# ESA Letter in Cody, WY: Liable for Damage, Not for Fees

> W.S. 35-13-201(c) makes a Cody tenant liable for damage an assistance animal actually does. An ESA letter in Cody answers a fee, not a bill.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 10,391
- Households renting: 30.5%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): No cap; none for an ESA
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Pet rent common, not for ESA
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The objection the statute answers before a landlord raises it

Ask about an assistance animal in a Cody rental and one question comes back
first: what if the animal wrecks the place? Fair question. Wyoming answered
it in the same breath that granted the right.

Cody is a Park County town of **10,391**, with **4,774** occupied homes and
**1,457** of them rented: **30.5 percent** on the Census Bureau's 2020–2024
American Community Survey five-year estimates, above the **28.2 percent**
Wyoming figure, and ninth of the state's twenty largest cities on both the
count and the share. Median gross rent here is estimated at **$1,051**, give
or take **$150**. One of six Wyoming cities estimated above the **$992**
state median, alongside Jackson, Cheyenne, Mills, Buffalo and Casper.

Rent above the state median is where animal charges get invented, and the
damage question is what justifies them. So be exact about the text.

## Read the second sentence of W.S. 35-13-201(c)

Most pages quote the first sentence and stop. Here is the whole subsection:

> "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. **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.**"

Two sentences, one breath: the right, then the responsibility. Few states
pair them like that, and it is a strength rather than a concession: the
legislature took the objection a landlord is likeliest to raise and settled
it in advance, on terms costing the tenant nothing up front.

## Liability after the fact is not a charge in advance

Look at what that second sentence authorises. It makes you answerable for
**damage done**. Done: past tense, actual, by this animal, to these
premises. It says nothing about a deposit. Nothing about a one-time fee.
Nothing about a monthly premium. A landlord who reads it as permission to
bill for the *chance* of damage is reading a word that is not on the page.

That is no technicality, because the two behave nothing alike. Liability
arrives only if something is broken, is measured by what broke, and must be
proved by whoever claims it. A pet charge arrives on signing day, is
measured by whatever the office decides, and is kept whether or not the
animal touches a wall.

## Wyoming's deposit statute already bills for damage

A second reason the charge is unnecessary: the ordinary deposit already
covers this ground.

**W.S. 1-21-1208(a)** lets an owner apply a renter's deposit to "damages to the residential rental
unit beyond reasonable wear and tear", then return the balance with a written itemisation after
the tenancy ends, and it stretches that accounting deadline by a further thirty days where there
is damage to account for. Damage is what a deposit is for. That is the design.

So a Cody landlord already holds protection against the exact risk the
animal question raises. An assistance animal does not cancel that deposit or
put the unit past an itemised deduction. The tenant carries the liability
under W.S. 35-13-201(c); the deposit collects on it. Which is why the extra
charge fails on its own logic. It covers no uncovered risk, and it falls
only on the household whose animal is there because of a disability.

Carrying that liability is no formality, though. If the animal chews a door
frame, it is billable. Two habits follow: photograph the unit the day you
move in and the day you move out, dated, and put your forwarding address in
writing when the tenancy ends. The deduction people lose is the one nobody
documented, and the itemisation is the only place a damage claim has to be
spelled out.

## The one place the Act lets damage be prospective

Honesty means naming the exception, and there is one.

**W.S. 40-26-107(f)** lifts the accommodation duty where the tenancy "would constitute a direct
threat to the health or safety of other individuals" or "would result in substantial physical
damage to the property of others." That is the only forward-looking damage test in the Wyoming
Fair Housing Act.

Notice its shape. It turns on a particular animal, judged on what is known
about that animal, and where it applies the accommodation may be refused
outright. It is not a pricing provision. A landlord cannot use a rule about
substantial physical damage to charge every assistance-animal household on
signing day. The subsection offers no halfway house.

## Where an assistance-animal charge actually comes off

Name all of these in the same letter.

**W.S. 40-26-107(b)** bars discrimination in the "terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental
because of disability, a premium billed only to the household with the assistance animal is a
term. **W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii)** makes discrimination include "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": a no-pets rule with money
attached is a policy, and lifting both is the accommodation. **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)** sits
underneath both. W.S. 35-13-201(c) also works alone, because it says the animal "shall be
permitted", and **W.S. 40-26-113(b)** confirms the chapter "does not affect a requirement of
nondiscrimination in any other state or federal law."

Then notice what none of that disturbs: the sentence you started with. The
fee comes off; the tenant is still liable for damage. That is the trade
Wyoming made.

## Who to call from Park County, and what to call them

One naming point first, because forms are unforgiving. The Housing Choice
Voucher office covering Cody and Powell is run by the **Cheyenne Housing
Authority**, on **(307) 272-7539**. There is no Cody housing authority;
writing one onto an application stalls a file.

Beyond that, the **City of Cody** handles municipal services, **Legal Aid of
Wyoming** runs a housing programme, and the **Protection and Advocacy System
(Wyoming P&A)** is the state's disability rights organisation. All three can
work with a refusal that exists on paper; none can do much with one spoken
across a counter. Ask in writing; keep the dated copy.

No Wyoming state agency takes a housing-discrimination complaint at all. The Wyoming Advisory
Committee to the **U.S. Commission on Civil Rights** 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 residents must send complaints to HUD's Denver Regional Office in Colorado. What
still functions in-state is a court: **W.S. 40-26-139** allows two years in district court with
nothing to exhaust first, and **W.S. 40-26-140** reaches punitive as well as actual damages. Read
**W.S. 40-26-143** first, fees follow the prevailing party, in either direction.

