How to Renew Your ESA Letter: Valid Requirements and Scams

There is no federal deadline for how to renew an ESA letter, because federal law does not require renewal at all. The Fair Housing Act, which protects your right to live with an emotional support animal, sets no expiration date on ESA documentation and does not mandate annual updates. What matters is that your letter comes from a licensed health care professional who has actually evaluated you and can speak to your current situation. If your circumstances have changed or you are making a new accommodation request, that is when getting fresh documentation matters, and how you get it matters just as much as when.

Does Your ESA Letter Actually Expire?

No federal law puts an expiration date on ESA documentation. HUD’s guidance on assistance animals does not specify a validity period, and the widespread idea that ESA letters “expire after one year” comes from commercial letter services that build renewal cycles into their pricing, not from any legal rule.

HUD’s guidance goes further and states that housing providers “should not re-assess any accommodations they have already granted to individuals with disabilities.”¹ If your current landlord already approved your ESA, they generally cannot demand a new letter a year later just because time has passed. The accommodation stands unless something changes that makes the original documentation no longer accurate.

When You Actually Need Updated Documentation

Even without a legal renewal clock, several situations call for a new letter:

You are moving. A new landlord has no obligation to accept documentation submitted to a previous one. You will need to make a fresh reasonable accommodation request, and current documentation supports it more strongly.
You have changed providers. If you are no longer seeing the professional who wrote your original letter, a current provider who has evaluated you can issue documentation reflecting your active treatment relationship.
Your condition or treatment has changed. If your diagnosis, symptoms, or treatment plan looks different from when the original letter was written, updated documentation reflects your current disability-related need.
Your letter is very old. No law sets an expiration, but a letter from five or six years ago, especially from a provider you no longer see, can raise legitimate questions about whether it still describes your situation.

Think of updated documentation as something you get when your situation changes or when you are making a new request, not as a calendar obligation.

How to Get an Updated ESA Letter

The strongest approach is to work with a health care professional who already knows you. A therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health provider you see regularly is the ideal person to write or update your documentation. They have firsthand knowledge of your condition and treatment, which is exactly what HUD’s guidance emphasizes: documentation is most reliable when it comes from a health care professional with “personal knowledge of the individual” who can confirm both the disability and the need for the animal.²

If you do not have an active provider, you will need to establish one. Schedule an evaluation with a licensed mental health professional. Bring any prior ESA documentation, your mental health history, and information about your housing situation. The provider will assess your condition and decide whether an ESA continues to serve a therapeutic role. If they conclude it does, they can prepare documentation reflecting that clinical judgment.

Telehealth is a legitimate option. HUD’s guidance recognizes that “many legitimate, licensed health care professionals deliver services remotely, including over the internet.”¹ The difference between a real telehealth provider and a letter mill is whether the provider is actually delivering health care, including a genuine clinical evaluation, rather than processing a fee and generating a form letter.

Costs vary. A renewal consultation with a provider you already see may be covered by insurance as part of an ongoing visit. If you are paying out of pocket for a standalone evaluation, expect anywhere from $100 to $250 in most cases, depending on the provider and your location.

What a Valid ESA Letter Should Include

HUD does not require ESA documentation to follow a specific template, and there is no official form.¹ As a best practice, your letter should cover:

Your name as the patient or client.
The provider’s professional relationship with you, confirming they have been involved in your health care or disability-related services.
The type of animal the accommodation is for.
Whether you have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits at least one major life activity.
Whether the animal provides a disability-related benefit, such as therapeutic support that alleviates a symptom or effect of your disability.

You are not required to disclose your full diagnosis or hand over medical records. A housing provider can request reliable information supporting your disability and your need for the animal, but cannot demand more than what is necessary to establish the accommodation.¹

How to Spot ESA Letter Scams

This is where most people looking to “renew” a letter get burned. The internet is full of services promising an ESA letter in 24 hours for a flat fee, and HUD has flagged the problem directly. The 2020 guidance states that “documentation from websites that sell certificates, registrations, and licensing documents for assistance animals to anyone who answers certain questions or participates in a short interview and pays a fee” is not sufficient to reliably establish a disability or need for an assistance animal.²

A landlord who receives one of these letters has grounds to question it and request further information. That leaves you worse off than if you had no letter at all, because the landlord now has a reason to doubt the entire request. Red flags include:

No real evaluation. If a service asks a handful of multiple-choice questions or runs a three-minute phone call and issues a letter, that is not a clinical assessment.
Certificates and registrations for sale. There is no government registry for emotional support animals. Any service selling ESA “certificates,” registration cards, or ID badges is selling something with no legal value.
No ongoing relationship. If the provider has no interest in your care beyond issuing the letter, that is not a health care relationship.
One-size-fits-all letters. Identical templates across clients suggest the provider is not making individualized clinical judgments.

A growing number of states have passed laws targeting these services. Many now require the provider to hold a license in your state and to have maintained a clinical relationship with you for a minimum period, often 30 days, before issuing ESA documentation. Some states set the bar even higher. Quick-turnaround letter mills are not just unreliable under HUD standards; they can be illegal where you live.

ESA Letters Do Not Work for Air Travel

If your reason for renewing is flying, the answer has changed. A final rule from the U.S. Department of Transportation, effective January 2021, no longer recognizes emotional support animals as service animals under the Air Carrier Access Act.³ Only dogs individually trained to perform tasks for a person with a disability qualify as service animals on flights.⁴

Airlines now treat emotional support animals as pets, subject to each airline’s pet policies, size restrictions, carrier requirements, and fees. An ESA letter will not exempt your animal from those rules, and any service selling an ESA letter for air travel is selling something with no legal effect under current federal law.

1
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fact Sheet on HUD’s Assistance Animals Notice
2
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD FHEO Assistance Animals Notice 2020
3
U.S. Department of Transportation. U.S. Department of Transportation Announces Final Rule on Traveling by Air With Service Animals
4
U.S. Department of Transportation. Service Animals