Approval should have wiped three items from your ledger: the monthly animal charge, the deposit that came with it, and anything added on account of the breed. When the billing carries on regardless, the fix is a short written request naming the approval date - not an argument about the law.
Being billed after approval is the commonest complaint in this whole subject, and it is nearly always an administrative oversight rather than a refusal. A short written request naming the approval date recovers most of it.
An approved accommodation should end animal-related charges for the household, not the tenancy's ordinary obligations.
The common cause
Almost nobody decides to keep charging you. What happens is that approval is recorded in one system - a leasing file, an email thread, a ticket - and the recurring charge lives in another. Nobody connects the two, the rent run goes out on the first of the month, and the charge reappears exactly as it did before.
That matters because it changes the tone you should take. You are not accusing anyone of anything. You are pointing at a record that was never updated, which is a much easier thing for a property manager to fix quickly and without escalating.
Four steps, in this order
Find the message where the accommodation was granted and note the exact date. Everything downstream is measured from it, and a request without a date is one somebody can defer indefinitely.
Ask for an itemised statement covering that date to today. Highlight each animal-related line. Bundled charges are common and are where these amounts hide.
Email, not a phone call, and to a named person rather than a shared inbox. Use the wording below and attach the approval plus the highlighted ledger.
Name a reasonable reply date about two weeks out. If it passes, forward your original message rather than composing a new one - a growing thread on a single subject line is far harder to lose.
Replace the bracketed parts. Use email rather than the resident portal. That way the timestamp is yours, and you still hold the message if your login stops working when the tenancy ends.
Subject: Animal charges applied after accommodation approval - [unit number]
Dear [name],
You approved my assistance animal request for [address] on [date]. Since then my statement shows [pet rent / a pet deposit / a breed surcharge] of [amount] charged on [list the dates].
Every one of those lines is generated by the pet policy, which no longer governs this animal. Please write back confirming the lines have been switched off, and tell me how the sums already taken will be returned.
I have attached the approval and the relevant ledger lines. Damage caused by the animal stays mine to put right, and I will settle anything of that kind as and when it comes up.
I would be grateful for a reply by [date]. Thank you for sorting it out.
Many thanks,
[your name] · [unit] · [phone]
Three outcomes
Most common. The charge stops, a credit appears on the next statement, and nobody discusses it further. Check the following month to confirm it did not reinstate.
Also common. Take the stop, then ask about the past amounts as a separate question. Splitting the two makes the easy half happen immediately.
Rare, and informative. Request their reasoning on paper. A refusal with no stated basis is the strongest thing you can put in front of a fair housing agency.
Escalation
Fair housing complaints are free to file, at HUD federally and at whichever agency covers your state. Neither requires a lawyer and neither charges you. What both want first is the paper trail you have already built: the approval, the charges, your request, and whatever came back.
Worth knowing before you start: these processes run on months, not weeks. That is precisely why the internal request is worth doing properly. It resolves most cases in a fortnight, and where it fails it hands you a complete record rather than a story.
Common questions
Ask from the approval date forward, because that is the point the charge stopped being appropriate. Some managers will go back further as a goodwill gesture, but the approval date is the line you can argue from without needing anyone's generosity.
That one is harder. A fee collected before any accommodation existed was charged while your animal was, on paper, a pet. Ask anyway - plenty of operators refund it once the file shows an approval - but expect more resistance than on monthly charges.
Get the agreement to stop in writing first, because that is worth more than the refund and takes the future off the table. Then treat the refund as a separate ask with its own written trail.
No. Withholding rent turns a fee dispute into a tenancy dispute and hands the other side a much stronger position. Pay in full, keep the receipts, and pursue the credit separately.
One billing cycle is typical for a credit applied to your ledger. A cheque takes longer because it usually needs a second approval. If a month passes with no movement, resend your original message rather than starting a new one.
Not to ask. A clear written request naming the approval date and the amounts resolves most of these. Advice is worth seeking if the sum is large, the tenancy is ending, or the reply is a flat refusal with no reason.
Your accommodation approval, the ledger or statement lines showing each charge, and the dates. Keep it to those three. Attaching your clinician's letter again invites a re-litigation of eligibility you have already won.
Not as a substitute for the charge they can no longer apply. A general increase at renewal that applies to comparable units is a different matter, and worth checking against what neighbours are paying.
The obligation follows the tenancy, not the owner. Send the new managers the approval and the ledger; new staff usually correct these quickly because they have no stake in the original decision.
Ask for an itemised ledger in writing. You are entitled to understand what you are being billed for, and a bundled line is often where a pet charge survives long after everyone believes it was removed.
Nothing leaves the ledger before the accommodation exists, and that sequence opens with a properly licensed clinician in your own state. Nothing is charged for it and it binds you to nothing.
