To get an ESA Letter in California, you must work directly with a licensed healthcare provider in California to see if you qualify. You may qualify for an Emotional Support Animal in California if:
- A licensed healthcare provider must determine that you have a mental or emotional condition that substantially limits one or more major life activities and
- The presence of an animal alleviates symptoms of your mental or emotional condition
If you need an ESA Letter that follows the latest California rules, ESA Doctors can connect you with a licensed healthcare provider remotely. Please note that CA has a 30 day minimum waiting period, if you need an ESA Letter in the near future, start the process ASAP so the 30 day waiting period starts now.
You can count on ESA Doctors:
99% ESA Letter Acceptance Rate over 10 years
Why? You work directly with a California-licensed mental health professional for an enforceable
How to Get an ESA Letter Online
Fair Housing guidance allows you to obtain an ESA Letter from a licensed professional who offers their services remotely. You must work with a California-licensed healthcare professional or your ESA Letter won’t be valid. If you work with a licensed healthcare provider through ESA Doctors, your ESA Letter will be landlord ready.
Get an ESA Letter online in three easy steps:
- Submit your order
Choose the right plan for you and submit your order. Next, you will receive a follow up questionnaire and shortly after a licensed therapist in California will connect with you directly.
- Connect with a California-licensed professional
To qualify for an ESA, you must work with a California-licensed healthcare professional. Your therapist will contact you directly to sign a consent form and coordinate next steps.
- Obtain an ESA Letter if you qualify
If your therapist determines you have a mental or emotional health condition that would improve with the presence of an emotional support animal, they will issue a signed ESA Letter to you. With this letter you can request reasonable accommodations with your landlord.
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“Great service. Really easy way to get my animals certified as emotional support animals. I was able to use this in my apartment complex and got my fees waived. Not only does this help alleviate my stress but bringing down my bill in a super simple way helps my anxiety overall.”
California Emotional Support Animal Protections
The great news for California residents is that the Golden State has some of the most progressive state laws relating to emotional support animals (ESAs) in the country. California residents who own ESAs are protected under both federal and state housing laws. If youโre interested in getting an ESA for the first time, you should also be aware that new laws went into effect on January 1, 2022. Under these new laws, healthcare professionals must wait at least 30 days before giving new clients an ESA letter.
California has also demonstrated that it will punish landlords that fail to accommodate emotional support animals. Yet, there are still complaints from ESA owners claiming that landlords have discriminated against them for owning an ESA. Both tenants and landlords in California need to understand the rules regarding emotional support animals.
What Does California Law State About Emotional Support Animals?
Emotional support animals are protected in California by the federal Fair Housing Act and state law. Also, new ESA laws went into effect on January 1st, 2022. Under these new laws, licensed healthcare professionals will have to wait at least 30 days before they can issue an ESA Letter to a new client.
All residents of California with emotional support animals are protected under the Fair Housing Act, a federal law that applies to every state in addition to California state law. These laws and related guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing allow ESAs to live in your home without any charge or deposit. To prove you have an emotional support animal, you must show your landlord a valid ESA Letter that has been issued to you by a licensed healthcare professional.
Several years ago, a controversial bill was proposed in California that would have created additional burdens for owners of emotional support animals looking for accommodation from their landlords. However, the bill known as AB2760 was pulled due to fierce opposition from animal and disability rights groups. These groups argued that the proposed bill discriminated against people with mental illnesses and conflicted with existing federal law.
An emotional support animal in California is a small, domesticated pet like a dog, cat, bird, fish, rabbit, or gerbil that helps someone with a mental or emotional health disability like PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, autism, anxiety, or a phobia.
ESAs support their owners just by being at their side. ESAs do not need any specialized training, and they are different from service dogs. Service dogs are highly trained to perform specific tasks relating to their handlerโs disability and have different rights under California law and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
ESAs are not service dogs and have a different qualification process. Service dogs also often have identification tags which are not mandatory in California but are commonly used by service dog owners to signal that their dog is a working animal.
The laws pertaining to the disabled and emotional support animals in California include:
โข The Unruh Civil Rights Act
โข The California Disabled Persons Act (CDPA)
โข The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)
โข Federal disability rights laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Which Laws Protect my ESA from Landlords, Apartment Managers, and HOAโs?
Landlords that attempt to discriminate against people with emotional support animals will have a hard time winning their case due to the protections that ESAs have under the Fair Housing Act and California law.
