Can a landlord charge for a pet in Minnesota, and what does the law require for an assistance animal?

Yes — a pet deposit is allowed, with no ceiling of its own.

Minnesota has no general pet-deposit statute and no statewide deposit cap for ordinary rentals, so a landlord may take a pet deposit and set its amount. What the money is called does not decide the question: a deposit held to secure performance rides section 504B.178 whatever the lease calls it, with its interest, three-week return and itemization rules. No deposit, fee or charge at all may be required for a service or support animal (section 504B.113, subdivision 3, paragraph (a)), and a landlord who charges pet money must state that prohibition in the lease. In a subsidized disability-accessible unit the landlord may take a separate animal damage deposit in an amount reasonable to cover the damage the animal is likely to cause (section 504B.261), and in a manufactured-home park the deposit may not exceed two months' rent (section 327C.03, subdivision 4).

Refundability: No statute makes a pet deposit refundable or non-refundable as such. Any deposit of money whose function is to secure performance of the rental agreement, other than an advance payment of rent, is governed by section 504B.178 (subdivision 1), which means one percent simple interest, return within three weeks after the tenancy ends, written itemization of any withholding, and the bad-faith penalty in subdivision 7. The animal damage deposit in a subsidized disability-accessible unit is expressly refundable to the extent it exceeds the damage the animal actually caused (section 504B.261).

Yes — pet rent or a pet fee may be charged, and no statute caps it.

A private landlord may charge pet rent and a pet fee in any amount; Minnesota caps neither and imposes no reasonableness standard. The only limits are that the charge may not be required for a service or support animal, that a landlord who charges pet money must disclose that prohibition in the lease, and that a tenant may sue to recover pet money paid where the disclosure was left out (section 504B.113, subdivision 3). In a manufactured-home park the picture reverses: no fee other than the periodic rent may be charged for the right to obtain or keep a lot except as the chapter allows, and the one pet charge the chapter allows is $4 per pet per month (section 327C.03, subdivisions 1 and 3).

Monthly pet rent: Nothing in Minnesota law caps monthly pet rent in a private tenancy, requires it to be reasonable, or says whether it counts as rent for an eviction. The only monthly pet figure in the statutes is the manufactured-home park ceiling of $4 per pet per month (section 327C.03, subdivision 3).

A one-time pet fee: A one-time pet fee is unregulated in a private tenancy. Chapter 504B contains no general bar on non-refundable fees, so nothing reaches a pet fee; a charge that in substance secures performance is a deposit under section 504B.178 however it is denominated, and a charge that is genuinely consideration for permission to keep the animal falls outside that section. No statute draws that line for pets, and the silence is stated here as silence.

Not as a duty to have one — a disclosure condition attaches instead of a duty to have a policy.

No Minnesota statute requires a lease to say whether pets are allowed, supplies a default when the lease is silent, or governs a mid-term change to a private landlord's pet rule. One disclosure duty is conditional on charging: if a landlord requires an additional fee, charge or deposit under a pet policy, the lease must disclose the prohibition on fees, charges and deposits for service and support animals (section 504B.113, subdivision 3, paragraph (b), in force since January 1, 2025). The remedy is unusual and worth knowing: a tenant may sue to recover any pet fees, charges or deposits paid where the landlord left the disclosure out and the tenant shows that he would have asked for, and would likely have received, a reasonable accommodation had it been there (paragraph (c)). Two other rules bind every landlord who allows animals: the declaw and devocalize ban in section 504B.114, and, in one class, the mandate in section 504B.261 stated as its own row below.

Number limits: No statutory number limit binds a private landlord. The only number in Minnesota law runs the other way, as a floor in one housing class: a tenant of a subsidized disability-accessible unit in a multiunit building must be allowed two birds or one spayed or neutered dog or one spayed or neutered cat (section 504B.261).

Conditions a landlord may not impose: A landlord who allows an animal on the premises may not advertise in a manner designed to discourage applications because an applicant's animal has not been declawed or devocalized, may not refuse or make unavailable an occupancy because a person refuses to declaw or devocalize an animal, and may not require a tenant or occupant to declaw or devocalize an animal allowed on the premises. Any requirement or lease provision that violates the section is void and unenforceable (section 504B.114, subdivision 2). A city attorney, a county attorney or the attorney general may sue for an injunction, and the civil penalty is up to $1,000 per advertisement or up to $1,000 per animal, paid to the entity that brought the action (subdivision 3). The duty binds a landlord who allows animals; it does not turn a no-pets building into a pets building.

