HUD 2026 guidance on emotional support animals

In a Federal Register notice dated April 6, 2026, HUD's fair housing office (FHEO) withdrew eight guidance documents, with the withdrawal effective September 17, 2025. Two dealt with animals: FHEO-2020-01, the notice from January 28, 2020 on how to evaluate a request to keep an animal as an accommodation for a disability, and FHEO Notice 2013-01, which covered service and assistance animals in housing and HUD-funded programs.

According to the notice, the withdrawn documents are out of active use and aren't to be treated as authoritative. HUD said it measured its sub-regulatory guidance against three questions: is it required by statute, is it consistent with the statute or regulation, and does it lighten compliance burdens. HUD added that conduct violating the Fair Housing Act's actual text can still be the subject of enforcement.

The May 22, 2026 memo, issued by HUD's Assistant Secretary over fair housing (FHEO), instructs HUD enforcement staff on handling complaints that involve animals as reasonable accommodations. It rescinds the 2020 notice permanently and confirms that the 2013 notice was rescinded as of September 17, 2025.

The memo separates animals that have been individually trained for work or tasks connected to someone's disability from animals that offer emotional support, comfort or companionship. In the memo's view, emotional support on its own isn't work and isn't a task. HUD also says it intends to pursue rulemaking, with public notice and comment, to bring its animal accommodation rules closer to the ADA's definition, which turns on training.

When someone asks a provider to set aside its pet rules so they can keep an animal trained to carry out tasks related to a disability, that request is presumed reasonable. Psychiatric service dogs, which are trained for tasks tied to a mental health condition, fall into this group. The memo also allows such an animal to be a species other than a dog.

A request involving an untrained emotional support animal carries no presumption of reasonableness. HUD says it has stopped expecting housing providers to approve these requests across the board and that each one depends on its facts. ESAs haven't become illegal, and not every request will be turned down. Instead, a housing provider may assess whether a given request is reasonable, and HUD will look at its pending ESA cases one by one.

• Trained task animal: presumed reasonable when the disability-related need is shown.
• Untrained ESA: reviewed case by case, no presumption either way.
• Comfort or companionship alone is not treated as a trained task.

The 2020 notice had said housing providers could not charge pet fees for untrained ESAs. The 2026 memo withdrew that statement. It doesn't create a new fee rule, but because pet policies are no longer presumed waived for untrained ESAs, a fee may be allowed depending on the facts. Our pet fees guide explains how this plays out.

When the request involves a psychiatric service dog with task training, the 2004 Joint Statement still bars housing providers from demanding additional fees or deposits in exchange for approving a reasonable accommodation. Tenants remain responsible for actual damage, and some states prohibit pet fees for assistance animals.

The statute itself is untouched, as is HUD's reasonable accommodation regulation found at 24 CFR 100.204. The 2004 Joint Statement also stands: providers can seek reliable information if your disability, or why you need the animal, isn't apparent, and in general they can't probe into your diagnosis or how serious it is.

The memo creates no new documentation standard. It also says it leaves people's ability to go to court untouched, and the Fair Housing Act still gives you two years to bring a private civil action. State law is separate. Colorado, for example, passed HB 26-1045 in 2026, which presumes an assistance animal is a reasonable accommodation under state law once the provider has had a chance to take part in an interactive process.

If you have an ESA or plan to request one, expect more questions and more individual review than before, especially from federally focused housing providers. Make your request clearly, give reliable documentation from a therapist who has evaluated you, and keep copies of everything. Check your state guide, since your state may protect ESAs more than federal enforcement now does.

If your dog has been individually trained to carry out tasks that help with a psychiatric disability, a psychiatric service dog letter may fit your situation better than an ESA letter. Our therapists can talk this through during your evaluation, but no letter guarantees how a housing provider will respond.