# ESA Letter in Torrington, WY: The Wrong Six-Month Clock

> A Wyoming search hands Torrington renters a six-month employment deadline. An ESA letter in Torrington runs on housing statutes and a two-year court clock.

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

## Key facts

- Population: 6,211
- Households renting: 35.6%
- Typical pet deposit (as a pet): Wyoming law sets no ceiling
- Typical pet rent (as a pet): Pet rent varies by unit
- Breed/weight limits common: yes
- Pet fees, deposits, and breed limits with a valid ESA letter: none (FHA reasonable accommodation)

## The number that is not yours

Torrington is a city of **6,211** in Goshen County, with **2,503** occupied
households on the Census Bureau's 2020–2024 American Community Survey
five-year estimates. An estimated **890 (± 168)** of those homes are rented:
a **35.6 percent** renter share, sixth-highest among the twenty Wyoming
cities covered here and comfortably above the **28.2 percent** statewide
figure. By raw count of renting households, Torrington sits fourteenth.

Median gross rent here is estimated at **$901**, with a margin of error of
**± $258**. In a town this size the sample is small, and a range that wide
is not a price. Treat it as an estimate and nothing firmer.

That is one unreliable number, and an honest one. This page is about a
different kind: the deadline a Torrington renter is most likely to find in a
search, which belongs to somebody else's case entirely.

## Six months belongs to a different chapter of Wyoming law

Type "Wyoming discrimination deadline" into a search box and **W.S. 27-9-106** comes back. Six
months. It looks like an answer, and it is written like one.

It is not your answer. That section sits in **Title 27, labor and
employment**. It belongs to the Wyoming Fair Employment Practices Act, the
complaint it describes goes to the **Department of Workforce Services**, and
the conduct it reaches is what an employer did to an employee. A landlord is
not an employer. A rented duplex in Torrington is not a workplace. A no-pets
clause is not a term of employment.

The mistake is not harmless. A written accommodation request citing 27-9-106
tells the leasing agent reading it that nobody checked, and the rest of the
letter gets read in that light.

## Workforce Services has no housing side

The agency's own website makes the point better than any argument does. Its
Equal Opportunity page does not use the word "housing" once. Its Labor
Standards page refers to discrimination four times, and all four references
are to workplaces. There is no housing complaint form there because there is
no housing complaint jurisdiction there.

Look one level up and the same picture holds. The Wyoming Secretary of
State's rulemaking listing carries **81 agencies**, and not one is a
fair-housing, human-rights or civil-rights body. The only entry on it
touching labour and rights at all is Workforce Services, the employment
agency the six-month clock already pointed you to.

## The general anti-discrimination statute leaves disability out

The next thing a search turns up is **W.S. 6-9-101**, Wyoming's criminal public-accommodations
provision. Read the classes it protects: "race, religion, color, sex or national origin."

Disability is not in that list. Not narrowed, not qualified, absent. So the
statute a Torrington reader might reasonably assume is *the* Wyoming
anti-discrimination law does not reach them at all, and citing it in an
assistance-animal dispute points at a provision that says nothing about
disability.

Public places are covered, just not there. **W.S. 35-13-201(a)(ii)** carries
them in state law and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act carries
them nationally. Housing runs on a different pair of provisions again.

## The Attorney General has no fair-housing page either

The third wrong turn is the Wyoming Attorney General. Every division was checked, and there is no
fair-housing unit and no housing-complaint page. The Consumer Protection unit (the division a
renter would most naturally try) has a page on which the words "housing", "landlord", "tenant" and
"discrimination" each appear zero times.

This is not a gap in Torrington's rights. The rights are on the books and they are strong; what
Wyoming lacks is an office of its own to bring them to. The Wyoming Advisory Committee to the
**U.S. Commission on Civil Rights** said so in January 2025: the Governor "has not yet assigned
enforcement authority of the Wyoming Fair Housing Act to any state or local entity," and Wyoming
residents "are required to submit their complaint to the HUD's Denver Regional Office in the
neighboring state of Colorado."

## The statutes that do cover a Torrington tenancy

Two state provisions and one federal one. None of them is in Title 27 or Title 6.

**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."

**W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** says what that animal is — 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." Emotional support, named in the statute, with no
training requirement attached. The definitions section opens "As used in this article", and the
leasing sentence above sits in that same article, so the definition governs it.

**W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii)**, in the Wyoming Fair Housing Act, 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." **42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B)** is the federal duty in almost the same words, and it runs
under a Torrington tenancy whatever the state statute does.

## Two years, in district court

Now the deadline that is actually yours. **W.S. 40-26-139(a)** lets an aggrieved person 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." Two years — four times the number the
search engine offered — and subsection (c) makes that action 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." Nothing to exhaust first.

One more clock is worth knowing so you can set it aside. **W.S. 40-26-118(a)** gives one year to
file with the Act's "enforcing authority," and **W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii)** defines that as an entity
HUD has accepted for Wyoming. HUD has accepted none, so that year runs toward nobody. At the end of
the court route, **W.S. 40-26-140** allows actual and punitive damages with fees and costs, and
**W.S. 40-26-143** awards fees to the prevailing party and costs against the nonprevailing one,
whichever side that turns out to be.

## Writing the request so it is not discounted

Put it in writing, keep a copy, and name the provisions above rather than
the ones a search volunteered. Ask for the specific thing you need (the
no-pets rule waived, the pet deposit and any monthly pet premium removed),
and say it is an accommodation for a disability, not a pet exception.

