Can a landlord charge a pet deposit in Mississippi, and is there a limit?

Yes, with no statutory limit. No Mississippi statute mentions a pet deposit, and Mississippi caps no deposit of any kind, so the amount is whatever the lease says.

Can a landlord charge pet rent or a non-refundable pet fee in Mississippi?

Yes — no statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee. Mississippi law does not cap, bar or condition pet rent or a pet fee, and the search of every document in the Code for the pet-money terms returns nothing in housing at all.

Does a Mississippi lease have to state a pet policy?

No — but a written-rules or mid-term-change provision would govern a pet rule the landlord adopts. No Mississippi statute requires a lease to say whether pets are allowed, supplies a default when the lease is silent, limits the number, size or occupancy of animals, or makes any class of housing accept pets.

Can a Mississippi landlord restrict pets by breed, size or weight?

Yes. No Mississippi statute limits, authorizes or preempts a landlord's breed, size or weight rule.

Does Mississippi have its own assistance-animal law for rentals?

No — no state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing; the federal rules alone apply. Mississippi has no state fair housing act and no housing assistance-animal provision of any kind — one of only three states in that position, and it is the most consequential fact on this page.

What documentation can a Mississippi landlord ask for when a tenant requests an assistance animal?

No state instrument sets a documentation standard; the federal rules alone apply. Mississippi states nothing about what a landlord may request, what a professional must certify, what a letter must contain, whether an online registration counts, or whether and when a landlord must answer.

Can a Mississippi landlord charge a pet deposit or pet rent for an emotional support animal?

Under state law, yes — no state text bars a charge for an assistance animal; the federal rules alone govern it. No Mississippi statute bars a pet deposit, a pet fee or pet rent for an assistance animal in housing.

What is the penalty for falsely claiming an assistance animal in Mississippi?

None — no offense, penalty, forfeiture, eviction ground or licensing sanction exists. Mississippi has no misrepresentation offense, for housing or for public accommodations.

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

Verified September 21, 2026 All Mississippi topics →

Mississippi sets no limit at all on pet money: no pet deposit statute, no pet rent statute, no pet fee statute, and no deposit cap of any kind.

Cited to Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-21 (1)–(4) and 19 more cited sources · Verified September 21, 2026

What the law controls is what happens to a deposit, and it turns on what the money does rather than what the lease calls it. Money whose primary function is to secure performance of the lease belongs to the tenant, may be claimed only for rent default, repair of tenant damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, cleaning or other reasonable costs of the default, must be itemized in a written notice, and must be returned within forty-five days of the tenancy ending, possession being delivered and the tenant asking for it, with up to two hundred dollars on top of actual damages if it is kept back in bad faith. A charge called a non-refundable pet fee sits outside that section entirely and gets none of those protections. Mississippi has no state fair housing act and no assistance-animal rule for housing of any kind, so a tenant who needs an assistance animal relies on the federal rules alone. The state's guide-dog and support-animal statutes are public-places law, and their no-charge rules do not reach a landlord. Nothing tells a landlord what documentation it may ask for, and there is no offense at all for passing a pet off as an assistance animal. No lease has to state a pet policy, but a landlord's pet rule must be in writing, must apply to all tenants fairly, and if it is adopted after the lease is signed binds the tenant only with reasonable notice and only if it does not substantially modify the agreement. No statute touches breed, size or weight.

