This is information, not legal advice. Petipedia is not a law firm and cannot tell you what to do about your own situation. Everything below names the body that published it so you can read the original. Where something depends on which state you are in, it says so, and you will need to check your own state or talk to a lawyer there.
Federal sources read on 16 September 2026. The HUD section below changed in 2026 and is still moving, so check the date before you rely on it.
There is no federal law that caps pet rent, caps a pet deposit, or stops a landlord banning a breed in an ordinary private rental. All of that is your lease, your state and your city. If a landlord says federal law lets them charge what they like, they are right only because federal law says nothing at all about it.
Public housing and HUD-assisted housing are different. There, federal rules do set limits: a housing agency may put reasonable limits on a pet by size, weight and type, a pet deposit for an assisted tenant builds up gradually rather than being charged in one go, and an agency may not require that an animal have its vocal cords removed.
Under the Fair Housing Act, an animal a disabled person needs is not covered by the pet rules at all. HUD says this in its own regulation for its own housing programs, and the same principle runs through the Act.
“This subpart C does not apply to animals that are used to assist, support, or provide service to persons with disabilities.”
24 CFR 5.303, HUDFor years the working rule came from a HUD guidance notice published in 2020, which treated an untrained emotional support animal as something a housing provider normally had to allow. HUD withdrew that notice, formally, in a notice published in the Federal Register on 6 April 2026.
It was replaced on 22 May 2026 by an enforcement memo from HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which says this:
“FHEO will find reasonable cause for failure to provide a reasonable accommodation involving the waiver of a pet policy only where the animal has been individually trained to perform work or perform tasks directly related to the complainant’s disability.”
HUD FHEO enforcement guidance, 22 May 2026Read that carefully, because it is being reported as something it is not. The Fair Housing Act itself did not change. Congress did not amend it and HUD did not make a new rule. The regulation that requires a reasonable accommodation, 24 CFR 100.204, is exactly as it was. What changed is what HUD itself will take up as a case.
So an untrained support animal has not become illegal, and asking for one has not become pointless. What has changed is that the federal agency is no longer the route. Courts are not bound by HUD’s enforcement choices, private lawsuits are unaffected, and a number of states and cities have their own fair housing law that protects support animals independently of anything HUD does.
One more thing the memo keeps: the Fair Housing Act is still not limited to dogs. A footnote says an accommodation “could involve a species other than a dog, provided the animal is trained to perform a disability-related service.” The change is about training, not about species.
Whether your state or city has its own fair housing law covering support animals, because that is now where the protection is most likely to sit. Your state attorney general or a local fair housing organization will know.
What your lease actually says about pets, deposits and breeds, because for an ordinary pet that document is the law between you and your landlord.
Whether your building is public or HUD-assisted housing, because the federal limits above only apply there.