Two limits belong in the same letter, because a landlord will raise them
anyway. Sentence two of **W.S. 35-13-201(c)** keeps you liable for damage
the animal does to the premises, and **W.S. 40-26-107(f)** lifts the duty
where the tenancy would be a direct threat to others' health or safety or
cause substantial physical damage to their property.

## Where a Goshen County renter can turn

Legal Aid of Wyoming's housing programme and the Wyoming Housing Network's
counselling service work statewide, and the City of Torrington and Goshen
County pages cover anything municipal. Be careful with the search box here
too: Torrington does not appear among the public housing authorities listed
for Wyoming, so there is no local housing agency office in this town to walk
a complaint into, and a similarly named authority in another state is not
one.

## Right deadline, wrong statute

Every wrong turn on this page shares a shape: a real Wyoming statute,
correctly quoted, aimed at the wrong problem. The fix is the same each time,
read what a section is *about* before relying on what it says.

Read the document the same way. **W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv)** wants both halves
and works on neither alone: a symptom or effect of a disability that
somebody qualified has **identified**, and an animal that alleviates it.
Named, not gestured at.

Whoever already treats you is best placed to name them, so call there first.
The obstacles in this part of eastern Wyoming are worth stating flatly:
specialist mental-health capacity sits in Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie and
hardly anywhere else, a new-patient slot from Goshen County can be a long
wait, and a clinician with two visits on file may decline to certify a
disability rather than commit to a conclusion they have not had the contact
to reach.

Where that door is shut, a licensed evaluation does the same work by
appointment: a licensed professional puts the disability question and the
animal question to an actual examination, then records whichever answers it
supports: including, sometimes, that it supports neither. A certificate
bought from a website performs neither finding, and **W.S. 35-13-203(b)**
makes knowingly and intentionally misrepresenting an animal a misdemeanor.
Get the deadline right and the statute right, then make sure the letter
under them was written by someone who actually looked.

## What Torrington 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 Torrington

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

- [City of Torrington](https://www.torringtonwy.gov/) (city government)
- [Goshen County](https://www.goshencountywy.gov/) (county government)
- [Wyoming Housing Network](https://whninc.org/housing-counseling/) (housing counseling)
- [Legal Aid of Wyoming - Housing](https://www.lawyoming.org/housing) (legal aid)

## Frequently asked questions

### A search says I have six months to file a Wyoming discrimination complaint. Is that right for housing?

No. The six-month deadline is W.S. 27-9-106, which sits in Title 27 and belongs to the Wyoming Fair Employment Practices Act. The complaint it describes goes to the Department of Workforce Services and concerns what an employer did. It has nothing to do with a landlord, a lease or an assistance animal. The housing deadline that actually works is W.S. 40-26-139, which allows a civil action in district court not later than the second year after the discriminatory housing practice occurred or terminated.

### Does the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services take housing complaints from Torrington?

It does not. Its Equal Opportunity page does not use the word "housing" once, and the four references to discrimination on its Labor Standards page are all about workplaces. The Secretary of State's rulemaking listing runs to 81 agencies with no fair-housing, human-rights or civil-rights body among them, and the only labour-and-rights entry on it is Workforce Services itself. Citing an employment statute in a housing letter signals to a landlord that the letter was not checked.

### Isn't W.S. 6-9-101 Wyoming's anti-discrimination law?

It is a Wyoming anti-discrimination law, and it does not cover disability. W.S. 6-9-101 is a criminal public-accommodations provision protecting "race, religion, color, sex or national origin" - disability is not in that list at all. Public places are covered in state law by W.S. 35-13-201(a)(ii) and nationally by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Housing runs on W.S. 35-13-201(c) with the definition in W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv), plus W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii) and 42 U.S.C. section 3604(f)(3)(B).

### Can the Wyoming Attorney General help with a housing accommodation dispute?

There is no fair-housing or housing-complaint page in that office. Every division was checked, and the Consumer Protection unit a renter would most naturally try has a page on which "housing", "landlord", "tenant" and "discrimination" each appear zero times. That is an absence of an in-state office, not an absence of rights: W.S. 35-13-201(c) and W.S. 40-26-107(c)(ii) are on the books and enforceable in district court, and the federal Fair Housing Act runs underneath them.

### So which deadline applies to a Torrington accommodation refusal?

Two years, under W.S. 40-26-139(a) - 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 that action available whether or not any complaint was filed first, so there is nothing to exhaust. The one-year clock at W.S. 40-26-118(a) runs to the Act's "enforcing authority," which W.S. 40-26-102(a)(viii) defines as an entity HUD has accepted for Wyoming. HUD has accepted none.

### Is there a housing authority in Torrington, Wyoming?

No. Torrington does not appear among the public housing authorities listed for Wyoming, and there is no local housing agency office here to bring a complaint to. Be careful searching by name: a similarly titled housing authority in another state has no connection to Torrington, Wyoming, and no authority over a Goshen County tenancy. Statewide services are the practical route - Legal Aid of Wyoming for housing questions and the Wyoming Housing Network for counselling.

### What does the letter itself have to establish under Wyoming law?

Two findings, both drawn from W.S. 35-13-205(a)(iv): that a disability exists, and that the animal "provides emotional support that alleviates one (1) or more identified symptoms or effects" of it. Identified means named by someone qualified to name them, which is why a certificate bought online establishes neither. W.S. 35-13-203(b) makes knowingly and intentionally misrepresenting an animal as an assistance animal a misdemeanor, with both mental elements required.

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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%2Ftorrington