Yes, for a private landlord — the only bar reaches a named publicly financed or agency-managed housing class.

Minnesota law says nothing about a private landlord's breed, size or weight rule for pets: the word breed does not appear in the landlord-tenant chapter, in the Human Rights Act or in the manufactured-home park chapter. A landlord's breed or weight rule is an ordinary lease term, neither authorized nor limited by statute. The only entitlement that a breed rule cannot override is the one in section 504B.261, for subsidized disability-accessible units. Two rules a reader meets nearby are not housing rules at all: cities and counties may not adopt a dangerous-dog ordinance based solely on the dog's breed (section 347.51, subdivision 8), which binds local governments and not landlords, and the insurance bar in section 65A.303, stated separately below. An assistance animal is a different question and is answered above.

Size and weight: No statute reaches size or weight either. The mandate in section 504B.261 is a species and number floor, not a breed, size or weight rule: it entitles the tenant of a subsidized disability-accessible unit to two birds or one spayed or neutered dog or one spayed or neutered cat, and a breed or weight rule cannot defeat that entitlement, but the section never uses the words breed, size or weight.

Yes — a state statute or rule sets what a landlord may request or what a certifier must meet for an assistance animal in housing. The operative rules are statutory. State law incorporates a federal statute or codified regulation by reference.

Minnesota's assistance-animal rule for housing sits in the landlord-tenant chapter, not in the Human Rights Act — a reader who opens only the civil-rights title will find nothing, because the words 'support animal' do not appear there. Section 504B.113 does three things. Upon a landlord's request, a tenant must supply supporting documentation from a licensed professional for each service or support animal for which the tenant requests a reasonable accommodation under any provision of law, unless the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known to the landlord (subdivision 2). No additional fee, charge or deposit may be required for the animal, and the tenant remains liable for damage it causes (subdivision 3, paragraph (a)). A tenant must not knowingly misrepresent himself as a person with a disability requiring the animal or provide fraudulent documentation, and if he does the landlord may deny the rental application or the request (subdivisions 4 and 5). Beside it stand two older rights. Under the Human Rights Act a person with a disability who uses a service animal has full and equal access to real property and may not be required to pay extra compensation for the animal, but is liable for damage it does (section 363A.09, subdivision 5), and a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services is discrimination in housing (section 363A.10, subdivision 1, clause (2)), subject to the direct-threat and substantial-damage limits in subdivision 4. Under the disability-services title a person who is blind, deaf or physically disabled and has a service dog has full and equal access to housing accommodations and may not be charged extra for the dog, and since August 1, 2025 the same is true of a person actively training a service dog in training — for whom the landlord may require written certification from the accredited supervising organization, and whose accommodation ends when the training is complete (section 256C.025, subdivisions 4 and 5).

Who it binds: Every residential landlord. Section 504B.113 carries no exemption at all: it binds a landlord as chapter 504B defines the word, with no unit threshold, no owner-occupied carve-out and no county limit, and it reaches manufactured-home park residents through the chapter's definitions of residential tenant and residential building (section 504B.001, subdivisions 7, 11 and 12). The two other rights are narrower. The Human Rights Act's service-animal access right does not reach a resident owner who rents a room or rooms inside a one-family accommodation (section 363A.21, subdivision 1, clause (2)); the act's owner-occupied four-or-fewer-unit exemption is limited to familial status and does not reach disability (subdivision 2, paragraph (a)). The service-dog right in the disability-services title excludes a single-family residence whose occupants rent out not more than one room (section 256C.025, subdivision 2, paragraph (b)).

Minnesota gives the landlord a documentation right rather than a list of permitted questions. Upon the landlord's request the tenant must provide supporting documentation from a licensed professional confirming the tenant's disability and the relationship between the disability and the need for the animal, for each service or support animal for which a reasonable accommodation is requested under any provision of law; no documentation may be required where the disability or the disability-related need is readily apparent or already known to the landlord (section 504B.113, subdivision 2, paragraphs (a) and (b)). The landlord must not require the tenant to disclose or give access to medical records or medical providers, or to provide any other information or documentation of a physical or mental disability (paragraph (b)). For a service dog in training the document is different: the landlord may require written certification from the organization supervising the training (section 256C.025, subdivision 5, paragraph (c)).

