State pet-deposit treatment, federal Fair Housing Act assistance-animal rules, and what Texas landlords can and cannot ask.
In Texas, whether an animal is a matter of your lease or a matter of federal and state civil-rights law depends entirely on which kind of animal it is. An ordinary pet is a contract question: you decide whether to allow pets, and you set the deposit, pet rent, and breed or size limits. A service animal or emotional support animal is a disability question governed by the federal Fair Housing Act and the Texas Fair Housing Act (Property Code Chapter 301), and the wrong move there can turn into a discrimination complaint.
Texas does not layer its own pet-deposit caps or special assistance-animal statute on top of the federal framework, so the core rules come from the Fair Housing Act, HUD guidance, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The Texas Fair Housing Act mirrors the federal duty: under Section 301.025, refusing a reasonable accommodation a disabled tenant needs to use and enjoy a dwelling is unlawful, and the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division investigates those complaints alongside HUD.
The biggest recent shift is federal. On May 22, 2026, HUD changed how it evaluates assistance-animal accommodation complaints, moving toward the ADA's trained-animal standard. That reshapes how much protection an untrained emotional support animal carries, so it is worth understanding before you approve or deny your next request.
Texas has no statutory cap on the security deposit, pet deposit, or pet rent. Tex. Prop. Code § 92.101 et seq. governs return procedures but sets no maximum.
A pet is any animal a tenant keeps for companionship that is not tied to a disability. In Texas you are free to run a no-pet property, or to allow pets on your own terms. There is no state cap on pet deposits or pet rent, and breed and weight restrictions are permitted for ordinary pets. Put the policy, the deposit, any monthly pet rent, and the number and type of animals in the lease so it is enforceable.
Service animals and emotional support animals are the opposite: they are not pets in the eyes of the law, and you cannot apply your pet policy to them. You may not charge pet rent, a pet deposit, or any pet fee for an approved assistance animal, and you cannot refuse one solely because the property is no-pets. The tradeoff is that the tenant still owes you for any actual damage the animal causes, which you handle through the ordinary security deposit and lease-damage rules, not a pet surcharge.
Under the ADA, a service animal is a dog individually trained to do work or perform a task directly tied to a person's disability, such as guiding, alerting to a medical event, or interrupting a psychiatric episode. The animal's training, not a vest or a registry card, is what matters. An emotional support animal (ESA) provides comfort by its presence but is not trained to perform a specific task; it can be an animal other than a dog.
Where the disability or the need is not obvious, your allowable inquiry is narrow. For a service animal you may ask only two things: is the animal required because of a disability, and what work or task has it been trained to perform. You cannot demand that the animal demonstrate the task, and you cannot require certification or registration, because none exists under federal law. For an ESA tied to a non-obvious disability, you may ask for documentation from a licensed professional confirming the disability and the disability-related need for the animal. You may not demand medical records, a diagnosis, or details about how severe the condition is.
HUD guidance issued May 22, 2026 now applies the ADA's trained-service-animal standard when it evaluates Fair Housing Act accommodation complaints. In practice, HUD will find an FHA violation for waiving a pet policy only where the animal has been individually trained to perform work or tasks related to the tenant's disability. Owner training is acceptable; a certified trainer is not required.
The guidance removes the earlier federal presumption that an untrained emotional support animal must be accommodated. That does not make it safe to reflexively deny ESAs. The change is limited to HUD's own FHA enforcement posture; complaints under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA are unaffected, and state law is unaffected as well. The Texas Fair Housing Act and its reasonable-accommodation duty still stand on their own, and a tenant can pursue a state complaint or private action. Treat each request on its facts rather than assuming the 2026 guidance ended ESA obligations in Texas.
An assistance-animal accommodation is not unconditional. You may deny or restrict the request when the specific animal poses a direct threat to the health or safety of others, or when it would cause substantial physical damage to property that cannot be reduced by another reasonable accommodation. This must be based on the individual animal's actual conduct or history, not on breed stereotypes or a blanket policy.
You may also deny a request that is not supported. If a tenant with a non-obvious disability refuses to provide reliable documentation of the disability and the disability-related need, or the request would impose an undue financial and administrative burden or fundamentally alter your operations, you have grounds to decline. Document your reasoning, respond promptly rather than letting a request sit, and engage in the interactive back-and-forth Fair Housing law expects. Silence or foot-dragging is often treated as a constructive denial.
Texas addresses fake service animals directly. Under Texas Human Resources Code Section 121.006, added by House Bill 4164 effective September 1, 2023, a person commits an offense by intentionally or knowingly representing that an animal is a service or assistance animal when it is not specially trained or equipped to help a person with a disability. The penalty is a fine of not more than $1,000 and 30 hours of community service, typically for an organization serving people with disabilities, to be completed within one year.
This is a criminal statute, and it does not give you a private right to sue a tenant or a reason to deny an accommodation on suspicion alone. Denying housing because you assume a tenant is exaggerating a disability is itself a Fair Housing risk. Use the documentation process the law allows; leave enforcement of misrepresentation to prosecutors.
The most common mistake in Texas ESA cases is responding with a flat denial, "no pets means no pets", instead of engaging in the interactive process. The interactive process is itself a substantive duty. A landlord who refuses to consider the request, demands more documentation than HUD permits, or imposes a pet fee on an accepted assistance animal will lose at HUD even if the underlying accommodation could have been reasonably denied on its merits.
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No. An approved service animal or emotional support animal is not treated as a pet, so you cannot charge a pet deposit, pet rent, or any pet fee for it. The tenant is still responsible for any actual damage the animal causes, which you address through the standard security deposit and lease-damage rules.
If the disability and need are obvious, you cannot ask for documentation. For a service animal where they are not obvious, you may ask only whether the animal is required because of a disability and what task it is trained to perform. For an ESA tied to a non-obvious disability, you may request a letter from a licensed professional confirming the disability and the disability-related need. You may not demand medical records, a diagnosis, or the severity of the condition, and no certification or registry exists that you can require.
No. The May 22, 2026 HUD guidance applies the ADA's trained-animal standard to HUD's own Fair Housing Act enforcement and removes the federal presumption favoring untrained ESAs. But it does not touch Section 504, the ADA, or state law. The Texas Fair Housing Act's reasonable-accommodation duty still applies, so evaluate each ESA request rather than denying it automatically.
You can deny or restrict when the specific animal is a direct threat to the health or safety of others, when it would cause substantial property damage that cannot be reduced by another accommodation, or when the request is unsupported by required documentation or imposes an undue burden. The decision must rest on the individual animal's conduct, not breed or size assumptions.
No. Breed, weight, and size restrictions apply to ordinary pets, not to assistance animals. You can only act against a particular assistance animal based on its actual behavior or documented history of posing a direct threat, assessed individually.
Under Texas Human Resources Code Section 121.006, intentionally misrepresenting an animal as a service or assistance animal is an offense punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and 30 hours of community service. It is a criminal matter, though, and does not give you grounds to sue the tenant or to deny an accommodation based only on suspicion.
Federal authority: 42 U.S.C. § 3604(f)(3)(B); 24 C.F.R. § 100.204; HUD FHEO Notice 2020-01. State authority: Tex. Prop. Code § 91.001. Last updated July 14, 2026. For informational purposes only, not legal advice. Pet and assistance-animal questions are highly fact-specific; consult a licensed Texas attorney before refusing any request.