Mississippi pets & assistance animals at a glance

Which law governs	Mississippi's landlord and tenant law is Title 89 chapters 7 and 8 of the Code, and neither chapter contains a single animal word. Section 89-8-21 governs a tenant's security deposit by a function test rather than by a label, section 89-8-11 governs the rules a landlord may adopt and change, section 89-8-3 says which arrangements the chapter reaches, and section 89-8-5 bars waiver of any right under it. There is no state fair housing act, so there is no civil-rights title carrying an accommodation duty. The state's only assistance-animal statutes are the White Cane Law, sections 43-6-3 to 43-6-11, and the Mississippi Support Animal Act, sections 43-6-151 to 43-6-155, and both are public-places law: their venue sections list transportation, hotels and lodging places, businesses open to the public and other places to which the general public is invited, with no housing limb. The criminal code's animal sections punish harming or interfering with a working dog, not lying about one. Local authority rests on the general home-rule sections, 21-17-5 for municipalities and 19-3-40 for counties.
Where in the state the answers differ	Statewide — every answer applies across the state
Which landlords are covered	Every landlord of a dwelling unit in the state under a rental agreement entered into after July 1, 1991. Six kinds of arrangement are outside the chapter: residence at an institution incidental to detention or to medical, geriatric, educational, counseling, religious or similar service; occupancy under a contract of sale; occupancy by a member of a fraternal or social organization in its building; transient occupancy in a hotel, motel or lodgings; occupancy by the owner of a condominium unit or the holder of a proprietary lease in a cooperative; and occupancy primarily for agricultural purposes or by someone doing agricultural labor for the owner at less than fair rental value (section 89-8-3). There is no owner-occupied, unit-count or small-landlord exemption, and a landlord and tenant may not agree to waive or forgo any right, duty or remedy under the chapter except as the chapter itself allows (section 89-8-5). Mississippi has no separate manufactured-home park tenancy act, so a park tenancy runs on the same two chapters, and no housing class has a pet rule of its own.
Pet deposit	Yes, with no statutory limit. No Mississippi statute mentions a pet deposit, and Mississippi caps no deposit of any kind, so the amount is whatever the lease says. What the law does control is a deposit's fate. Money held under the deposit section belongs to the tenant and the tenant's claim to it comes before that of any creditor of the landlord; the landlord may claim from it, by written notice delivered to the tenant, only such amounts as are reasonably necessary to remedy the tenant's default in rent, to repair damage the tenant caused excluding ordinary wear and tear, to clean the premises at the end of the tenancy, or for other reasonable and necessary expenses of the default, and only if the deposit was made for one or more of those specific purposes; the notice must itemize what is claimed; and the remainder must be returned no later than forty-five days after the tenancy ends, possession is delivered and the tenant demands it. Retention in violation of the section and without good faith exposes the landlord to damages of up to two hundred dollars on top of actual damages (section 89-8-21). One drafting point is worth knowing: because the landlord may claim against the deposit only if it was taken for those purposes, a deposit taken expressly for pet damage is, on the face of the section, claimable only for that. Refundability: No text makes a pet deposit refundable or lets it be non-refundable; what decides the answer is what the money does. Any payment or deposit of money whose primary function is to secure the performance of a rental agreement, or any part of one, is governed by the deposit section, other than a payment made to secure the execution of the agreement, including advance rent (section 89-8-21). So a refundable pet deposit is inside that section and a charge whose primary function is something else, such as a non-refundable pet fee, is outside it altogether — and with it outside the forty-five-day clock, the itemized notice and the bad-faith damages. In Mississippi the label on the charge decides which set of rules, if any, applies to it.
Pet rent and pet fees	Yes — no statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee. Mississippi law does not cap, bar or condition pet rent or a pet fee, and the search of every document in the Code for the pet-money terms returns nothing in housing at all. Both are ordinary contract terms. Two general limits still apply: every duty and every remedy under the landlord-tenant chapter carries an obligation of good faith, meaning honesty in fact in the conduct of the transaction and observance of reasonable community standards of fair dealing (sections 89-8-9 and 89-8-7); and where a pet charge is imposed through a landlord's rule rather than in the lease itself, the rule must satisfy the five conditions in section 89-8-11 set out below. Monthly pet rent: No statute addresses monthly pet rent. It is an unregulated contract term. A one-time pet fee: No statute addresses a one-time pet fee, and Mississippi has no general bar on non-refundable fees for one to run into: neither spelling of the word appears anywhere in the two chapters, and the list of provisions a rental agreement may not contain is closed and covers only a confession of judgment and exculpation of the landlord's willful misconduct. A non-refundable pet fee also sits outside the deposit section by its own terms, so it carries none of that section's protections for the tenant.
