201(c) is in a different title** and is not switched off by an
exemption written into Title 40, **W.S. 40-26-113(b)** confirms the chapter "does not affect a
requirement of nondiscrimination in any other state or federal law." And the **federal** Act has its
own exemption, drafted separately.

## Deadlines, and the number that is not yours

- **Two years**, civil action in Wyoming district court, W.S. 40-26-139. No exhaustion. The state
  deadline that currently functions.
- **One year to HUD, two years to federal court**, where a Wyoming complaint gets investigated.
- **One year**, W.S. 40-26-118, to an enforcing authority that does not exist.

And one number that is not yours. Searching Wyoming discrimination deadlines
turns up **six months**, repeatedly. That is **W.S. 27-9-106**, the Fair
Employment Practices Act: an employment deadline, and a housing letter
citing it tells the reader it was not checked.

## There is no registry, and no office that could make one

Wyoming has no assistance-animal registry, no certificate, no database and
no state identification card, and the reason is structural. **W.S.
40-26-114** gives rulemaking power to the enforcing authority, and there
isn't one. No office in this state could issue you anything.

What the law asks is clinical, not administrative. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) turns on whether the animal
"provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a
person's disability." Identified, by someone qualified to identify it. **W.S. 35-13-203(b)** is the
other side: knowingly *and* intentionally misrepresenting an animal as an assistance animal is a
misdemeanor fined up to $750. Both mental elements have to be present, so a tenant whose
documentation is genuinely disputed is not inside that sentence. Someone who bought a certificate
from a website is much closer to it, and has bought a thing no Wyoming statute or court recognises.

## What has to happen first

Wyoming does not write your document. Unlike North Dakota, no Wyoming
statute lists what a letter must contain or who may sign it. What the state
defines is what has to be **true**: that a disability exists, and that this
animal alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of it.

If someone is already treating you, ask them first. Continuity and cost both
point that way. The obstacle in this state is geographic rather than legal:
psychiatry and psychology cluster in a handful of towns, much of Wyoming is
hours from the nearest practice, and a provider with only a short history
with you may reasonably conclude they cannot put their name to a finding
they have not had the chance to form. That refusal is professional judgment,
not obstruction.

Where no such relationship exists, a licensed evaluation covers the same
ground on purpose. Someone qualified to assess you takes each question
separately (is there a disability, and does this animal ease a symptom or
effect that has been identified), and writes down what they conclude,
including when the conclusion is no. That a no is possible is the whole
reason a yes carries weight, and it is the difference between the finding
W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) describes and the certificate W.S. 35-13-203(b)
penalises.

Wyoming handed its tenants an unusually clean sentence and an unusually
empty hallway. The sentence holds only where the finding behind it is
genuine.

