Commercial Accessibility (ADA): 20+ Years and Still CONFUSING!
I recently attended a back-to-school open house for my third grade daughter and was talking to another parent who was looking to relocate her optometry business to a new facility. She said that her real estate broker explained that she would be responsible for Site Accessibility upgrades to the new space. However, her broker could not explain exactly what would be involved. She asked me "Do you know anything about this?" I responded "I do."
Commercial accessibility regulations have been around since the early 1990's. Even after all of this time, State and Federal bureaucracy make these regulations complicated and confusing!
If you are a tenant or an owner who is considering a commercial tenant improvement project, you will need to comply with various State and Federal regulations.
Who Pays? Owner or Tenant
Because of the complexity of accessibility regulations, it is often difficult to determine the requirements and the associated costs at the beginning of a project. Frequently, critical, and expensive, accessibility items are located outside of the tenant's space. As such, it is often unclear who is responsible for the outside upgrades (owner or tenant).
Common Scenario
The following is a common scenario that we have seen many times:
A tenant and owner enter into negotiations to lease a commercial space.
The tenant typically prepares drawings for the proposed improvements within their space and submits them to the Building Department.
As part of the building permit review process, the Building Department requires accessibility upgrades outside of the tenant space. This often comes as a complete surprise to the tenant and the owner.
The tenant now looks to the owner to pay for the outside upgrades and the owner looks to the tenant to pay.
The tenant and/or owner often cannot provide the improvements because they were unknown and not included in the lease negotiations.
The lease falls apart, possibly with animosity between the tenant and owner due to delays and expended costs.
In this scenario, nobody wins. Unexpected costs are not appreciated by either the tenant or the owner. The easiest way to avoid unpleasant accessibility surprises is to obtain some very basic information on how accessibility compliance works prior to initial lease negotiations. In this way, most surprises can be identified, quantified and assigned to the appropriate party (tenant/owner).
So where do you go to get this information?
Because Greenwood & Moore has encountered this scenario many times, we have created a special Site Accessibility Handbook that provides an overview of common problems, pitfalls and SOLUTIONS relating to commercial accessibility.
To obtain your FREE copy of this invaluable handbook, simply select the link blow and follow the instructions.
Site Accessibility Handbook
Thank you and good luck on your next project!
Jeff Moore, President
P.S. If you are interested in how to budget for site accessibility costs, check out our previous blog Budgeting - Hugely Important and Often Overlooked!
