Americans with Disabilities Act

Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act specifically prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in places of public accommodation and commercial facilities and provides minimum standards for ensuring accessibility when designing and constructing a new facility. Enforcement is through the Department of Justice or by private lawsuit. One of the failings of the ADA is its lack of clear and specific requirements on how to design structures that comply with the law. As a result the building and design industry is left unaware of compliance measures and is exposed to liability actions. Recently, unscrupulous attorneys in some states have begun engaging nonprofit entities to file lawsuits indiscriminately against commercial property owners on behalf of disabled persons. The rash of lawsuits are being filed without warning to the business owners and the bulk of the fees collected are going directly to the attorneys since the ADA precludes the disabled community from collecting damages for violations to the law.

NAR has consistently maintained that, much like the Fair Housing Act, the ADA should provide a specific complaint and conciliation mechanism to ensure all parties understand the ADA and are in compliance of the ADA.

The commercial building industry has had sufficient opportunity to learn the requirements of the ADA and that instances where design and construction are noncompliant reflect situations in which providing accessibility has not been enough of a priority for the commercial building industry.

While NAR does not dispute the validity of the lawsuits, we are concerned that some attorneys are unscrupulously using the ADA to benefit from the lack of clear and precise complaint procedures of the ADA. NAR believes an equitable and enforceable solution is to develop a comprehensive system of administrative actions and civil procedures similar to the Fair Housing Act.