## Key statutes

- **W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** ("Assistance animal" defined: emotional support named): Defines an assistance animal as "an animal that works, provides assistance or performs tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability, or provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability." The second branch carries no training requirement and no species limit. Critically, W.S. 35-13-205(a) opens "As used in this article", and the housing sentence at W.S. 35-13-201(c) is in that same article. Compare Montana, whose MCA 49-4-203(2) writes the emotional support animal out by name, and Delaware, whose 25 Del. C. § 5141(38) defines a "support animal" as one "individually trained to do work or perform tasks." Wyoming's definition does the opposite of both. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title35.pdf)
- **W.S. 35-13-201(c)** (No discrimination in leasing because of an assistance animal): Provides that "a person shall not be discriminated against in the leasing or rental of residential property because the person has an assistance animal, which shall be permitted in leased or rented residential property in accordance with the federal Fair Housing Act." Two limits travel with it. The phrase "in accordance with the federal Fair Housing Act" pegs the state right to federal scope rather than creating a broader one. And the second sentence states expressly that "the person shall be liable for any damage done by his assistance animal", Wyoming is unusual in putting damage liability in the same breath as the right. That is liability for actual damage, not a fee charged in advance. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title35.pdf)
- **W.S. 35-13-201(a)(iii)** (Disability discrimination in renting: no animal required): Provides that any "blind, visually impaired, deaf, hearing impaired person or other person with a disability" shall not be discriminated against "in the leasing or rental of apartments and other private residential property because of his disability." This is a second hook that does not depend on an animal at all, and it is worth knowing it exists separately from subsection (c). [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title35.pdf)
- **W.S. 35-13-203(a)** (Interference with the right is a misdemeanor): Makes any person "denying or interfering with admittance to or enjoyment of any place or facility referenced in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c) or otherwise interfering with the rights" of a person with a disability guilty of a misdemeanor, with a fine of not more than seven hundred fifty dollars. The cited range includes subsection (c), the housing sentence. Read carefully: this is a criminal statute prosecuted by a county or district attorney. It gives a tenant no damages, no filing route and no private remedy, and no Wyoming prosecution of a landlord under it was located. It describes what the conduct is, not what a tenant should expect to happen. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title35.pdf)
- **W.S. 35-13-203(b)** (Misrepresenting an assistance animal): Makes it a misdemeanor, fine up to seven hundred fifty dollars, to "knowingly and intentionally" misrepresent that an animal is a service or assistance animal for the purpose of obtaining any of the rights set out in the article. Both mental elements have to be present. A tenant whose documentation is later disputed is not inside this sentence; a person who invents a disability to dodge a pet fee is. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title35.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii)** (Wyoming Fair Housing Act: reasonable accommodation): Provides that discrimination includes "a refusal to make a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services if the accommodation may be necessary to afford the individual equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling." It is the state twin of 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B), in the same words. It names no animal, requires no training and creates no registry. A no-pets policy is a rule; the accommodation is an exception to it. Section 40-26-107(b) separately bars discrimination in "the terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental, which is the provision that reaches a recurring monthly pet charge. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii)** ("Enforcing authority": the definition that hollows out the Act): Defines the enforcing authority as "a Wyoming state agency or nonprofit incorporated in Wyoming that has been accepted as an enforcing authority for Wyoming by the department of housing and urban development." Every administrative section of the Act, 40-26-114 through 40-26-135, is written as a duty or power of that authority: receive complaints, investigate, conciliate, adopt rules, find reasonable cause, issue a charge, hold a hearing, assess penalties. All of it is conditional on the entity existing, and none has been accepted. Wyoming's own list of rulemaking agencies contains no fair-housing or civil-rights body. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-139** (Private civil action: two years, no exhaustion): Allows an aggrieved person to file a civil action in district court "not later than the second year after the date of the occurrence or the termination of an alleged discriminatory housing practice." Subsection (c) makes it available "whether a complaint has been filed under W.S. 40-26-118 and without regard to the status of any complaint filed under that section", no administrative exhaustion. Because it runs to a court rather than to the enforcing authority, this is the section of the Wyoming Fair Housing Act that still works, and it is the deadline that matters in Wyoming. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-140** (Relief: actual and punitive damages): Where a court finds a discriminatory housing practice occurred or is about to occur, it "may award to the plaintiff actual and punitive damages, reasonable attorney's fees, court costs" and injunctive relief. Punitive damages are on the face of the statute, which is not true of every state in this corpus. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-143** (Prevailing party: fees run both ways): A court "may award reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party and assess court costs against the nonprevailing party." This is a two-way fee provision rather than a one-way tenant-protective one, and it belongs in any honest description of what filing in Wyoming district court involves. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-110(b)** (Owner-occupied exemption: four families or fewer): Exempts "W.S. 40-26-103 and 40-26-105 through 40-26-109" for the rental of rooms or units in a dwelling for not more than four families living independently, where the owner maintains and occupies one of them as a residence. That range contains 40-26-107, so a genuinely owner-occupied Wyoming fourplex sits outside the state disability duty. Only 40-26-104, the advertising bar, survives. It is deliberately left out of the range. W.S. 35-13-201(c) is in a different title and is not switched off by this section, and the federal Fair Housing Act's own exemption has to be assessed on its own terms. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 40-26-113(b)** (Effect on other law): Provides that the chapter "does not affect a requirement of nondiscrimination in any other state or federal law." This is the sentence that keeps W.S. 35-13-201(c) and the federal Fair Housing Act alive alongside the Wyoming Fair Housing Act rather than being folded into it. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title40.pdf)
- **W.S. 1-21-1207** (Nonrefundable deposits are lawful if disclosed): Requires that a rental agreement "state whether any portion of a deposit is nonrefundable" and that written notice of that fact be given when the deposit is taken. The statute regulates disclosure, not permission: a nonrefundable pet deposit is lawful in Wyoming for an ordinary pet, provided it is disclosed twice. There is no deposit cap anywhere in Wyoming law, in dollars or in months. That is why the fair-housing argument does the whole job here. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title01.pdf)
- **W.S. 1-21-1208** (Deposit return: thirty days, sixty with damage, no interest): Requires the balance of a deposit and a written itemization of deductions to be delivered or mailed "without interest" within thirty days after termination or fifteen days after receipt of the renter's new mailing address, whichever is later — and "if there is damage to the residential rental unit, this period shall be extended by thirty days." The renter must give a forwarding address within thirty days of termination, or the clock never starts. Where an owner unreasonably fails to comply, subsection (c) lets the renter recover "the full deposit and court costs" and nothing more, and lets the owner recover court costs if the court finds the renter acted unreasonably in suing. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title01.pdf)
- **W.S. 1-21-1201(a)(iv)** (Mobile home lots are outside the rental statute: but inside fair housing): Defines "residential rental unit" as a renter's principal place of residence, "excluding a mobile home lot or recreational property rented on an occasional basis." So a tenant renting a lot for a manufactured home is outside Wyoming's deposit and habitability rules. The Wyoming Fair Housing Act goes the other way: W.S. 40-26-102(a)(vii) defines "dwelling" to include "a lot leased for the purpose of placing on the lot a transportable home." Same tenant, two statutes, opposite answers. [Text](https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title01.pdf)
- **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** (Fair Housing Act: federal reasonable accommodation duty): Makes discrimination include a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. In Wyoming this is not a backstop. It is the route with an enforcer behind it. W.S. 35-13-201(c) points at it by name, and because no state enforcing authority exists, a Wyoming complaint is filed with HUD's Region VIII office in Denver. [Text](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title42/html/USCODE-2023-title42-chap45-subchapI-sec3604.htm)