Pet policy in the lease, and changing it mid-tenancy	No — but a written-rules or mid-term-change provision would govern a pet rule the landlord adopts. No Mississippi statute requires a lease to say whether pets are allowed, supplies a default when the lease is silent, limits the number, size or occupancy of animals, or makes any class of housing accept pets. What governs a pet rule is the landlord's-rules section. A landlord may adopt written rules about the tenant's use and occupancy of the premises, and they are enforceable against the tenant only if their purpose is to promote the convenience, safety or welfare of the tenants, preserve the property from abuse or distribute services and facilities fairly; only if they are reasonably related to that purpose; only if they apply to all tenants in the premises in a fair manner; only if they are explicit enough to tell the tenant what must and must not be done; and only if they are not a way around the landlord's own obligations (section 89-8-11). The writing requirement is part of the rule, so an unwritten pet rule is not enforceable as a rule. Unless otherwise agreed, the tenant is to occupy the dwelling unit only as a dwelling unit. Changing the rule mid-tenancy: A rule or regulation adopted or amended after the tenant enters into the rental agreement is enforceable against the tenant if reasonable notice of its adoption or amendment is given to the tenant and it does not work a substantial modification of the rental agreement (section 89-8-11). Both conditions must hold. Mississippi requires no consent from the tenant and gives the tenant no window to object, so whether a mid-tenancy no-pets rule or a new pet charge binds is an objective question decided after the fact.
Breed, size and weight restrictions	Yes. No Mississippi statute limits, authorizes or preempts a landlord's breed, size or weight rule. The word breed appears nowhere in either landlord-tenant chapter, and there is no assistance-animal carve-out from a breed rule because there is no assistance-animal housing rule at all. Mississippi also has no statute preempting a city breed ordinance and none expressly authorizing one by name: local animal control rides the general home-rule power, so a municipality or county may regulate the keeping of animals by ordinance so long as the ordinance is not inconsistent with state law.
Assistance animals: the state instrument and who it binds	No — no state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing; the federal rules alone apply. Mississippi has no state fair housing act and no housing assistance-animal provision of any kind — one of only three states in that position, and it is the most consequential fact on this page. A tenant who needs an assistance animal in Mississippi relies on the federal rules alone, which the federal section of the 50-state page carries. The state does have two assistance-animal statutes, and both are about public places rather than housing. The White Cane Law gives a totally or partially blind person and a deaf person the right to be accompanied by a guide dog or hearing ear dog on a blaze orange leash, especially trained for the purpose, in the places the access section lists, without being required to pay an extra charge for the dog, with the person liable for any damage the dog does to the premises or facilities (sections 43-6-5 and 43-6-7); denying or interfering with those public-facility rights is a misdemeanor carrying up to one hundred dollars or up to sixty days, or both (section 43-6-11). The Mississippi Support Animal Act gives a blind, mobility impaired or hearing impaired person, or an armed services veteran diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, who uses a specifically trained support animal, full and equal access to public conveyances, hotels, lodging places, businesses open to the public and other places to which the general public is invited, and bars charging a fee for the use of the animal as to the advantages provided in that section (section 43-6-155). Neither statute has a housing limb. A word of warning about the vocabulary: Mississippi's statutory term is support animal, and it is the state's word for a trained service animal — the definition requires individual training to do work or perform tasks directly related to the disability, says the term does not mean an animal considered a pet, and limits it to a dog or a miniature horse, while also saying the term includes therapeutic animals and comfort animals. That inclusion sits uneasily beside the training requirement and no court has resolved it; either way the rights it carries are public-place rights, so the housing answer is unaffected. Who it binds: No Mississippi instrument binds a landlord on animals at all. The landlord-tenant chapter binds every landlord of a dwelling unit under a post-July 1991 agreement, subject to its six arrangement exclusions and with no owner-occupied or unit-count exemption, but it says nothing about animals. The White Cane Law and the Support Animal Act bind places of public accommodation: their venue sections reach common carriers and other transportation, hotels, lodging places, businesses open to the public for the sale of goods or services, places of public accommodation, amusement or resort, and other places to which the general public is invited, and the penalty section reaches denial of those public facilities. Every coordinate limb was read, and the phrase rental residential housing appears in none of them; lodging places means transient accommodation, which the landlord-tenant chapter separately excludes. For a Mississippi tenant the accommodation duty is therefore the federal one, on its own terms and with its own exemptions, and the federal section of the 50-state page carries it.
What counts as an assistance animal	No state instrument defines an assistance animal for housing; the federal definitions are the only ones
