Landlord Atlas

Austin, Texas: pet and assistance-animal laws

Verified October 1, 2026 Texas pet and assistance-animal law →

Austin does not limit what a landlord may charge for a pet, but since October 1, 2026 it has required large rental providers to put every mandatory fee in writing before a tenant applies.

Cited to Austin City Code ch. 4-14, Art. 4 (Fee Disclosure), §§ 4-14-140 to 4-14-149 4-14-141(A)(4)–(7), (B), 4-14-142(A)–(D), 4-14-143(B), 4-14-149(A)–(D) and 6 more cited sources · Verified October 1, 2026

The city's fee-disclosure article never says the word pet; it reaches pet money by definition. A required monthly pet rent or a one-time pet fee is a mandatory fee, an optional pet amenity is an optional fee, and both must be itemized with their amounts in a written disclosure given at the earlier of the rent quote or before an application, while an advertisement that mentions the cost to rent must also state any mandatory recurring fixed fee. The duty binds a provider of five or more dwellings, or of mobile home or recreational vehicle spaces, starting with providers of 50 or more dwellings on October 1, 2026 and reaching everyone else in scope on January 1, 2027. Breaking it is a Class C misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500 and no need to prove intent, and there is no tenant remedy. Austin sets no pet deposit cap, no pet rent cap, no bar on a non-refundable pet fee and no breed, size or weight rule, and it adds no assistance-animal rule of its own.

Austin pet law at a glance

What the local law is called Rental housing fee disclosure
Status In force — binding from October 1, 2026 — fully from January 1, 2027
Who it binds Providers of five or more dwellings, phased in by size from October 1, 2026.
Pet deposit No local rule
Pet rent No local rule
Non-refundable pet fee No local rule
Breed rule No local rule on breed
In the lease A disclosure duty that reaches pet charges
In the published code Yes — cited to the published compilation

Cite this page: "Landlord Atlas, Austin, Texas: pet and assistance-animal laws (verified October 1, 2026), landlordatlas.com/laws/pets/texas/austin/" — free to cite and quote with a link (how these records are verified and what the topic covers). Everything above is cited in the citations section below.

Whether it is in force

The ordinance took effect October 1, 2026 and phases in on two fixed dates. Since October 1, 2026 it has applied to a person who rents, leases or manages 50 or more dwellings used as a residence. From January 1, 2027 it applies to everyone else it reaches, meaning a person who rents, leases or manages fewer than 50 dwellings and a person who rents spaces for mobile homes or recreational vehicles. Until then a smaller provider is not bound.

Where a change in this status would appear: Austin City Code ch. 4-14, Art. 4 (Fee Disclosure) — §§ 4-14-140 to 4-14-149, with the source lines.

What would change it

One date and one document. January 1, 2027 brings every provider in scope. A provider who uses a disclosure form the accountable official sets by administrative rule under chapter 1-2, and fills it out accurately, is presumed to comply. The city's Equity and Inclusion department, which states that it enforces the ordinance, has posted a standard disclosure form; the page does not say whether the form was adopted by administrative rule. Separately, the Supreme Court of Texas has before it a petition for review in City of Houston v. State of Texas, No. 26-0521, on the 2023 law that preempts city ordinances in fields the Property Code occupies, with the State's response due October 7, 2026.

The instrument

Ordinance No. 20260528-045, passed and approved May 28, 2026, added Article 4, Fee Disclosure, to City Code chapter 4-14 as sections 4-14-140 through 4-14-149. Part 4 of the ordinance sets its effective date at October 1, 2026 and Part 3 phases in who it applies to. The text is printed in the city's published code, where every section of Article 4 carries the source line for Ordinance No. 20260528-045, Part 2, dated October 1, 2026.

Who it binds

The article binds a provider, meaning a person who leases, rents or manages five or more dwellings owned by one person and used as a residence, or spaces for mobile homes or recreational vehicles. Within that group the duty starts with providers of 50 or more dwellings on October 1, 2026 and reaches the rest on January 1, 2027. It is not limited to publicly financed or income-restricted housing, and it is not a protected-class rule.

Which leases it reaches

The duty does not turn on the date a lease begins. It attaches at the earlier of the moment the provider gives a customer information about the amount of rent or the moment before the customer submits an application, and separately to any advertisement that refers to the cost to rent.

Pet deposit

Austin sets no pet deposit rule, and Texas caps no deposit at all, so the amount a landlord may ask for a pet is whatever the lease says. What the city adds is disclosure: once the article binds a provider, a pet charge the tenant must pay has to be stated in writing, with its amount, before the tenant applies. Whether a refundable pet damage deposit is itself a fee within the article is arguable, because the article excludes charges assessed for tenant-caused damage, and the city has not resolved the question.

Pet rent

The city sets no cap on monthly pet rent. Where the lease requires it, pet rent is a mandatory recurring fixed fee under section 4-14-141, so it belongs in the written disclosure with its amount, and an advertisement that mentions the cost to rent must state it along with the rent.

Non-refundable pet fee

A one-time non-refundable pet fee is lawful in Austin and in Texas and is not capped. It is a mandatory one-time fee under section 4-14-141, so it must appear with its amount in the written disclosure given at the earlier of the rent quote or before an application. A pet amenity a tenant may decline is an optional fee and is listed as well, with its amount.

