Building Owners and Property Managers
Services
CASp evaluations and reports per CRASCA (State) requirements or as a comprehensive list for building permit issuance. CRASCA evaluations provide numerous protections under the law that help avoid frivolous lawsuits and provides a path to getting your property into full compliance
We have a network of property management, commercial building contractors and Professional Licensed Architects, Engineers and Designers to help your clients
Work with your prospective tenants to ensure that access upgrades as required by the ADA and the California Building Code do not go unaccounted for and are worked into the budget
Work closely with you as your personal Code Expert
Your personal liaison to the Building, Planning and Fire Departments to work out Code related issues
A Word to Building Owners and Property Managers …
ADA liability does not stop at your tenant. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires facilities used by the public — places of public accommodation — to be accessible. Since January 26, 1992, alterations to places of public accommodation and commercial facilities have been required to comply with ADA standards, and facilities designed and constructed for first occupancy after January 26, 1993 have been required to be readily accessible. The ADA contains no grandfathering provision.
Both the landlord and the tenant are subject to the law. A lease decides who pays, not who is covered.
Under 28 CFR 36.201(b), both the landlord who owns the building that houses a place of public accommodation and the tenant who owns or operates that place of public accommodation are public accommodations subject to the requirements of Title III. Responsibility for complying with those obligations may be allocated between the two of you by lease or other contract.
Read that second sentence carefully. The regulation allows allocation as between the parties. It does not remove either party from the reach of the requirements. A lease that assigns accessibility work to your tenant is an agreement about who bears the cost — it does not, by itself, end your obligation under the regulation.
If your leases have not been reviewed with this in mind, that is worth doing before a demand letter arrives rather than after.
If your building was constructed or altered, which standard applies depends on when the work was permitted — not on when it was built. Under 28 CFR 36.406(a):
Permit application completed before September 15, 2010 — the 1991 ADA Standards apply.
Permit application completed on or after September 15, 2010 and before March 15, 2012 — either the 1991 Standards or the 2010 Standards may be used.
Permit application completed on or after March 15, 2012 — the 2010 ADA Standards apply.
Where no building permit was required, the trigger is the start of physical construction or alterations. Ceremonial groundbreaking, or demolition before site preparation, does not count as a start.
If your building has not been altered, a different obligation applies — and it never expires. Under 28 CFR 36.304, a place of public accommodation must remove architectural barriers in existing facilities where removal is readily achievable, which the regulation defines as easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense. This duty is ongoing and is not tied to any construction date.
The regulation sets an order of priorities, and the approach to your building is at the top of it:
First — access to the facility from public sidewalks, parking, or public transportation.
Second — access to the areas where goods and services are provided.
Third — access to restrooms.
Fourth — access to everything else.
Among the examples the regulation gives of barrier removal are creating designated accessible parking spaces, and making curb cuts in sidewalks and entrances. On a leased building, those are almost always yours, not your tenant's.
Safe harbor. Elements that have not been altered on or after March 15, 2012, and that comply with the 1991 ADA Standards, are not required to be modified to meet the 2010 Standards. An element that does not comply with the 1991 Standards must be brought into compliance with the 2010 Standards to the extent readily achievable.
The safe harbor does not cover elements that had no requirement at all under the 1991 Standards. These must be addressed under the 2010 Standards to the extent readily achievable, no matter when they were built: swimming pools, wading pools and spas; play areas; exercise machines and equipment; golf and miniature golf facilities; recreational boating facilities; fishing piers and platforms; saunas and steam rooms; shooting facilities with firing positions; and residential dwelling units.
An alteration to a primary function area pulls the path of travel in with it. If an area of the building containing a primary function is altered — remodeling a sales floor, replacing the floor surface in a customer service area, redesigning a work area — then under 28 CFR 36.403 the path of travel to that area must also be made accessible, along with the restrooms, telephones and drinking fountains serving it. The regulation defines that path of travel to include walks and sidewalks, curb ramps and other pedestrian ramps, parking access aisles, elevators and lifts, and the route through the building. Most of that is under your control, not your tenant's.
The obligation is capped. Path of travel work is deemed disproportionate to the overall alteration when its cost exceeds 20 percent of the cost of the alteration to the primary function area.
Two limits worth knowing. Under 28 CFR 36.403(d), if a tenant makes alterations only in areas that the tenant alone occupies, that does not trigger a path of travel obligation on you for areas under your authority — provided those areas are not otherwise being altered. And if your path of travel elements were built to the 1991 Standards, you are not required to retrofit them to the 2010 Standards solely because a primary function area they serve is later altered.
Voluntary barrier removal does not drag the rest of the building with it. If you simply remove a barrier because it is readily achievable — restriping accessible parking, cutting a curb ramp, widening a door — 28 CFR 36.304(d)(1) provides that the path of travel requirements of 36.403 do not apply to measures taken solely to comply with barrier removal. The element you fix must meet the alteration standards for that element. It does not trigger an obligation on the rest of the site.
Entrances, corridors, restrooms, mechanical rooms, storage rooms, employee lounges and janitorial closets are not primary function areas. Altering them does not trigger the path of travel obligation. Neither do alterations to windows, hardware, controls, electrical outlets or signage.
NOTE: In California, when a place of public accommodation is newly constructed, added to, or altered, the current edition of the California Building Code contains accessibility regulations that are required, and can be more restrictive than the ADA.
A CASp can determine which standard governs your building, what is readily achievable, whether the safe harbor applies, and where the line falls between your obligations and your tenant's.