Documentation a landlord may request, and what a certifier must meet	No state instrument sets a documentation standard; the federal rules alone apply. Mississippi states nothing about what a landlord may request, what a professional must certify, what a letter must contain, whether an online registration counts, or whether and when a landlord must answer. That is a finding rather than a gap: a search of every document in the Code for the assistance-animal terms returns nine documents in the whole of Mississippi law, each of which was opened, and not one of them is a housing provision or a documentation rule. No duty falls on the professional who writes a letter either — the professions and occupations title carries no animal text at all, so no Mississippi board may discipline anyone over one. A landlord in Mississippi asking what it may require gets the answer from the federal rules, not from state law.
Charges for an assistance animal	Under state law, yes — no state text bars a charge for an assistance animal; the federal rules alone govern it. No Mississippi statute bars a pet deposit, a pet fee or pet rent for an assistance animal in housing. Two clauses look as though they might and neither reaches a landlord. The White Cane Law's no-extra-charge rule for a guide dog or hearing ear dog applies only in the places its access section lists, and every limb of that list is a public place — transportation, hotels, lodging places, places of public accommodation, amusement or resort, and other places to which the general public is invited. The Support Animal Act's rule that no one may charge a fee for the use of the animal is expressly bounded by the advantages, facilities and privileges provided in that section, and that section's list is the same public-place list. A tenant's protection against a charge for an assistance animal in Mississippi comes from the federal rules, which the federal section of the 50-state page carries.
Damage caused by an assistance animal	No state text addresses damage caused by an assistance animal in housing.
Misrepresenting an assistance animal	None — no offense, penalty, forfeiture, eviction ground or licensing sanction exists. Mississippi has no misrepresentation offense, for housing or for public accommodations. There is nothing to point a reader at and nothing that stops at the door of a dwelling: the state simply has not made it an offense to pass a pet off as an assistance animal, and it places no sanction on anyone who writes a letter saying so. The Code's only animal offenses are harm and interference offenses. It is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to ninety days or up to five hundred dollars or both, willfully and maliciously to assault, beat, harass or injure a dog a person knows or has reason to believe is a guide or leader dog for a blind person, a hearing dog, a service dog or a support dog for a mobility impaired person, or to impede or interfere with the duties such a dog performs; malice is presumed, rebuttably, once the person has been asked to stop (section 97-41-21). A companion section covers injuring or killing a public service animal such as a police or fire animal. Neither reaches a false claim.
Can cities add their own rules	State law says nothing either way about local pet rules in housing. No Mississippi statute preempts or authorizes local regulation of pets in rental housing. Cities and counties run on general home rule: a municipality may adopt any order, resolution or ordinance about municipal affairs, property and finances that is not inconsistent with the state constitution, the Code or any other state law, and a county may do the same about county affairs where no specific provision has been made by general law and the ordinance is not inconsistent with state law. Those grants reach local animal control, which is where a city breed or keeping-of-animals ordinance would sit. One money limit is worth keeping separate: neither tier may regulate, directly or indirectly, the amount of rent charged for private residential property without prior legislative approval, and pet rent is rent — so a local pet-rent cap runs into that clause while a local pet-deposit or pet-fee cap does not, because the clause names rent alone. Fair-housing devolution does not arise: there is no state fair housing act to defer to a local one, and nothing in state law would give a local fair-housing ordinance that status. No Mississippi city carries a pet-in-housing ordinance page on this site. Local rent control barred: Neither a municipality nor a county may, without prior legislative approval, regulate directly or indirectly the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property in which it has no property interest. The clause names rent alone, so a local cap on pet rent would need that approval while a local cap on a pet deposit or a pet fee would not be touched by it. Text: Miss. Code Ann. § 21-17-5 · (2)(h). Local rent control barred, a second instrument: A county may not, without prior legislative approval, regulate directly or indirectly the amount of rent charged for leasing private residential property in which the county has no property interest; the clause names rent alone. Text: Miss. Code Ann. § 19-3-40 · (3)(g).
Housing classes with their own pet rule	No manufactured-home park, publicly financed, public-housing or senior-housing rule departs from the answers above
Insurance and dog breeds	No statute restricts an insurer's use of dog breed in underwriting
How state law refers to the federal rules	State law adds nothing to, and refers to nothing in, the federal rules
Changes already signed into law	No signed act is waiting to change these answers
Leading court decisions	None carried — the answers rest on the statutes and rules cited