**Registration myth:** Wyoming has no assistance-animal registry, no certificate, no database and no state identification card. The state's definition of an assistance animal, at W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv), asks whether the animal provides emotional support that alleviates an identified symptom or effect of a disability: a clinical question, answered by a professional, not a card. Nothing in the Wyoming Fair Housing Act mentions a registry either, and it could not create one quietly: W.S. 40-26-114 gives rulemaking power to an "enforcing authority" that does not exist, and the Wyoming Secretary of State's list of the eighty-one agencies that make rules in this state contains no fair-housing or civil-rights body at all. So there is no office in Wyoming issuing anything. What does exist is W.S. 35-13-203(b), which makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly and intentionally misrepresent that an animal is an assistance animal in order to obtain the rights in the article. Buying a certificate from a website is not compliance with anything, and it is closer to that sentence than to the statute it is meant to satisfy.

## What Wyoming landlords can and cannot do

**Cannot:**
- Cannot refuse a reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling: W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii).
- Cannot discriminate in the leasing or rental of residential property because the person has an assistance animal, W.S. 35-13-201(c). Wyoming defines that animal to include one that provides emotional support, at W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv).
- Cannot treat an assistance animal as a pet for the purpose of a deposit or a monthly charge. Wyoming's landlord-tenant statute says nothing about animals at all, so the charge comes off under W.S. 40-26-107(b) and (c)(ii) and 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f) rather than under a deposit rule.
- Cannot discriminate in the terms, conditions or privileges of a rental, or in the services and facilities provided with it, because of disability: W.S. 40-26-107(b). This is the provision that reaches recurring pet rent.
- Cannot require training, certification or registration of an assistance animal. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)'s emotional-support branch has no training element, and no Wyoming registry exists.
- Cannot interfere with the rights in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c), doing so is a misdemeanor under W.S. 35-13-203(a), with a fine of up to $750.
- Cannot keep a deposit without delivering a written itemization within thirty days of termination, or fifteen days after receiving the renter's new mailing address, whichever is later: W.S. 1-21-1208(a).
- Cannot take a nonrefundable deposit silently. W.S. 1-21-1207 requires the rental agreement to state that a portion is nonrefundable and requires written notice when it is taken.

**Can:**
- May hold the tenant liable for damage the assistance animal actually does to the premises, W.S. 35-13-201(c) says so expressly. That is a bill for real damage, not a charge in advance.
- May take a further thirty days to return a deposit if there is damage to the unit, making sixty days lawful in that case, W.S. 1-21-1208(a).
- May decline where the tenancy would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others or would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others, W.S. 40-26-107(f).
- May be outside the Wyoming Fair Housing Act's disability duty if the building holds four families or fewer and the owner lives in one of them, W.S. 40-26-110(b) exempts sections 40-26-105 through 40-26-109. W.S. 35-13-201(c) and the federal Act are not switched off by it.
- May charge a nonrefundable pet deposit to a tenant with an ordinary pet, with no cap in dollars or months, provided it is disclosed. Wyoming sets no deposit ceiling anywhere.

## How to get an ESA letter in Wyoming

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

## City guides in Wyoming

- [ESA letters in Cheyenne](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/cheyenne.md)
- [ESA letters in Casper](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/casper.md)
- [ESA letters in Gillette](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/gillette.md)
- [ESA letters in Laramie](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/laramie.md)
- [ESA letters in Rock Springs](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/rock-springs.md)
- [ESA letters in Sheridan](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/sheridan.md)
- [ESA letters in Evanston](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/evanston.md)
- [ESA letters in Green River](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/green-river.md)
- [ESA letters in Riverton](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/riverton.md)
- [ESA letters in Jackson](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/jackson.md)
- [ESA letters in Cody](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/cody.md)
- [ESA letters in Rawlins](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/rawlins.md)
- [ESA letters in Lander](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/lander.md)
- [ESA letters in Powell](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/powell.md)
- [ESA letters in Douglas](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/douglas.md)
- [ESA letters in Torrington](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/torrington.md)
- [ESA letters in Worland](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/worland.md)
- [ESA letters in Buffalo](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/buffalo.md)
- [ESA letters in Mills](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/mills.md)
- [ESA letters in Wheatland](https://supportanimal.com/blog/wyoming-emotional-support-animal/wheatland.md)

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Wyoming law actually cover emotional support animals, or only trained ones?

