Asking a landlord about an animal can be stressful when anxiety is the reason you need it. Colorado's 2026 law makes the rules clearer: what a landlord may ask, what it may not assume and when a refusal is presumed unfair. The free screening tells a clinician licensed in Colorado whether an ESA letter fits.
Your screening describes how anxiety shows up in daily life and what your animal does when it does. A clinician licensed in Colorado then decides whether there is a disability and a disability-related need for the animal. Colorado also says which licensees may write that finding, and how well they must know you first.
Pick what your landlord said or did. The check sets it against the Colorado sections HB26-1045 changed, plus the state's pet fee and misrepresentation rules.
| Verdict | Choose an option, then select Check It. |
|---|---|
| The rule | - |
| What to do | - |
Clear pricing for emotional support animal and psychiatric service dog letters written by a licensed mental health professional. Your screening is free, and you pay only if a clinician supports a letter and you decide to continue.
Best option for most renters with one emotional support animal
For people who have more than one emotional support animal in the home
For people who may qualify for a task-trained psychiatric service dog
Save more with combined document bundles
ESA letter and certificate in one package
Complete PSD documentation: letter, certificate and ID card
C.R.S. 24-34-301 now names an emotional support animal and counts it among assistance animals.
A provider may weigh an animal's documented, specific conduct, but not assume harm from its presence, under C.R.S. 24-34-502.
For pets, C.R.S. 38-12-106 caps the extra deposit at $300, refundable. The 2026 act says nothing about fees for assistance animals.
C.R.S. 18-13-107.3 fines a knowing false claim to an assistance animal in housing, but only after a prior warning.
Service animals and animals in training ride; other animals travel in a carrier.
Airlines may treat an emotional support animal as a pet under the DOT rule, so read the carrier's pet policy.
The Colorado Civil Rights Division takes housing complaints within one year at (303) 894-2997.
Yes. Since August 12, 2026, HB26-1045 has defined an assistance animal in C.R.S. 24-34-301 to include one that provides therapeutic emotional support, so an ESA can be a reasonable accommodation under state law.
Not with a blanket rule. Colorado treats a ban that keeps out every assistance animal as presumptively discriminatory, under C.R.S. 24-34-502.2.
When the need is not obvious, a provider may ask for reasonable documentation of the disability or the disability-related need. A good-faith interactive process is not discrimination either.
It depends on who writes it. Psychologists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, addiction counselors and nurses must have met you in person; a physician may rely on an in-person or telemedicine visit.
Generally not. C.R.S. 24-34-803 gives its public-place protections to service animals, so an emotional support animal's rights sit in housing.
Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Colorado Mental Health Line at any hour of the day or night.
A clear letter from a clinician licensed in Colorado gives your landlord what the law expects to see, so the request rests on paper rather than on nerves.