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Mississippi Pet & Assistance Animal Laws (verified September 21, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/pets/mississippi/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Mississippi assistance-animal documentation at a glance

No state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing, so no row below is a state rule; the federal rules further down this page are the only ones. The full text of each slot, with its section, is in the table above.

Slot	What the state's text says
Who may certify, and on what test	Not stated
The certifier's minimum relationship period	Not stated
Telehealth	Not stated
Online registration or certificate	Not stated
Form	Not stated
Medical records	Not stated
Written answer from the landlord	Not stated
Annual re-evaluation	Not stated
Proof of vaccination or licensing	Not stated

Federal law on pets and assistance animals, in every state

The federal layer for the pets and assistance-animals topic, carried once for the whole site. It is a dated history rather than a single rule: the Fair Housing Act's accommodation duty has not changed since 1988 and the regulation under it has never contained the word animal, while the HUD guidance that most writing on this subject still quotes was withdrawn in September 2025, permanently rescinded in May 2026, and replaced by an enforcement position that governs HUD's own cause determinations and nothing else. Every row names who it binds, and most of the rows that carry real figures bind only federally assisted, public or rural-development housing. No state record restates these rows; a state record says only where its own law references or extends them. Each row below says who it binds before it says what it does. The full text of each row, with its citations, is on the 50-state page.

Every housing provider the Fair Housing Act covers: Fair Housing Act: the reasonable-accommodation duty and who it reaches (in force).
Every housing provider the Fair Housing Act covers: HUD's reasonable-accommodation regulation, and the absence of any animal rule in it (in force).
Every housing provider the Fair Housing Act covers: Charging for an assistance animal: the two general clauses the question runs through (in force).
No one — withdrawn guidance: HUD's 2013 service and assistance animals notice: withdrawn September 17, 2025 (withdrawn).
No one — rescinded guidance: HUD's 2020 assistance animals notice: withdrawn September 17, 2025 and permanently rescinded May 22, 2026 (rescinded).
No one — it states HUD's own enforcement position and binds no landlord or tenant: HUD's May 22, 2026 enforcement memorandum: what HUD will and will not pursue (an enforcement position, not law).
No one — no rule has been proposed: The rulemaking the May 2026 memorandum promises: not proposed (not proposed).
Public entities and public accommodations, not housing providers as such: The Americans with Disabilities Act definition of a service animal, which HUD now borrows in part (in force).
Owners of federally assisted rental housing for the elderly or for persons with disabilities: Pets in federally assisted housing for the elderly or persons with disabilities (in force).
Public housing agencies: Pets in public housing that is not designated for the elderly or persons with disabilities (in force).
Recipients of federal financial assistance for housing: Section 504: HUD-funded housing and the duty to modify housing policies (in force).
Owners of Rural Development multifamily housing: Rural Development multifamily housing: a pet deposit cap and no deposit for an assistance animal (in force).
The parties to the case: United States v. Five Properties, LLC: the open federal case on an emotional support animal (litigation).
The parties to the case: Henderson v. Five Properties, LLC: the closed private case, and how far it reaches (litigation).
No one — no such federal duty exists: Breed, size and weight limits on an assistance animal: no federal rule either way.