## The two findings the damage sentence never touched

All of that assumes the animal is an assistance animal, the part a document
establishes.

**W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** defines one as an animal 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 is asked of that second branch. And because the
section opens "As used in this article", the definition governs the leasing sentence in the same
article, liability clause and all.

So two things have to be established rather than asserted: a disability, and
this animal easing symptoms or effects of it that someone qualified has
**identified**. Naming them is clinical work; no tenant can do it about
themselves.

Ring the clinician who already treats you first: the history is there and
the call costs nothing. What follows is worth expecting rather than
resenting. Wyoming keeps most of its specialist mental-health capacity in
Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie; a Park County referral can sit weeks out; and
a practitioner two appointments into knowing you may say, correctly, that
this much contact will not support certifying a disability.

If that leaves the question open, book a licensed evaluation and have it
answered properly. Someone licensed to assess you takes each question in
turn, puts the conclusions in writing where the examination supports them,
and declines where it does not. That a competent assessment can end in no is
what gives a yes purchase at a leasing desk. A certificate sold without one
establishes neither, and **W.S. 35-13-203(b)** makes knowingly and
intentionally misrepresenting an animal a misdemeanor.

## Liability you carry, a fee you do not

Wyoming put both answers side by side. Break something and you pay for it;
the deposit statute collects. Bring the animal in the first place and nobody
may price the permission.

A Cody landlord entitled to the first half is not entitled to the second.
What stands between those two readings is a document establishing the two
findings, written by someone licensed to make them.

## What Cody 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 Cody

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

- [City of Cody](https://www.codywy.gov/) (city government)
- [Cheyenne Housing Authority - Housing Choice Voucher office serving Cody and Powell](https://www.cheyennehousing.org/contact-us) (local housing authority)
- [Legal Aid of Wyoming - Housing](https://www.lawyoming.org/housing) (legal aid)
- [Protection and Advocacy System, Inc. (Wyoming P&A)](https://www.wypanda.com/programs-and-services) (disability rights)

## Frequently asked questions

### Can a Cody landlord charge a pet deposit or pet rent for an assistance animal?

No, and the reason is worth getting right. Wyoming caps deposits at nothing, so the limit does not come from the lease statutes. It comes from fair housing. W.S. 40-26-107(b) bars discrimination in the "terms, conditions or privileges" of a rental because of disability, which is what a monthly premium billed only to the household with the assistance animal is. W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii) covers the deposit as a policy the landlord is asked to make an exception to, and 42 U.S.C. 3604(f) runs underneath both. W.S. 35-13-201(c) adds that the animal "shall be permitted" in leased or rented residential property.

### If my assistance animal damages the apartment, am I liable for it?

Yes, and Wyoming says so in the same subsection that grants the right. The second sentence of W.S. 35-13-201(c) reads: "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." There is no exception in it for an emotional support animal, and none for a tenant who received an accommodation. If the animal ruins a floor, that is yours to answer for.

### Doesn't that liability sentence prove a landlord can charge for the risk up front?

It proves the opposite. Read what the sentence covers: damage done. Past tense, actual, caused by this animal, to these premises. It says nothing about a deposit, a one-time fee or a monthly charge, and a statute that wanted to authorise one would have said so in the same breath it authorised the liability. Liability arrives only if something is broken and is measured by what was broken. A pet charge arrives on signing day and is kept whether or not the animal ever touches a wall. Those are different things, and only one of them is in the statute.

### How would a Cody landlord actually recover the cost of damage, then?

Through the deposit they already hold. W.S. 1-21-1208(a) lets an owner apply a renter's deposit to "damages to the residential rental unit beyond reasonable wear and tear" and return the balance with a written itemisation after the tenancy ends, and it extends that accounting period by a further thirty days where there is damage to account for. Damage is what a deposit is for. That is precisely why an extra animal charge is unnecessary: the mechanism to collect on the W.S. 35-13-201(c) liability is already sitting in the lease.

### Can a Cody landlord refuse the animal because they expect it to cause damage?

Only on a narrow, animal-specific test. W.S. 40-26-107(f) removes the accommodation duty where the tenancy "would constitute a direct threat to the health or safety of other individuals" or "would result in substantial physical damage to the property of others." That is the only forward-looking damage provision in the Wyoming Fair Housing Act, it turns on what is actually known about this animal, and where it applies the consequence is refusal, not a price. It is not authority to grant the accommodation and then attach a fee to it.

### Which housing authority handles a Housing Choice Voucher in Cody?

The Cheyenne Housing Authority does. Its contact page lists Housing Choice Voucher offices around the state, and the one covering Cody and Powell can be reached on (307) 272-7539. There is no Cody housing authority and no Park County housing authority, so writing either name onto a form is a good way to have a file stall. When an application asks which public housing agency administers your voucher, the Cheyenne Housing Authority is the answer for this town.

### What does the letter have to establish for a Cody rental?

Two findings, both drawn from W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv). That a disability exists, and that this animal "provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects" of it. No training is required on that branch of the definition, and because the section opens "As used in this article," it governs the leasing sentence in W.S. 35-13-201(c) in the same article. A licensed professional makes those findings after an assessment, or declines to. A certificate bought online makes neither, and W.S. 35-13-203(b) makes knowingly and intentionally misrepresenting an animal a misdemeanor.

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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=wyoming-emotional-support-animal%2Fcody