The Fair Housing Act (FHA) prohibits discrimination against disabled individuals and requires housing providers to accommodate people with physical and mental impairments that limit one or more major activities, such as depression, severe anxiety, PTSD, or bipolar disorder.
Under HUDโs guidelines, landlords, co-ops, HOAs, and other housing providers must reasonably accommodate ESAs free of charge (that means no pet fees or deposits are allowed). Housing providers also canโt deny an ESA because of its size, weight, or breed. Emotional support animals are considered assistance animals, not pets; therefore, they are exempt from pet policies that a building may have.
California Housing Laws align with the Fair Housing Act and provide similar protections for California residents with emotional support animals.
To prove to your landlord that you require an ESA, you must have a legitimate ESA letter, which can come from a psychiatrist, psychologist, registered nurse, social worker, doctor, or other licensed mental health professional. Landlords are not permitted to ask for specifics about your disability or demand a diagnosis or medical records.
In cases where the landlord wrongfully refuses a tenantโs emotional support animal, the tenant can file a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development within California.
Legal Cases for Emotional Support Animals in California
Landlords can get into legal trouble if they do not comply with their obligations under federal and California housing laws. One instance of a landlord discriminating against a tenant with an ESA took place in Sacramento. The landlord, who had owned several apartment complexes and rental homes in San Jose, attempted to evict tenants with disabilities who had emotional support animals.
The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) alleged that soon after the landlord purchased an apartment complex, he sent a letter to tenants stating he did “not like to deal with pets of any kind” and that they could not “introduce any new pet or replacement pet.” The letter made no exception for ESAs. The landlord also wrote a series of letters alleging a flea problem, and the solution was to get rid of the pets. Alternatively, the landlord required that the tenants provide a veterinarian letter verifying that the animals did not have fleas. The landlord issued a “three-day notice to perform or quit” to one of the tenants for allegedly violating the lease by having a “pet/animal in the apartment.” Ultimately, the landlord evicted two tenants with ESAs.
As a result, the landlord was charged with a fine of $100,000 and ordered to undergo fair-housing training for three years and develop reasonable accommodation policies for current and future tenants. Each accommodation had to be recorded and sent to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing for three years.
The settlement also included compensation to the tenants as well as attorney fees and costs. The Director of the DFEH made clear that it is “unlawful to harass or retaliate against tenants who make requests to live with emotional support or companion animals. The law requires landlords to modify policies, including no-pet policies, to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities.”
Another case involved a real estate company that refused a would-be tenant with emotional support dogs. The woman argued that her dogs helped treat her depression and attention deficit disorder, both recognized as disabilities. She and her boyfriend were initially told by a manager at the real estate company that they could move in with their emotional support dogs without having to pay a deposit fee. However, that changed when a manager requested documentation showing a medical need for the animal. The manager stated that if the dogs did not perform tasks, the prospective tenants would not be allowed to move in.
The prospective tenant provided her ESA Letter, but her application was denied. The landlord allegedly had a policy to deny tenants who went online to get recommendations for emotional support animals. An attorney from Disability Rights California has stated that an ESA Letter from a mental health professional is typically all thatโs legally needed before a landlord must accommodate a support animal, even if the letter was obtained remotely.
The tenant made the mistake of obtaining her letter through a counselor licensed in Colorado, not California. Fortunately, her local psychiatrist agreed that her ESAs would help with her disability. When obtaining ESA Letters online, the service must connect you with a licensed mental health professional licensed in your state of residence.
The real estate company settled the dispute for $175,000, and had to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees, “provide training to employees, and hire a Compliance Manager to review requests for reasonable accommodation.” In a press release, the DFEH stated:
โ[T]he companies charged pet deposits and pet rent, imposed breed and size restrictions for legitimate support animals, and failed to engage in an interactive process to verify that tenants had genuine disabilities. The firms also lacked a uniform reasonable accommodation policy and failed to train their leasing professionals at their apartment communities about fair housing responsibilities toward people with disabilities. As a result, some tenants were evicted from their apartments or had their lease offers revoked. Others were forced to pay additional rent.โ
This case serves as a cautionary tale to landlords that try to impose restrictions on a tenantโs ability to live with their ESA. It is also a lesson for patients who should make sure they are connected to a mental health professional licensed in California.
Make sure your ESA Letter is from a California-licensed mental health professional.