A licensed or qualified professional must certify. An online certificate is not, by itself, sufficient. An out-of-state provider is expressly allowed. A landlord may not require medical records, a diagnosis or its severity.

Who may certify: A closed list of seven license classes, plus the same professions licensed elsewhere. The document must come from a provider of care who is licensed by the Board of Medical Practice under chapter 147, a physician assistant under chapter 147A, a nurse under chapter 148, a psychologist under chapter 148, a mental health professional under chapter 148B, a social worker under chapter 148E or a counselor under chapter 148F; a professional holding one of those licenses in any other state also qualifies, provided the professional has an existing treatment relationship with the tenant requesting the accommodation. A licensed professional does not include any person who operates primarily to provide certification for a service or support animal (section 504B.113, subdivision 1, paragraph (e)).

The relationship test: No day count anywhere in Minnesota law, and no relationship test at all for an in-state professional. The one qualitative test attaches to an out-of-state professional, who must have an existing treatment relationship with the tenant requesting the accommodation (section 504B.113, subdivision 1, paragraph (e), clause (8)).

A landlord may ask for supporting documentation for each service or support animal unless the disability or the need for the animal is readily apparent or already known to him. The document must confirm two things — the disability, and the relationship between the disability and the need for the animal — and it must come from one of seven kinds of licensed professional, or from the same kind of professional licensed in another state who already treats the tenant. A business that exists mainly to sell certificates is not a licensed professional at all, so its document is not the supporting documentation the statute asks for. The landlord may not demand medical records or access to the tenant's medical providers, or any other documentation of the disability itself. Minnesota sets no minimum treatment period, no annual re-evaluation, no prescribed form, no telehealth rule of any kind and no deadline for the landlord's answer, and it places no duty at all on the professional who signs. A person training a service dog stands on a separate track: the landlord may require written certification from the accredited organization supervising the training, and that accommodation ends when the training does.

No — a state bar on an extra charge reaches an emotional support animal on the face of the definition it hangs on; the bar is an express no-extra-charge clause, in a statute.

No additional fee, charge or deposit may be required for a service or support animal, and the bar is the whole triad: pet rent, a one-time pet or cleaning fee and a pet deposit are all barred, not just the deposit (section 504B.113, subdivision 3, paragraph (a)). It reaches emotional-support animals on the face of the definition, because a support animal is defined as one that provides emotional support and need not be trained. Two older bars run beside it for narrower classes: a person with a disability who uses a service animal may not be required to pay extra compensation under the Human Rights Act (section 363A.09, subdivision 5), and a person who is blind, deaf or physically disabled with a service dog, or a person training a service dog in training, may not be charged extra under the disability-services title (section 256C.025, subdivisions 4 and 5). None of this is a damage waiver. One interaction the sections leave to the reader: the animal damage deposit allowed in a subsidized disability-accessible unit is a pet deposit, so where the same animal qualifies as a service or support animal the charge bar governs and no deposit may be required.

The definition it hangs on: "'Support animal' means an animal that: (1) provides emotional support that alleviates one or more identified symptoms or effects of a person's disability; and (2) does not need to be trained to perform a specific disability-related task" (Minn. Stat. § 504B.113, subd. 1(c)); the charge bar in subdivision 3, paragraph (a), runs on "the service or support animal".

Remedy: Section 504B.113 states no penalty against a landlord who charges anyway. The tenant's routes are the recovery action in subdivision 3, paragraph (c) — a suit for the pet fees, charges or deposits paid, available where the landlord left the lease disclosure out and the tenant shows he would have asked for and would likely have received a reasonable accommodation — and a discrimination charge under the Human Rights Act, where a refusal to accommodate is an unfair discriminatory practice (sections 363A.09 and 363A.10).

The tenant is liable for damage the animal causes like any other tenant, by express words.

The tenant is liable, and the statutes say so four times. A tenant is liable to the landlord for any damage to the premises caused by the service or support animal (section 504B.113, subdivision 3, paragraph (a)); the person using a service animal is liable for damage done to the premises by it (section 363A.09, subdivision 5); and the same is stated for a service dog and for a service dog in training (section 256C.025, subdivisions 4 and 5, paragraph (b)). The landlord may recover animal damage from the ordinary security deposit under section 504B.178.

An offense or sanction that reaches a misrepresentation made to obtain housing: denial of the request and a ground for eviction, reaching the person claiming the animal.