Notes and caveats

No cap and no pet-money statute — Mississippi has no pet-deposit, pet-rent or pet-fee statute and no deposit cap of any kind, so the amounts are whatever the lease says. A term search across every document in the Mississippi Code for the pet-money terms returns nothing in housing at all.
The label on the charge decides which rules apply — Money whose primary function is to secure performance of the lease is governed by the deposit section, whatever it is called. A charge whose primary function is something else, such as a non-refundable pet fee, falls outside it — and so outside the forty-five-day return clock, the itemized written notice and the bad-faith damages. Money taken to secure the signing of the agreement, including advance rent, is also outside.
A deposit taken for pet damage may be claimed only for that — The landlord may claim against a deposit only such amounts as are reasonably necessary for rent default, repair of tenant damage beyond ordinary wear and tear, cleaning at the end of the tenancy, or other reasonable and necessary expenses of the default — and only if the deposit was made for one or more of those specific purposes. On the face of the section, a deposit taken expressly for pet damage is claimable only for that.
A landlord's pet rule must be written and must be fair to everyone — Landlord rules about the use and occupancy of the premises must be written, and bind the tenant only if their purpose is the tenants' convenience, safety or welfare, preserving the property from abuse or distributing services fairly; only if they are reasonably related to that purpose; only if they apply to all tenants in the premises in a fair manner; only if they are explicit enough to tell the tenant what to do; and only if they are not a way around the landlord's own obligations.
A pet rule added after the lease is signed — It binds the tenant only if reasonable notice of it is given and it does not work a substantial modification of the rental agreement. Mississippi requires no consent from the tenant and gives no window to object, so whether a new no-pets rule or pet charge sticks is judged objectively after the fact.
No state assistance-animal rule for housing — Mississippi has no state fair housing act and no housing assistance-animal provision, so the reasonable-accommodation right for a tenant here comes from the federal rules alone. A Fair Housing Act bill has been introduced and killed in committee four times in two sessions, and the most recent version carried no animal word even so.
The guide-dog and support-animal statutes are public-places law — Both of Mississippi's no-charge clauses are bounded by lists of public places — transportation, hotels, lodging places, businesses open to the public, and other places to which the general public is invited. Neither list has a housing limb, so neither clause stops a landlord charging for an assistance animal. Lodging places means transient accommodation, which the landlord-tenant chapter separately excludes.
Support animal means something narrower than it sounds — Mississippi's statutory term is support animal, and it is the state's word for a trained service animal: the definition requires individual training to do work or perform tasks directly related to the disability, says the term does not mean an animal considered a pet, and limits it to a dog or a miniature horse. The same subsection also says the term includes therapeutic and comfort animals, which sits uneasily with the training requirement and has not been resolved. Either way the rights are public-place rights, so the housing answer does not change.
No documentation rule, and no duty on a letter-writer — No Mississippi text says what a landlord may ask for, who may certify, whether a form or medical records may be required, whether an online certificate counts, or when a landlord must answer. No licensing board in the state carries an assistance-animal duty, so none may discipline anyone over a letter. A landlord's answer on what it may require comes from the federal rules.
No offense for faking an assistance animal — Mississippi has none, in housing or in public accommodations, and places no sanction on anyone who writes a letter. The only animal offenses in the Code punish willfully and maliciously harming or interfering with a working dog, a misdemeanor carrying up to ninety days or five hundred dollars or both, and injuring or killing a public service animal.
Damage by an animal — No Mississippi provision makes a tenant liable for damage by an assistance animal in housing, and there is no landlord immunity clause. The general duty is that the tenant must not deliberately or negligently destroy, deface, damage, impair or remove any part of the premises or knowingly permit another person to do so, and the deposit may be claimed for repairing damage the tenant caused beyond ordinary wear and tear. In public places the guide-dog statute says expressly that the person is liable for damage the dog does.
Breed, size and weight — No Mississippi statute limits or authorizes a landlord's breed, size or weight rule, and none preempts a city breed ordinance. Local animal control rides the general home-rule power, so a municipality or county may regulate the keeping of animals by ordinance so long as it is not inconsistent with state law.
Local ordinances — Mississippi cities and counties run on general home rule and nothing in state law either grants or denies them power over pets in rental housing. One limit is worth knowing: neither may regulate, directly or indirectly, the amount of rent charged for private residential property without prior legislative approval, and pet rent is rent. A local cap on a pet deposit or a pet fee is not caught by that clause, which names rent alone.
Deposits and manufactured-home lots — The deposit return clock, the itemized notice and the bad-faith damages are on the security-deposits page. Mississippi has no separate manufactured-home park tenancy act, so a park tenancy runs on the same landlord-tenant chapters and there is no park pet rule to state.
Insurance — No Mississippi insurance statute names a dog, a breed, a canine or an animal, so nothing bars an insurer from underwriting on breed.
Court decisions — No Mississippi decision is relied on here. The opinion archive could not be searched within this check and the state courts' own site offers no full-text opinion search, so nothing is claimed about Mississippi case law in either direction.
Federal rules — The Fair Housing Act, the federal regulations and the rules for assisted and public housing are on the federal section of the 50-state page, and in Mississippi they are not an overlay but the whole answer. No Mississippi statute or rule adopts any federal instrument by reference, and the state adds no floor of its own, so if the federal position moves, the Mississippi answer moves with it.
Legislation — Nothing enacted in 2023, 2024, 2025 or 2026 touches pets, assistance animals, breed, pet deposits or pet fees in housing. The security-deposit section has stood unamended since 1991, the landlord's-rules section since 2022, and the guide-dog and support-animal sections since 2018. The 2026 session adjourned April 15, 2026 with no carryover, and the next session convenes in January 2027.

Common questions: Mississippi pets & assistance animals

Each answer is the verified value from the table above, restated as a direct answer. Free to quote with a link to this page.

