The Pet Addendum in a Texas Lease: Deposits, Pet Rent, and the ESA Rule That Overrides All of It

A Texas landlord can charge you a refundable pet deposit, a non-refundable pet fee, and monthly pet rent — all three at once, on the same animal — and none of it is illegal as long as the lease spells each one out separately. What a landlord cannot do is apply any of those charges to a documented assistance animal under the federal Fair Housing Act. That one exemption, more than anything in the pet addendum itself, is what San Antonio renters miss.

This is the clause-by-clause breakdown of what a Texas pet addendum actually says, what the Property Code allows, and what you should push back on before you sign.

The three charges, and why they are not interchangeable

Most San Antonio pet addenda (you will see this across corporate landlords in Stone Oak, Alamo Ranch, and the Pearl-area mid-rises, and in the one-page addenda small landlords use in Southtown and Beacon Hill) stack three separate line items. They are legally distinct:

• Pet deposit. Refundable. It sits on top of your security deposit and is governed by Texas Property Code § 92.103, which requires the landlord to return it, minus itemized damages, within 30 days of you vacating and giving a forwarding address. If a landlord labels something a "pet deposit" and then keeps it with no itemization, § 92.109 opens the door to the deposit back plus up to $100 and three times the wrongfully withheld amount, plus attorney's fees.
• Non-refundable pet fee. Legal in Texas, but only if the lease clearly calls it non-refundable. If the addendum just says "pet fee: $300" without the word non-refundable, you have a real argument that it falls under § 92.102's definition of a security deposit and has to come back.
• Monthly pet rent. Added rent, usually $20–$50 per animal in the San Antonio market. It is not a deposit, is never refundable, and is treated as rent for every purpose — including late fees under § 92.019 and the base figure a landlord uses to calculate reletting charges if you break the lease.

If your addendum lumps these together as a single "pet charge," ask for them to be itemized before you sign. You want to know which dollar you get back.

What § 92.103 does and does not do for pet money

Section 92.103 is the deposit-return statute, and it covers pet deposits the same way it covers your regular security deposit. What it does not do is cap the amount. Texas has no statutory ceiling on pet deposits or pet fees. A landlord in Boerne charging $500 refundable plus $300 non-refundable plus $35/month is operating well within the law.

What the statute does require:

• Written itemization of any deduction before the deposit is withheld.
• Return (or itemized statement) within 30 days of you vacating and giving a forwarding address in writing. Give the forwarding address in writing — a text message is weak evidence; a dated letter or an email you can print is strong.
• No deduction for "normal wear and tear." Carpet matted from a dog walking on it for a year is wear. Urine saturation into the pad and subfloor is damage. Landlords win the damage fight when they have move-in condition photos and a vendor invoice; tenants win when they have the same photos from day one.

Breed, weight, and number restrictions

Texas does not restrict what breeds a private landlord can exclude. If the addendum bans pit bulls, Rottweilers, Dobermans, Akitas, Chows, and wolf hybrids — a common corporate list — that is enforceable. Weight caps (often 35 or 50 lb) and limits of two animals per unit are also enforceable.

Two friction points to watch:

• The HOA layer. In master-planned communities around 1604 — Alamo Ranch, Cibolo Canyons, parts of Schertz and Cibolo — the HOA's deed restrictions can be stricter than the lease. Your landlord's "two pets, under 50 lb" allowance means nothing if the HOA bans a specific breed on the property.
• Insurance exclusions. Many landlord policies exclude certain breeds. That is often the real reason behind the breed list, and it is the reason "my dog is friendly" is not a negotiation that works.

The ESA and service animal exemption that voids the pet addendum

This is the part most renters do not know, and most small landlords in Bexar County handle badly.

Under the federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3604) and HUD's 2020 assistance animal guidance (FHEO-2020-01), a landlord of covered housing cannot charge a pet deposit, pet fee, or pet rent for:

• A service animal under the ADA (a dog, or in limited cases a miniature horse, individually trained to perform a task for a person with a disability), or
• An assistance animal / emotional support animal that provides disability-related support, documented by a reliable third party (usually a treating provider).

If you qualify, the pet addendum does not apply to that animal. No deposit, no fee, no monthly rent, and breed and weight restrictions generally do not apply either. The landlord can still charge you for actual damage the animal causes — the exemption is from pet charges, not from liability.

What landlords can legitimately ask for if the disability is not obvious: reliable documentation that you have a disability and that the animal is needed. What they cannot ask for: the diagnosis, medical records, or a specific certification or registration (those online "ESA registries" are not required and are not what HUD considers reliable documentation on their own).

FHA covers almost all San Antonio rentals. The narrow exceptions — owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units, and single-family homes rented without a broker where the owner owns three or fewer — are rare in the active market.

Pet screening services and the "profile fee"

Most mid-size and corporate landlords in San Antonio now route pet approval through a third-party screening platform. You pay a per-animal profile fee ($20–$30 is typical), the service rates the animal, and your rent and deposit scale off that rating.

Two things to know:

• The screening fee itself is not a deposit and does not come back.
• Assistance animals go through the same portal but should be processed at no cost under the FHA exemption. If the platform tries to charge you for an assistance animal profile, that is the landlord's compliance problem, not yours — put the objection in writing to the landlord, not just the vendor.

What most people get wrong

• Treating the "pet fee" and "pet deposit" as the same money. They are not. Ask which is refundable and get it in the lease, line-itemed. If it is not written as non-refundable, argue it comes back.
• Assuming an online ESA letter is bulletproof. HUD looks for documentation from a provider who has an actual therapeutic relationship with you. A $49 instant letter from a site you have never seen a clinician on is the kind of thing landlords and their counsel push back on, and sometimes successfully.
• Not disclosing the animal at move-in. Hiding a pet and then getting caught turns into a lease violation, a cure-or-vacate notice, and in bad cases a § 24.005 notice to vacate followed by a Bexar County JP eviction. Disclose, pay, or claim the FHA exemption with documentation.
• Forgetting the HOA. The lease allows your dog; the HOA fines the owner; the owner passes the fine to you via the lease's compliance clause. Check the deed restrictions in Cibolo, Schertz, Helotes, and the Boerne-area subdivisions before you bring a restricted breed.
• Not photographing move-in condition. Pet damage disputes are won with timestamped photos of the carpet, baseboards, and door frames on day one. Email them to yourself so the metadata is preserved.
• Signing a pet addendum for an animal you do not yet own. If you add a pet later, you execute a new addendum then. Do not pre-commit to deposits and pet rent for a hypothetical dog.

What to negotiate before you sign

• Itemize the three charges (deposit, non-refundable fee, monthly rent) separately in writing.
• Cap the non-refundable fee or ask the landlord to roll it into the refundable deposit — small landlords in older stock on the near north and south sides often agree.
• Strike or shorten the breed list if the real driver is insurance; ask the landlord to confirm the policy exclusion in writing. If it is not insurance, there is room to negotiate.
• Add a line that pet rent terminates if the animal leaves the household for 30+ days (relevant for shared-custody situations and for cats or dogs that pass away mid-term).
• If you have an assistance animal, submit documentation before signing, not after. Get the landlord's written acknowledgment that the pet addendum does not apply to that animal.

When you are ready to compare units that actually fit your household and your animal, browse current San Antonio rentals at /rentals — RentInSA's active listings show a median asking rent of $1,700/mo across the metro as of November 2026, with pet-friendly filters you can set at the search level. If you want a Texas-licensed agent to pressure-test a pet addendum before you sign, start at /agents.