A tenant must not, directly or indirectly through statements or conduct, knowingly misrepresent himself as a person with a disability that requires the use of a service or support animal, or provide fraudulent supporting documentation (section 504B.113, subdivision 4). The consequence is not a fine and not a crime: the landlord may deny the rental application or the request for the animal, and an eviction action for a breach of the lease remains available (subdivision 5). Because a tenant means a current or a prospective tenant, the denial reaches an applicant. No prior warning is required, nothing is owed to the state, and Minnesota places no penalty on the professional who signs the document and none on a person who lies to obtain one. A separate criminal offense punishes misrepresenting an animal as a service animal in a place of public accommodation, a petty misdemeanor for a first violation and a misdemeanor after that (section 609.833); a place of public accommodation is a business or facility made available to the public, so that offense does not reach a rental home.

Who enforces it: There is no prosecutor and no court in it. The consequence is the landlord's own: he may deny the rental application or the request for the animal, and nothing in the section prevents an eviction action based on a breach of the lease (section 504B.113, subdivision 5).

In part — state law preempts the kinds of local rule named as barred, and any power named is one state law grants.

The one preemption that reaches pets is a breed rule for local governments: no city or county may regulate dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs based solely on breed (section 347.51, subdivision 8), so no Minnesota locality can add a breed-specific ordinance that a tenant's dog would have to satisfy. No Minnesota statute either authorizes or preempts local rules about pets in rental housing — not pet deposits, not pet rent, not breed rules in a lease, not a pet-friendly mandate. The landlord-tenant chapter's only preemption clause is confined to a tenant's right to call for police or emergency assistance (section 504B.205, subdivision 3), and the municipal-powers chapter carries no animal or pet provision at all. Two nearby sections are not authority over pets in housing and should not be read as if they were: cities, counties and towns may not adopt a rent-control law on private residential property (section 471.9996), which belongs to the rent-increase page and leaves open whether a local cap on pet rent would be one, and a city or county may not base a dangerous-dog ordinance solely on the dog's breed (section 347.51, subdivision 8), which is animal control and binds local governments rather than landlords. The Human Rights Act's local-commissions section (section 363A.07) gives a local human-rights commission a place to file and refer charges; it is a venue rule, not authority over a pet rule.

Breed-specific local animal-control rules barred: A statutory or home rule charter city, or a county, may not adopt an ordinance regulating dangerous or potentially dangerous dogs based solely on the specific breed of the dog, and an inconsistent ordinance is void (section 347.51, subdivision 8). The bar binds cities and counties in their animal-control power; it says nothing about a private landlord's lease terms. Text: Minn. Stat. § 347.51 · subd. 8.

Subsidized disability-accessible units in a multiunit building: pet deposit — capped; pets must be allowed, subject to the stated conditions. In a multiunit residential building, a tenant of a disability-accessible unit in which the tenant or the unit receives a subsidy that directly reduces or eliminates the tenant's rent responsibility must be allowed to have two birds or one spayed or neutered dog or one spayed or neutered cat (section 504B.261). The tenant may not keep, or have visits from, an animal that is a threat to the health or safety of other individuals or that causes a noise nuisance or disturbance to other renters. The landlord may require an additional damage deposit in an amount reasonable to cover the damage the animal is likely to cause, and that deposit is refundable whenever the renter leaves, to the extent it exceeds the damage the animal actually caused. The ceiling is a reasonableness standard rather than a figure. The animals this section allows are pets; where the animal is a service or support animal, the charge bar in section 504B.113 governs instead and no deposit may be required. Text: Minn. Stat. § 504B.261.

Manufactured-home park lots: pet deposit — counts inside the general deposit cap; pet rent and fees — capped. In a manufactured-home park the park owner may charge an additional fee for pets owned by the resident, but the fee may not exceed $4 per pet per month (section 327C.03, subdivision 3). That figure dates from 1982 and is current. It is also the only lawful pet charge in a park, because no fee other than the periodic rental payment may be charged to a resident or prospective resident for the right to obtain or keep a lot except as the chapter provides (subdivision 1). A park deposit may not exceed two months' rent and rides the ordinary deposit rules in section 504B.178 (subdivision 4), so a pet deposit in a park sits inside that two-month ceiling. The park chapter has no assistance-animal provision of its own; a park resident relies on section 504B.113, which reaches a park because the landlord-tenant chapter's definitions include park residents. Text: Minn. Stat. § 327C.03 · subds. 1, 3, 4.