Can a landlord charge a pet deposit in Mississippi, and is there a limit?: Yes, with no statutory limit. No Mississippi statute mentions a pet deposit, and Mississippi caps no deposit of any kind, so the amount is whatever the lease says.
Can a landlord charge pet rent or a non-refundable pet fee in Mississippi?: Yes — no statute caps, authorizes or forbids pet rent or a pet fee. Mississippi law does not cap, bar or condition pet rent or a pet fee, and the search of every document in the Code for the pet-money terms returns nothing in housing at all.
Does a Mississippi lease have to state a pet policy?: No — but a written-rules or mid-term-change provision would govern a pet rule the landlord adopts. No Mississippi statute requires a lease to say whether pets are allowed, supplies a default when the lease is silent, limits the number, size or occupancy of animals, or makes any class of housing accept pets.
Can a Mississippi landlord restrict pets by breed, size or weight?: Yes. No Mississippi statute limits, authorizes or preempts a landlord's breed, size or weight rule.
Does Mississippi have its own assistance-animal law for rentals?: No — no state instrument reaches assistance animals in housing; the federal rules alone apply. Mississippi has no state fair housing act and no housing assistance-animal provision of any kind — one of only three states in that position, and it is the most consequential fact on this page.
What documentation can a Mississippi landlord ask for when a tenant requests an assistance animal?: No state instrument sets a documentation standard; the federal rules alone apply. Mississippi states nothing about what a landlord may request, what a professional must certify, what a letter must contain, whether an online registration counts, or whether and when a landlord must answer.
Can a Mississippi landlord charge a pet deposit or pet rent for an emotional support animal?: Under state law, yes — no state text bars a charge for an assistance animal; the federal rules alone govern it. No Mississippi statute bars a pet deposit, a pet fee or pet rent for an assistance animal in housing.
What is the penalty for falsely claiming an assistance animal in Mississippi?: None — no offense, penalty, forfeiture, eviction ground or licensing sanction exists. Mississippi has no misrepresentation offense, for housing or for public accommodations.

Citations

Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-21 · (1)–(4) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-11 · (1)–(4) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-3 · (1), (2) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-5 (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-7 · (1)(a), (1)(d) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-9 (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 89-8-25 · (e), (f) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 43-6-5 (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 43-6-7 (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 43-6-11 (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 43-6-153 · (a)–(f) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 43-6-155 · (1)–(3) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 97-41-21 · (1)–(3) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 97-41-23 · (1)–(6) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 21-17-5 · (1), (2)(h) (verified 2026) Official source
Miss. Code Ann. § 19-3-40 · (1), (3)(g) (verified 2026) Official source
S.B. 2799 (2016), enrolled act amending § 21-17-5 (verified 2026) Official source
H.B. 89 (2026), Mississippi Fair Housing Act, died in committee (verified 2026) Official source
Report of All Measures, 2026 Regular Session (verified 2026) Official source
Mississippi Administrative Code (Secretary of State) (verified 2026) Official source

How this record was verified: Direct reading of the Mississippi Code of 1972 Annotated on the State's own public-access code service, whose documents carry the line current with legislation from the 2026 Regular and First Extraordinary Sessions, together with a copy of Title 89 chapters 7 and 8 taken section by section from the same service on August 20, 2026, all 87 section documents, each carrying the line current with legislation from the 2026 Regular Session. Those two chapters — the whole of Mississippi's landlord and tenant law — were read end to end and every animal, pet and money term run over them. Sections 43-6-3, 43-6-5, 43-6-7 and 43-6-11 of the White Cane Law, sections 43-6-153 and 43-6-155 of the Mississippi Support Animal Act and section 97-41-21 of the criminal code were read in full on the same service, and two term searches were run across every document in the Code: one for the seven assistance-animal terms, which returned nine documents in the entire Code, each of which was opened, and one for the pet-money terms and reasonable accommodation, which returned four, none of them a housing provision. The Legislature's own site supplied the rest: the per-section enactment index was read for nine code sections across fourteen sessions from 2013 to 2026, the Reports of All Measures for 2025 and 2026 were read whole, 3,811 and 4,116 measures with each measure's last action, and five bill and enrolled-act PDFs were read in full, including the 2016 act that last amended the municipal home-rule section and the 2012 act that last amended the county one. The Mississippi Administrative Code was queried through the Secretary of State's own service for the five agencies that could hold a housing or disability rule. The state opinion archive could not be searched: the shared daily quota on the opinion service was exhausted before the first query returned, and the state courts' own site serves no full-text opinion search, so nothing is claimed about Mississippi case law either way. Title 83, the insurance title, was searched in full text on the State's official public-access code service for breed, canine, dog and animal, with a control term confirming the search reached the title.

