A psychiatric service dog in housing

The duty, which has not moved

The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to refuse to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services when such accommodations may be necessary to afford a person with a disability equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling. That is 42 U.S.C. 3604(f)(3)(B), and it is where every assistance animal request in housing comes from.

Note what it does not say. It does not mention animals, training, certification or documentation. Everything in this area is that general duty applied to a particular request.

What changed in May 2026

HUD rescinded FHEO-2020-01, the guidance notice that had set out how it assessed assistance animal requests, and narrowed the standard under which its Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity finds reasonable cause to animals individually trained to do work or perform tasks.

But as a practical matter the posture matters, because most tenants do not litigate. They file a complaint, and the question of whether an agency will take it up is the question. A dog individually trained to perform tasks is inside the line HUD now draws. An untrained animal depends on state law and on the landlord's own willingness.

So state law is doing more work than it was

Several states have their own assistance animal statutes that reach further than HUD's current posture, and a few impose their own requirements in the other direction, including a minimum client-provider relationship before documentation may issue. Which state you are in now changes the answer more than it used to.

What a housing provider may ask

• Whether you have a disability-related need for the animal, where the disability is not obvious.
• For documentation of that need from someone in a position to know, again only where it is not obvious.
• They may not ask for your diagnosis, your medical records, or the details of your condition.
• They may not require a specific form, a specific provider, or a certificate for the animal.
• They may not charge a pet deposit, pet rent or a pet fee for an assistance animal. They may charge for actual damage the animal causes.
• They may not apply a breed, size or weight restriction to an assistance animal as a category, though an individual animal's conduct is always relevant.

The two limits a provider can always raise

An accommodation may be refused if the specific animal would be a direct threat to the health or safety of others that cannot be reduced by another accommodation, or would cause substantial physical damage to property. Both are about this animal and its actual conduct, assessed individually, not about the breed or the species in the abstract.