Academy/Fair Housing & Owner Rights
Accessibility modifications
Know what happens after a homeowner asks to change the building, not just the rules.
An accessibility modification is a structural change, like a ramp, a widened doorway, or grab bars, that a resident with a disability makes at their own expense under the Fair Housing Act. If the association already maintains the area, it keeps maintaining the modified feature. Some newer buildings must already be built accessible.
A modification changes the building, not a rule
A reasonable modification is a physical, structural change: a ramp at the entrance, a widened doorway, grab bars in a bathroom, a lowered countertop. That is different from a reasonable accommodation, which changes a policy instead, like making an exception to a parking rule. In the ordinary HOA case, without federal financial assistance attached to the property, the resident pays for the modification.
"A structural change made to existing premises... in order to afford such person full enjoyment of the premises."
Source: Reasonable Modifications Under the Fair Housing Act, HUD and U.S. Department of Justice
Who keeps it working once it's built
If the association already maintains the spot where the modification goes, a common area sidewalk, a clubhouse entrance, it keeps maintaining that feature once the modification is in place, even though the resident paid to install it. A ramp to the clubhouse becomes part of what the association upkeeps, the same as the rest of the walkway.
Restoration works the other way. An owner can be asked to restore an interior modification when they move out, where that is reasonable. Exterior and common area modifications generally do not need to come out at all.
Some buildings were already supposed to be accessible
Separate from any individual request, federal design and construction rules require certain buildings to be built accessible from the start: buildings with an elevator and four or more units (every unit covered), or buildings without an elevator and four or more units (ground floor units covered), first occupied after March 13, 1991. A detached single-family home, or a small walk-up building under four units, falls outside this specific rule. The board's general duty to accommodate an existing entrance, parking space, or common area still applies regardless of when the building went up.
Whether your state or local building code layers a stricter accessibility standard on top of the federal one varies. Check what your building was permitted under with your local building department.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A resident installs a ramp to the clubhouse, which the association already maintains, paying for it themselves. Six months later the ramp needs a repair. Who is responsible?
An owner who installed grab bars inside their unit is selling and moving out. What generally happens to the modifications when they leave?
A four-unit walk-up building without an elevator was first occupied in 1985. Do the ground-floor units have to already meet the federal accessibility design and construction rule?
Sources
- Joint Statement of HUD and DOJ, "Reasonable Modifications Under the Fair Housing Act", HUD and U.S. Department of Justice
- Fair Housing regulations, 24 CFR Part 100, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Fair Housing & Owner Rights
Next, see how the same fair housing duty applies when a resident asks to change a rule instead of the building: read Reasonable accommodations.
Whether your building is old or small enough to fall outside the federal design and construction rule, and whether your state or local code adds a stricter accessibility standard on top of it, varies by building and by jurisdiction.