Legitimate ESA Letter Requirements for California
You can get your ESA letter online or in person, but make sure that you get your letter from a California licensed mental health professional. The letter should be signed and dated. Under CA law, the provider must possess a valid, active license and include the license number, effective date, jurisdiction, and type of professional license in the ESA documentation. The letter must establish that you have a mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities and that an emotional support animal helps alleviate symptoms of your condition.
Seeing if you qualify for an ESA, the first involves talking to a licensed healthcare professional such as a therapist, LMFT, social worker, counselor, psychiatrist, doctor, or psychologist. Requesting an letter can be done online or in person.
If you are getting your ESA Letter online, make sure that the professional is properly licensed for California. ESA Doctors works with healthcare professionals who are licensed for California and understand the latest ESA requirements for your State. These compassionate professionals understand the benefits of emotional support animals for mental well-being and are ready to help you.
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How do you get a companion dog certified as esa
The proper way to qualify your dog as an emotional support animal is to get an ESA letter. Please see this guide for more detailed information: https://esadoctors.com/how-to-certify-an-emotional-support-dog/
What is the cost of letter for esa ?
You can find our pricing information here: https://esadoctors.com/pricing-plan/
We submitted documents from my daughters doctor nearly 8 months ago, signed all paperwork and they are still charging us a pet fee every month stating they have a heavy workload and have not gotten it approved from corporate yet. 8 months is too long. I think they are just trying to get more money from us.
8 months is far too long to wait for an ESA approval! Most landlords respond right away or within a few days. In fact, under HUD guidelines, landlords are expected to respond within 10 days: https://esadoctors.com/hud-housing-rules-emotional-support-animals/
In addition, if you have been charged pet fees or pet deposits during this time, you may be entitled to a refund. Please see this article for more info on that: https://esadoctors.com/esa-fees-refunded/
I’m a young college grad trying to find a place in LA within my budget with my partner. It’s been really tough finding affordable places that accept couples. My therapist has issued us an ESA letter for our dog due to my mental health history, but I’m wondering if we are better off applying and getting accepted into a place first and then introducing our dog shortly after moving in. We have family that our dog could stay with in the meantime. Technically its not deception but wouldn’t this help increase our chances of securing housing? I know they can’t deny us on this basis but I also don’t want to risk this being an issue. Please help.
We understand how hard it can be to find suitable housing for yourself and your emotional support animal, especially as a young college graduate. That is part of the reason why ESAs have housing rights – to expand housing options for those that need an emotional support animal for their mental health. We know it can be scary to request ESA accommodation from a new landlord, but we always recommend being upfront and honest about this. Landlords are legally obligated to reasonably accommodate emotional support animals, and it’s better to address any issues earlier on versus later when you may have already moved in or signed a lease. You might find this post helpful if you’re nervous about informing a landlord about your ESA: https://esadoctors.com/emotional-support-dog-letter-landlord/
Can a Gynecologist write an ESA letter in CA?
A gynecologist is a licensed healthcare professional that is technically qualified to write ESA letters in California. HOWEVER, they generally do not issue ESA letters because they are not involved in the mental health aspect of patients. The better option is to utilize a healthcare professional that specializes in ESA evaluations. Not sure who to turn to? We can help! Just click here to start: https://app.esadoctors.com/checkout/
What is the fee for the housing letter?
You can find our pricing plan here: https://esadoctors.com/pricing-plan/
I understand you do not have to renew housing LETTERS in CA.
In California, renewing your ESA letter is not a mandatory requirement. However, healthcare professionals will not validate ESA letters that are outdated. That is why its best practice to renew your ESA letter every year, especially if you will have a new landlord. Your therapist or doctor will want a recent evaluation on file to ensure they can validate your ESA request. You may find this article helpful: https://esadoctors.com/do-esa-letters-expire-how-to-renew/
Hi. We recently got a kitten because my 17 year old daughter was experiencing depression and anxiety due to being on lockdown, not being able to leave the house due to Covid as well as online learning. The kitten has helped her tremendously.. I really donโt want my landlord to charge a security deposit and or add to our monthly rent because the sole purpose of our family getting this kitten was to provide my daughter with emotional support.
Thanks so much for this information. Super helpful. I got a letter from my psycologist regarding my anxiety. Do I need anything else? or thats it?
If your letter meets the requirements for ESA letters under HUD rules, you’re all set.
It’s important that people realize that an ESA letter permits your animal to fly and live with you in housing– nothing more. It doesn’t permit you to bring your dog into public places, such as grocery stores, libraries or theatres.