Renewals
ESA Letter Renewal in Texas
No federal rule makes an ESA letter expire. Most Texas landlords behave as though one does. Both things are true at once, and the gap between them is what this page is about.
Does the letter expire?
Not as a matter of law. Neither the Fair Housing Act nor HUD’s guidance sets an expiry date on assistance animal documentation, and no Texas statute imposes one. A letter written two years ago does not become invalid on an anniversary.
What it can become is stale. The letter says a licensed professional formed a judgment about your circumstances on a particular date. The further that date recedes, the more reasonable it becomes for a housing provider to ask whether the need still exists, because the letter no longer speaks to your current situation.
Why landlords ask anyway
Texas property managers commonly ask for documentation dated within the last twelve months. That convention is not written in law, and a landlord who refuses an accommodation purely because a letter is thirteen months old is on shaky ground. In practice, though, arguing that point costs you weeks and goodwill over something a short renewal resolves in an afternoon.
Our advice is unglamorous: keep current documentation, and save the legal argument for a fight worth having. If a landlord is demanding something genuinely improper — your diagnosis, your records, a registration number — that is a fight worth having, and our accommodation request page covers how.
When you actually need a new one
| Situation | New letter needed? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lease renewal at the same property | Often | Many Texas managers re-verify at renewal, even where the animal has lived there a year |
| Moving to a new property | Yes, in practice | A new housing provider has no history with you and will want current documentation |
| New management company takes over | Usually | Files are frequently lost in a transition, and new staff re-ask |
| You add an animal | Yes | Each animal needs its own disability-related justification |
| Your animal dies and you get another | Yes | The letter connects a specific animal to your condition |
| Nothing has changed and nobody has asked | No | There is no obligation to renew on a schedule |
Does renewal mean a new evaluation?
Yes. A renewal is not a reprint with a fresh date on it, and any service offering that is selling you a document its author cannot honestly sign. A therapist attesting that you currently have a disability-related need for an animal has to know that it is currently true.
The good news is that a renewal appointment is usually shorter than a first evaluation, because the therapist is confirming continuity rather than establishing a picture from nothing. The questions are about what has changed: your symptoms, your treatment, your housing, and whether the animal still does what the original letter said it did.
Renewals are priced the same as a first letter. We do not run a discounted “re-issue” tier, because that would imply the second letter involves less professional judgment than the first.
If something has changed
Tell the therapist plainly. Renewals are where people are most tempted to smooth things over, and it is exactly the wrong instinct.
- You are doing better. Genuinely good news, and it does not automatically end your need. Many people are stable because of an arrangement that includes the animal. Say that; a therapist can address it.
- You are doing worse. Also worth saying, and it may mean the appropriate next step is treatment rather than a letter. We will point you toward it.
- The animal has changed. A different animal means a different connection to your condition, and the letter has to speak to the animal you actually have.
- Your housing has changed. Moving from an apartment to an HOA community or from a private rental into student or military housing changes who decides. See housing situations.
If a landlord demands one every few months
Repeated re-verification can itself become a problem. A housing provider is entitled to reliable documentation of a disability-related need. It is not entitled to use a documentation demand as a recurring obstacle, and a pattern of requests every quarter, or demands for updates each time staff change, starts to look like harassment rather than diligence.
Put your response in writing, reference the date of the documentation already on file, and ask what specifically has changed to make it insufficient. If the demands continue, the routes are the Civil Rights Division of the Texas Workforce Commission, HUD, and the legal aid organisation covering your county — each of which is listed on your city page.
Keep the file
The tenants who never have renewal trouble are the ones who kept the paperwork. In one folder, digital or physical:
- The signed letter, with its date
- The email or letter in which you made the request
- The written approval, or any addendum you signed
- Any correspondence about the animal since
Staff turn over, management companies change, and files vanish. The tenant who can produce a dated approval from two years ago rarely has to relitigate anything.