What was read to state each absence on this page:

The landlord-tenant chapter: Miss. Code Ann. Title 89 chapters 7 and 8, the whole of Mississippi's landlord and tenant law, read end to end in 87 section documents taken from the State's own public-access code service, each carrying its currency line. Sections 89-8-3, 89-8-5, 89-8-7, 89-8-9, 89-8-11, 89-8-21, 89-8-25 and 89-8-39 read for values. There is no definitions clause for a security deposit anywhere in the chapter — the definitions section runs from building and housing codes to qualified tenant management organizations and defines no such term — so the function test inside section 89-8-21 does that work. Section 89-8-21 has stood unamended since 1991; sections 89-8-3 and 89-8-7 were last touched in 2025 by amendments carrying no animal text.
The civil-rights, fair-housing or disability-rights title: There is none to read: Mississippi has no state fair housing act. That is established positively rather than by absence. The Legislature's Reports of All Measures for 2025 and 2026 were read whole, and a Mississippi Fair Housing Act was introduced and died in committee four times across the two sessions; the 2026 House version was read in full from the official bill PDF and would have covered religion, race, color, national origin, sex, disability and familial status, with exemptions for a building of not more than two units and for rooms in a single-family house, and it contains no animal word at all. Because no act confers fair-housing rulemaking authority, no agency holds it.
Health, professional-licensing and criminal titles: Title 43 chapter 6, blind and disabled persons: article 1, the White Cane Law, sections 43-6-3, 43-6-5, 43-6-7 and 43-6-11, and article 5, the Mississippi Support Animal Act, sections 43-6-151, 43-6-153 and 43-6-155, all read in full on the State's own code service. Title 73, professions and occupations, returned no hit at all on the term search run across every document in the Code, so no licensing board carries an assistance-animal duty and none may discipline a letter-writer. Title 97, crimes: chapter 41 sections 97-41-21 and 97-41-23 read in full, and the term search returns no animal text anywhere in Title 97 outside chapter 41. The per-section enactment index shows no measure touching sections 43-6-7, 43-6-151, 43-6-153 or 97-41-21 in any session from 2019 to 2026, and the single 2026 measure touching section 43-6-155 died in committee.
Administrative code: The Mississippi Administrative Code as the Secretary of State's own service publishes it, covering 145 agencies; the service prints no code-wide currency line, only a last-amended and an effective date per part. The five agencies that could plausibly hold a housing or disability rule were queried: the Mississippi Development Authority with eleven parts, the Department of Human Services with twenty-nine, Rehabilitation Services with nine, the Mississippi Home Corporation, which files none at all, and the Department of Insurance with nine. Not one part matches any animal, dog, pet, breed, fair-housing or accommodation term beyond six benefit-program manuals at Human Services. No agency has fair-housing rulemaking authority because no act confers it.
Local-government and animal-control titles: Title 21, municipalities, and Title 19, counties, read for every assistance-animal and pet-money term with no hit of any kind. The two home-rule sections were read on the official enrolled acts that last amended them, the 2016 Senate act for section 21-17-5 and the 2012 House act for section 19-3-40, and the per-section enactment index was run to prove those were the last amendments: every later measure touching either section died in committee or on the calendar. The rent clause in each was read in full. Mississippi's local animal-control sections were located but not read on the official service, and no value here rests on them, because neither title carries any assistance-animal or pet-money term.
The terms searched and where: Terms run over Title 89 chapters 7 and 8 in full and, through the code service's own search, over every document in the Mississippi Code: animal, dog, guide dog, service animal, service dog, hearing ear dog, assistance animal, support animal, emotional support, companion, pet, pets, pet deposit, pet fee, pet rent, household pet, breed, reasonable accommodation, nonrefundable, non-refundable, preempt and ordinance. In the two landlord-tenant chapters every one of those terms returns zero, except a single use of the word ordinance inside the definition of building and housing codes: Mississippi's entire landlord and tenant law contains no animal word. Across the whole Code the assistance-animal terms return nine documents — the two White Cane Law access sections, the three Support Animal Act sections, the two criminal animal sections, a pedestrian right-of-way section and one false hit in an emergency-medical certification section — and every one was opened; none is a housing provision. The pet-money terms and reasonable accommodation return four documents across the whole Code, none of them housing. One term was not run across the insurance title: breed. The insurance answer is therefore carried as unproved rather than claimed, and the Department of Insurance's nine administrative parts match no animal or breed term.