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First establish the kind of premises
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) covers specified private places of public accommodation, including restaurants, shops, salons, accountants’ offices and other listed service establishments whose operations affect commerce. Do not use this guide to assume that every warehouse, private club or other site has identical duties.
The rule expressly makes both the landlord housing a public accommodation and the tenant owning or operating it subject to its requirements. A contract can allocate responsibility between those parties; it does not by itself establish compliance.
An existing barrier and an alteration have different tests
Existing-facility architectural barriers must be removed where doing so is readily achievable: easily accomplished without much difficulty or expense. The assessment considers the action’s cost and effect, site resources and, where relevant, parent-company resources and relationships. It is not simply whether this unit’s first month is profitable.
Alterations that affect or could affect usability have a different standard: the altered portions must be accessible to the maximum extent feasible. Ordinary maintenance is not automatically an alteration, and the technical standards and any element-specific safe harbour need their actual facts. An old building is not one blanket status.
Agree who will do the work before depending on it
Fictional example: a salon lease says the landlord handles entrance accessibility, but the entrance still has an unresolved step. The clause helps identify who promised the work; it is not evidence that the entrance is accessible. Establish the applicable requirements and what must be done before treating the opening plan as ready. This example does not decide that a particular ramp is required or feasible.
Scope
- Title III premises allocation only, not an employment-disability test or complete technical design review. Actual coverage, existing-element safe harbours, paths of travel, new construction and state/local duties need their applicable requirements.
Next step
Resolve the actual access work and the agreed cost allocation before relying on the landlord’s lease promise.
Sources & review notes
U.S. Department of Justice
Passage, dates and research notes
primary · Complete §36.201
Both the landlord
Read the complete provision. Lease allocation is between the parties and does not eliminate either covered party’s public-accommodation duties.
U.S. Department of Justice
Passage, dates and research notes
primary · Public accommodation/place of public accommodation, commercial facility and readily achievable definitions
without much difficulty or expense
Read the complete named definitions, including listed facility categories and cost/site/parent-resource/relationship factors. No finding about a particular building or operator.
U.S. Department of Justice
Passage, dates and research notes
primary · Complete §36.304
where such removal is readily achievable
Read all barrier-removal provisions, examples, priorities, element-specific safe harbour and special limitations. No particular ramp, technical dimension or building-wide grandfathering finding.
U.S. Department of Justice
Passage, dates and research notes
primary · Complete §36.402
to the maximum extent feasible
Read complete definition and feasibility conditions, distinguishing altered portions and normal maintenance. No full technical standards or path-of-travel assessment.
Detailed rule records (1)
Both covered landlord and tenant are subject to Part 36. A lease may allocate compliance responsibility between them. Existing architectural barriers must be removed where readily achievable; alterations have a separate maximum-feasible-accessibility standard for altered portions.
28 CFR 36.201: landlord and tenant responsibilities 28 CFR 36.104: public-accommodation and readily-achievable definitions 28 CFR 36.304: existing-facility barrier removal 28 CFR 36.402: alterationsKeep this reading in your learning library.
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