Breed, size and weight

Austin has no breed, size or weight rule for rental housing. Chapter 4-14 says nothing about breed, and the city's animal title is about licensing, leashes and dangerous dogs rather than tenancies. State law also bars a city from making its dangerous-dog rules breed-specific, under Health and Safety Code section 822.047.

What the lease must, or may not, say

Section 4-14-142 requires a written, itemized disclosure of the total fees due during the lease term, given at the earlier of the moment the provider gives the customer information about the amount of rent or before the customer submits an application. It must state the amount of each mandatory and optional fee and an estimate of the variable fees, and it may be delivered electronically or by hand. Section 4-14-143 adds that an advertisement referring to the cost to rent must state the rent and any mandatory recurring fixed fees within the advertisement itself. Pet charges are reached by definition rather than by name: a required monthly pet rent or a one-time pet fee is a mandatory fee, an optional pet amenity is an optional fee, and both sit inside the total fees that must be itemized. The article never mentions pets, and charges assessed for tenant-caused damage or lease violations are outside it.

Assistance animals

The article carves nothing out for assistance animals, because it sets no pet charge rule to carve from; it reaches every mandatory fee, and a charge a landlord may not lawfully make for an assistance animal does not become lawful by being disclosed. The city's civil-rights title carries no service-animal, assistance-animal or support-animal provision, only a duty to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices or services where they may be necessary to let a person with a disability use and enjoy a dwelling. What a landlord may charge and what a landlord may ask for an assistance animal are answered by the Texas page and the federal rules.

Who enforces it and how

The accountable official, an officer or employee the city manager designates, administers and enforces the article; the city's Equity and Inclusion department states that it enforces the ordinance and takes complaints. A provider who violates it or allows another to violate it commits a Class C misdemeanor under section 4-14-149, punishable under section 1-1-99 by a fine of up to $500, and no culpable mental state need be proved. A provider who uses the accountable official's disclosure form and fills it out accurately is presumed to comply. It is an affirmative defense that the advertisement or listing was displayed without the provider's consent. The article creates no private right of action and no tenant remedy.

How this fits with Texas law

Texas preempts city ordinances in occupied fields. Property Code section 1.004, added by House Bill 2127 in 2023, says a municipality may not adopt, enforce or maintain an ordinance regulating conduct in a field of regulation occupied by that code unless another statute expressly authorizes it, and that such an ordinance is void and unenforceable; the only worked example in the section is eviction regulation. Property Code chapter 92 governs residential tenancies and carries fee-disclosure provisions of its own at sections 92.0191, 92.110 and 92.111. No Texas court has applied section 1.004 to a fee-disclosure ordinance; the one judgment holding House Bill 2127 unconstitutional was reversed on standing, a petition for review is pending in the Supreme Court of Texas, and the city is proceeding to implement the article. Texas itself has no pet statute and caps no deposit, so the state page's answer on pet money is that nothing limits it.

Notes and caveats

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.

Citations

How this record was verified: The signed ordinance was read in full from the City Clerk's document system, including its findings in Exhibit A, its two applicability parts and its effective-date part, and the adoption date was taken from its signature block. City Code chapter 4-14 was read in full from the code publisher's own service for the city and the published Article 4 text was compared line by line with the signed ordinance; the edition line read beside it says the code is codified through Ordinance No. 20260521-050, effective June 1, 2026, Supplement 174, and the job record shows the compilation tracking Council action to August 26, 2026. Title 1 section 1-1-99 was read for the penalty the article points at, and the whole of Title 5, the city's civil-rights title, was read for any assistance-animal rule. The city's own legislation records were opened and publish no enactment number or date. For the state overlay, Texas Property Code section 1.004 and chapter 92 were read in full on the Legislature's own service on September 21, 2026, with chapter 1 of the Business and Commerce Code and chapter 1 of the Local Government Code read for any parallel preemption section.

What was read to state each absence on this page: City Code chapter 4-14 was read in full, together with Title 1 section 1-1-99, the whole of Title 5 (the civil-rights title) and the signed ordinance including Exhibit A. The terms run over them were pet, pets, animal, dog, guide dog, hearing dog, service dog, service animal, assistance animal, support animal, emotional support, companion animal, breed, weight, size, deposit, fee, nonrefundable, registration and certificate. Chapter 4-14 carries no occurrence of pet, pets, animal, breed or deposit; Title 5 carries no occurrence of assistance animal, service animal or support animal, and its fair-housing chapter carries only the reasonable-accommodation clause. The word pet appears nowhere in the ordinance, including the seventeen fee types Exhibit A lists. Texas Property Code chapter 92 was read in full for the state overlay: no occurrence of pet or pets, one of animal (section 92.013, a dangerous animal in a notice-delivery clause) and none of advertising.

This page records Austin's own law on pets and assistance animals in rentals. The statewide position — Texas sets no limit on a pet deposit or pet rent, because it caps no security deposit at all and has no pet statute of any kind — lives on the Texas pets and assistance-animals page with its own citations and verification date.