It covers them by name, and Wyoming is clearer about this than most states. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) defines an "assistance animal" as one that works or performs tasks for a person with a disability "or provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability." The second branch has no training requirement. And that definition opens "As used in this article" — the same article that contains W.S. 35-13-201(c), the sentence about leasing and renting. That connection is what Montana and Delaware both lack: Montana wrote the emotional support animal out of its definition, and Delaware's "support animal" has to be individually trained.

### Where do I file a housing discrimination complaint in Wyoming?

With HUD, in Denver. Wyoming enacted a Fair Housing Act in 2015 whose complaint machinery runs through an "enforcing authority" defined at W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii) as an entity accepted by HUD — and HUD has accepted none. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' Wyoming Advisory Committee reported in January 2025 that the Governor "has not yet assigned enforcement authority of the Wyoming Fair Housing Act to any state or local entity" and that Wyoming residents "are required to submit their complaint to the HUD's Denver Regional Office in the neighboring state of Colorado." There is a HUD field office in Casper, but the same report notes there is no fair-housing officer stationed there.

### How long do I have to act in Wyoming?

Name the forum before you name the number. W.S. 40-26-139 gives you two years to file a civil action in Wyoming district court, and subsection (c) says you can do that whether or not any complaint was filed first, no exhaustion. That is the state deadline that currently works. W.S. 40-26-118's one-year deadline runs to the enforcing authority, which does not exist. The federal route has its own clock: one year to HUD, two years to federal court. And ignore the six-month figure that turns up in Wyoming searches. That is W.S. 27-9-106, the employment statute, and it has nothing to do with housing.

### Can a Wyoming landlord charge a pet deposit for my emotional support animal?

Not for an assistance animal, but the argument is a fair-housing one, not a landlord-tenant one, and it is worth knowing which you have. The words "pet" and "animal" do not appear anywhere in Wyoming's Residential Rental Property Act, W.S. 1-21-1201 through 1-21-1211. There is no pet-deposit provision to carve an exception out of, the way North Dakota has. The charge comes off because W.S. 40-26-107(b) and (c)(ii) and 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f) do not let a landlord condition the accommodation on a fee, and because W.S. 35-13-201(c) says the animal shall be permitted.

### Is there a cap on deposits in Wyoming?

No. Not in dollars, not in months, nowhere in the statutes. Wyoming also expressly contemplates nonrefundable deposits: W.S. 1-21-1207 requires only that the rental agreement say a portion is nonrefundable and that written notice be given when it is taken. That is a disclosure rule, not a limit. For an ordinary pet, a Wyoming landlord may set the number. For an assistance animal, the number should not exist, which is exactly why the accommodation request, and the document behind it, carry the whole weight in this state.

### My landlord lives in the building. Does that change anything?

It can, and Wyoming's exemption is worth reading precisely. W.S. 40-26-110(b) exempts "W.S. 40-26-103 and 40-26-105 through 40-26-109" for a dwelling of not more than four families where the owner occupies one of the units. That range includes W.S. 40-26-107, the disability section, so a genuinely owner-occupied fourplex is outside the state Act's accommodation duty. Two things survive it. W.S. 35-13-201(c) is in a different title and is not switched off by that section. And the federal Fair Housing Act has its own, separately drafted exemption that has to be assessed on its own terms.

### If my landlord refuses, is that a crime in Wyoming?

The statute says so, and you should still not plan around it. W.S. 35-13-203(a) makes it a misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $750, to deny or interfere with "any place or facility referenced in W.S. 35-13-201(a) through (c)", and (c) is the leasing sentence. But this is a criminal provision prosecuted by a county or district attorney. It gives you no damages, no filing route and no private remedy, and no Wyoming prosecution of a landlord under it was located. The section that gets you somewhere is W.S. 40-26-139, the two-year civil action, alongside a HUD complaint.

### What kind of documentation does Wyoming ask for?

Wyoming does not write the document, which is worth saying plainly, unlike North Dakota, no Wyoming statute lists what a letter must contain or who may sign it. What the state does do is define what has to be true. W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv) asks whether the animal provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability. That is two findings: that a disability exists, and that this animal answers an identified part of it. Documentation that reports a licensed professional actually making those findings is what the definition describes.

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