Meet by secure video with a mental health clinician licensed in Michigan. We skip registries and printable certificates and focus on genuine ESA and psychiatric service dog letters, written only when your evaluation supports one, for Michigan apartments, rental homes, condominiums, HOAs and campus housing.
Three boxes stand between your first answer and a signed letter. Screening is free; checkout for the plan happens before a Michigan-licensed clinician's evaluation, and refunds for a letter that cannot be supported are handled under our policy on request within 30 days.
Your Michigan screening checklist
Complete a short questionnaire on how you are coping, the animal that supports you and your Michigan home, whenever it suits you.
Once you check out, your Michigan-licensed clinician reads the answers and meets you on video when clinically appropriate.
When the evaluation supports it, the signed letter is delivered to your account; when it does not, you get the reason and 30 days to request a refund.
From Detroit to Ironwood, the screening starts the same way: online, at your own pace.
Begin the Michigan ScreeningPrices on this page are read from our live checkout. Michigan residents screen free, check out for the plan before the evaluation, and can ask for a refund inside 30 days of purchase if a Michigan-licensed clinician cannot support a letter. Questions? Read our FAQ page or contact us.
For Michigan tenants with one emotional support animal
For Great Lakes State households with several emotional support animals
For Michigan handlers whose dog carries out trained tasks for a psychiatric disability
Letters bundled together with a certificate or ID card
An ESA letter and certificate sold together
PSD letter, certificate and ID card together
Michigan's Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act forbids refusing a reasonable adjustment to rules, policies, practices or services where it may be necessary for equal use of a home. Two months after HUD narrowed its federal enforcement, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission applied that act to an ESA request in Marquette.
The tenant asked in June 2020 for an emotional support animal her psychiatrist had prescribed. The landlord wanted a local doctor and a medical records release, warned that rent would rise by one-third, and never acted on the documentation he later received. The commission found that this delay and silence amounted to a denial.
After she filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights in January 2021, her lease was not renewed, though she was described as a model tenant who always paid on time.
The commission found the nonrenewal was also retaliation for her protected complaint. An administrative law judge had heard the case in May 2025.
“Denying an individual an emotional support animal is the same as denying an individual the medication necessary to manage their physical and mental health.”
Public places follow service animal rules, not ESA rules. Michigan adds a penalty for faking one and an optional state ID that grants nothing by itself.
Under MCL 752.62, a person may not falsely represent that they have a service animal, or a service animal in training, in any public place. MCL 752.63 makes a knowing violation punishable by one or more of these:
The Michigan Department of Civil Rights runs a Voluntary Service Animal Identification Program for fully trained service dogs and miniature horses. Animals in training and animals whose only role is comfort or emotional support are not eligible.
The application includes a release completed by a health care or rehabilitation provider and a notarized affidavit, and the card and patch serve for visual identification only, with no legal privileges attached.
An ESA letter backs a housing accommodation request; it does not turn an emotional support animal into a service animal for stores, restaurants or other public places.
Two state statutes every Michigan renter with an animal runs into: the security deposit cap and the county dog license.
1 1/2 months' rent
That is the ceiling in Michigan's Landlord-Tenant Act, MCL 554.602: a landlord may require a security deposit for each rental unit, but it shall not exceed one and a half months' rent.
When you move out, a landlord who claims damage against the deposit must mail you an itemized notice of damages within 30 days after your occupancy ends, under MCL 554.609.
The Michigan Department of Civil Rights describes two ways to pursue a state-law claim, each with its own clock.
File within 180 days of the alleged act. You can contact the department by phone at 1-800-482-3604, in writing, online or in person, and MDCR prepares a formal complaint for you to sign, date and return.
MDCR says complaints may go to state court without first filing with the department, and that state-law claims can be brought there within three years.
Keep the texts, emails and letters about your request, including your ESA letter and the dates you sent it, so you can show when you asked and how the landlord answered.
All 83 Michigan counties, 68 in the Lower Peninsula and 15 in the Upper Peninsula, can book our telehealth ESA and PSD evaluations. Cities we serve are listed with their counties.
All 15 Upper Peninsula counties are served the same way as the rest of the state, by telehealth.
Monroe County or Keweenaw County, the order never changes: an online screening, then, when appropriate, a telehealth visit with a Michigan-licensed clinician.
"At American Service Animals, providing compassionate support at scale is essential. With our licensed professionals, we assist individuals across multiple states, delivering timely evaluations and trusted guidance, reducing uncertainty and simplifying the certification process, so our team can focus on meaningful, high-quality care for every client."
We work exclusively with licensed mental health professionals authorized to practice in Michigan and most states
Generic online registries or certificates, without a clinical evaluation, do not replace a legitimate ESA letter from a nationally licensed provider.
Serving clients in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Dearborn, Flint, Kalamazoo, Marquette, and all cities across Michigan.
Start Your Free EvaluationLetters and cost
One pet's ESA housing letter costs $149 in Michigan. Screening is free, checkout for the plan precedes the evaluation, and a letter the Michigan-licensed clinician cannot support is refundable if you ask within 30 days of buying the plan.
Michigan's Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act has its own reasonable accommodation duty, separate from HUD's enforcement choices. In July 2026, two months after HUD's change, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission applied that act to a landlord's denial of an emotional support animal and ordered damages and reimbursed rent.
Michigan law
Yes. MCL 752.62 bars falsely representing that you have a service animal, or a service animal in training, in a public place. A knowing violation is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, up to 30 days of community service, or a combination.
No. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights limits its voluntary identification program to fully trained service dogs and miniature horses. Animals whose only role is comfort or emotional support do not qualify, and the card and patch are for visual identification only.
One and a half months' rent. Michigan's Landlord-Tenant Act, MCL 554.602, says a security deposit for a rental unit shall not exceed 1 1/2 months' rent.
Deadlines and licenses
180 days from the alleged act of discrimination. The Michigan Department of Civil Rights prepares a formal complaint for you to sign, date and return after you contact it.
Yes. MDCR says complaints may be filed in state court without first filing with the department, and that state-law claims can be brought in state court within three years.
Yes. Under MCL 287.266 every dog four months or older must be licensed through the county treasurer or, in some places, the township or city treasurer, with a current rabies vaccination certificate. Applications are due by March 1 each year unless the county sets another schedule.
Michigan residents: everything above is background, current as of October 2026, and should never be relied on as legal advice. Laws, rules and agency guidance shift, and outcomes depend on the facts. Screening does not guarantee a letter. More background: ESA rights, other states' ESA laws and about American Service Animals. In crisis, call or text 988 any hour of the day.
The screening costs nothing, and a Michigan-licensed clinician will tell you whether an ESA letter suits you, a PSD letter does, or neither.
