Can a Tenant With Special Needs Request Accommodations to Your Property?

Yes. Under the federal Fair Housing Act, a tenant or applicant with a disability can ask you to change a rule, policy, or service (a reasonable accommodation) or let them make a physical change to the unit or common areas (a reasonable modification). If your rental is covered by the Act, you must approve a request that is tied to the disability unless it would impose an undue financial and administrative burden or change the basic nature of how you operate. Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units are generally exempt from these federal requirements, but state or local law may still require accommodation.

In private rentals, you generally cover the cost of an accommodation, and the tenant usually pays for a modification. Federal funding rules, state law, or missing legally required accessibility features can shift modification costs to you.

What can a tenant ask for?

An accommodation changes how you run the property. Examples from HUD's rules and HUD and Justice Department guidance:

• Reserving an accessible parking space near the tenant's door when spaces are normally first come, first served.
• Letting a friend mail the rent for a tenant whose mental disability makes leaving home difficult, when your policy is payment in person.
• Helping an applicant with a vision impairment fill out the rental application.
• Allowing a guide dog or other trained assistance animal in a no-pets building.
• Allowing a motorized scooter inside a building that bans motorized vehicles.
• Assigning a mailbox the tenant can reach without bending.

A modification is a structural change. Common examples are grab bars in a bathroom, a ramp to the entrance, widened doorways for a wheelchair, lowered kitchen cabinets, and an altered walkway to a laundry room or other common area.

A request does not have to be in writing, use the words "reasonable accommodation," or come from the tenant personally. A family member or caseworker can ask for them. You must consider a request that skips your preferred form, and an undue delay in answering can count as a denial.

What documentation can you ask for?

It depends on what is already obvious or known to you:

The proof can come from the tenant, such as evidence that someone under 65 receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), or a credible statement. It can also come from a doctor, a peer support group, a non-medical service agency, or another reliable third party who knows about the disability. You generally may not ask for a diagnosis or medical records, and you must keep what you receive confidential, sharing it only with people who need it to decide the request.

Who pays for the change?

Accommodations: you do, unless the cost is an undue financial and administrative burden. You may not charge an extra fee or deposit as a condition of granting one. If an approved accommodation causes damage, such as a scooter that scrapes a hallway, you can charge for the repair the same way you charge any tenant for damage.

Modifications: the tenant usually pays. You may be responsible for correcting accessibility features legally required when the building was constructed. State law can also shift the cost: Massachusetts generally requires owners of buildings or contiguous housing with 10 or more units to pay for reasonable modifications, subject to undue-hardship limits.

If your property receives federal financial assistance, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act generally requires you to pay for structural changes as well. Accepting a tenant's Housing Choice Voucher payments does not by itself make you subject to that rule.

You may require:

1. A reasonable description of the planned work before it starts.
2. Reasonable assurance that the work will be done competently.
3. Any building permits the work needs.

You may not require a larger security deposit, extra liability insurance, or your own contractor, and you cannot insist that the tenant move to another unit instead.

At move-out, you can require the tenant to restore the interior to its prior condition, minus normal wear and tear, where that is reasonable and you ask for it. Removing grab bars and patching the wall is reasonable, but removing the reinforcement inside the wall is not, and narrowing a widened doorway usually is not either. In limited cases where you need assurance that restoration money will be there, you can negotiate payments into an interest-bearing escrow account, capped at the restoration cost, with the interest going to the tenant.

When can you deny a request?

You can say no when:

• The person is not disabled under the law, or the request is not made for someone who is.
• There is no link between the disability and the change requested.
• The cost would be an undue financial and administrative burden. That is judged case by case, using the cost, your financial resources, the benefit to the tenant, and whether a cheaper alternative would work.
• It would change the basic nature of your operations, such as driving a tenant to the grocery store when you offer no transportation.
• The tenancy would be a direct threat to others' health or safety, or would cause substantial damage to others' property, and no accommodation can reduce the risk. That must be judged on objective evidence about the person.

Before you deny, talk with the tenant about an alternative. HUD and Justice Department guidance gives the example of a small landlord whose maintenance staff are on site twice a week and cannot collect a tenant's trash daily. Placing an open trash can where the tenant can reach it may meet the need instead. If an alternative works and is reasonable, you must grant it, but the tenant can decline an alternative that does not meet their needs when their original request is reasonable. Put your decision and any alternative in writing.

The standard for denying an applicant outright is covered in whether you can refuse to lease to a person with a disability.

How do assistance animal requests work after HUD's 2025 and 2026 changes?

HUD withdrew its 2013 and 2020 assistance animal notices effective September 17, 2025. Those notices had told landlords to accept untrained emotional support animals without pet fees. In a May 22, 2026 enforcement memo, HUD said:

• It will find cause on a complaint about a refused pet-policy waiver only when the animal is individually trained to do work or tasks related to the person's disability.
• Requests to waive pet rules for trained animals are presumed reasonable. Requests for untrained emotional support animals are not.
• Its new standard does not cover complaints under Section 504 or the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Tenants can still sue in federal or state court within two years, whatever HUD decides.

HUD's regulation still uses a guide dog in a no-pets building as a required accommodation, so trained animals remain covered. State law can also protect untrained support animals:

• California: the Civil Rights Department said in July 2026 that state law still requires landlords to accommodate emotional support animals whether or not they are trained, including waiving no-pets rules, pet fees, and breed restrictions.
• Florida: an emotional support animal request must be accommodated when the disability-related need is supported. You may ask for reliable documentation, such as information from a licensed health care provider, and proof of licensing and vaccination, but not a diagnosis or medical records. An online registration or certificate is not enough on its own. You cannot charge extra for the animal, but the tenant is liable for damage it causes.

Evaluate support-animal requests case by case under the Fair Housing Act, applicable court decisions, and state or local law. HUD's enforcement position does not bind courts or eliminate potential federal protection for untrained support animals. The law on renting to pet owners covers the pet rules these requests ask you to waive.

Disability is one of several protected classes in screening and leasing; see what counts as unlawful discrimination and the qualities that make a good tenant.