What if my landlord does not respond?

Silence is not neutral

A housing provider must respond to an accommodation request promptly. Unexplained delay can be treated as a constructive denial, which means a provider who ignores you has not avoided a decision, they have made one badly and without a reason on the record.

How long is too long

There is no single federal deadline, which is unhelpful but true. In practice a couple of weeks without any acknowledgement is enough to follow up firmly, and a month of silence on a straightforward request looks like avoidance. Complex requests can reasonably take longer, but an acknowledgement should not.

Follow up so that it counts

• Write again, in the same thread, referring to the date of the original request.
• Say plainly that you are requesting a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act. You do not need the words for the request to be valid, but they make it impossible to claim later that nobody understood.
• Ask for a decision by a specific date, and ask for any reason in writing.
• Send it to a named person with authority, not to a general inbox, and keep proof.

If there is still nothing

File with your state fair housing agency, or with HUD where your state has none. You can also take advice about a private suit, which is not bound by HUD enforcement priorities and is where the more meaningful remedies are. Keep paying rent throughout; withholding turns a case you might win into one you will not.