Who Is Responsible for ADA Compliance: Landlord or Tenant?

Under federal law, both the landlord and the tenant are responsible for ADA compliance at a leased commercial property, and a lease cannot erase either party’s exposure to a complaint or lawsuit brought by a member of the public.¹ What the lease can do is decide, as between the two of them, who pays for a given fix and who covers the other’s legal costs when a customer sues.²

Why the Law Names Both Parties

Title III of the ADA applies to any private entity that “owns, leases (or leases to), or operates” a place of public accommodation.¹ That phrasing was written to catch landlord and tenant at the same time. The building owner leasing space to a restaurant is a covered entity. The restaurant operator serving the public is also a covered entity. If a customer using a wheelchair cannot get into the building, both can be named.

The implementing regulation states the point directly: “Both the landlord who owns the building that houses a place of public accommodation and the tenant who owns or operates the place of public accommodation are public accommodations subject to the requirements of this part.”² The same regulation says that “allocation of responsibility for complying with the obligations of this part may be determined by lease or other contract,” but that allocation binds only the two parties to it. The Department of Justice and a private plaintiff are free to go after either one.

What the Lease Actually Decides

Because federal liability runs to both parties no matter what, the commercial lease functions as a private cost-allocation document. A well-drafted lease answers two questions: which party will make and pay for specific accessibility modifications, and which party will reimburse the other when a customer sues.

The reimbursement piece is the indemnification clause. In this context, a lease often requires the tenant to indemnify the landlord for any accessibility claim triggered by conditions inside the tenant’s space, and requires the landlord to indemnify the tenant for violations in common areas. These clauses generally cover the judgment or settlement, attorney fees, investigation costs, and the duty to defend.

The moment to fight over this language is before signing or at renewal. A tenant should push for the landlord to accept responsibility for areas the landlord exclusively controls: parking, building entrances, shared restrooms. If the lease instead hands the tenant control over those areas, the tenant needs the contractual right to make the modifications compliance requires.³ A landlord who refuses to make changes and also refuses to let the tenant make them puts the tenant in an impossible spot.

Default Split When the Lease Is Silent

When the lease says nothing or leaves ambiguity, the working expectation from the DOJ’s regulatory guidance is that responsibility follows control: whoever controls the area where the barrier sits is expected to fix it.⁴

Landlord Areas

Common areas and building-wide features typically sit with the landlord.⁵ That usually covers:

Accessible parking, including van-accessible spaces in proportion to the total lot
Accessible routes from parking, drop-off zones, and sidewalks to the building doors
Building entrances, lobbies, common hallways, and elevators, with doors meeting the required clear opening
Common-area restrooms that serve the building generally
Permanent structural work like ramps, elevators, and widened doorways in shared areas

A landlord carries these obligations even without operating any business on the property. Owning the building and leasing it to tenants who serve the public is enough.¹

Tenant Areas

The tenant’s obligations run to the leased space and the goods or services the tenant offers there.⁵ That usually covers:

Interior layout, so furniture, racks, and shelving leave usable aisle widths
Restrooms located inside the leased space
Checkout counters, with at least one section low enough for a customer using a wheelchair
Temporary ramps at small interior steps where a permanent ramp is not feasible
Communication aids for customers with vision or hearing disabilities, such as large-print menus, qualified readers, or sign language interpreters⁶

Service Animals

Tenants often overlook the policy side of Title III. Every public accommodation must modify a “no pets” rule to allow service animals in all areas where customers are normally permitted. Staff may ask only two questions: whether the animal is required because of a disability, and what task it has been trained to perform. Documentation, certification, or a special vest cannot be required. A business may ask the handler to remove the animal only if it is out of control and the handler is not taking effective action, or if it is not housebroken, and even then the business must offer the person access to goods and services without the animal. Surcharges or deposits for service animals are prohibited, even when the business ordinarily charges pet fees.⁷

When the Standard Gets Stricter

The size of the obligation depends on whether the building is simply existing or is being altered.

Existing Buildings: Readily Achievable

For an existing building with no renovation planned, the ADA requires barrier removal that is “readily achievable,” meaning it can be done without much difficulty or expense.⁶ This is a case-by-case judgment. What is readily achievable for a national chain is not what is expected of a single-location coffee shop. Relevant factors include the cost and nature of the fix, the financial resources of the business, the number of employees, and the type of operation. Both landlord and tenant should document the analysis behind any decision that something is not readily achievable, because that record becomes the defense if a complaint is filed.

When barrier removal itself is not readily achievable, the obligation shifts to alternatives. A restaurant that cannot afford to widen its entrance may offer curbside service. A shop with an inaccessible second floor may bring merchandise down for a customer who cannot use the stairs. The duty to provide access does not disappear because the physical fix is too expensive.

Renovations and New Construction

Alterations and new construction are held to a much higher bar. The readily achievable standard no longer applies; the altered or new elements must fully comply with the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design.⁸ Ordinary-looking renovations can pull in serious accessibility work.

When alterations affect a “primary function area,” a space where a major activity of the business happens, the property must also provide an accessible path of travel to that area from the building entrance, including access to restrooms, telephones, and drinking fountains that serve it. The cost of that path of travel is capped at 20% of the total cost of the alterations to the primary function area.⁸ A tenant renovating a $100,000 dining room could be required to spend up to $20,000 on accessibility along the route from the parking lot to that dining room.

This is where lease language decides a great deal. If the tenant is renovating leased space but the accessible route runs through common areas the landlord controls, the tenant may face the 20% obligation without the authority to touch the landlord’s hallway or entrance. Both parties need to have settled that scenario before the tenant starts the work.

Safe Harbor for Older Compliant Elements

A building element that was built or altered in compliance with the older 1991 ADA Standards does not have to be brought up to the 2010 Standards until it becomes part of a planned alteration.⁹ But once a landlord or tenant tears out and replaces that 1991-compliant restroom, the replacement has to meet the 2010 Standards.

What Non-Compliance Actually Costs

Enforcement runs from two directions, and the dollars are large enough that landlord and tenant both have real reason to sort this out.

The Attorney General can investigate complaints, run compliance reviews, and sue when there is a pattern of discrimination or an issue of general public importance.¹⁰ In a government case, a court can order the violation fixed, award monetary damages to aggrieved individuals, and impose civil penalties. As of 2025, the most recently published adjustment, the maximum civil penalty is $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for a subsequent violation.¹¹

Private lawsuits are the more common exposure. Anyone who encounters a disability-related barrier at a public accommodation can sue under Title III. Private plaintiffs cannot recover monetary damages under federal law; they are limited to an injunction ordering the fix, plus attorney fees and litigation costs.¹⁰ The attorney fee exposure alone is substantial, and many states have their own disability laws that do allow money damages layered on top of the federal claim. A customer filing suit will typically name both landlord and tenant, and the lease’s indemnification clause then decides which of the two absorbs the loss.

Resolving a Dispute Between Landlord and Tenant

When landlord and tenant disagree about who pays for a particular modification, the lease is the starting point. A commercial real estate or ADA compliance attorney can read the relevant clauses and advise each side on their exposure. Where the lease is silent, the default framework assigns responsibility to whichever party controls the area where the barrier sits.⁴

Direct negotiation resolves most of these disputes. Cost-sharing is common for changes that benefit both sides, such as an accessible entrance that lifts the property’s value while satisfying the tenant’s legal duty. When negotiation stalls, private mediation or the DOJ’s free ADA Mediation Program are cheaper than litigation, and the program has resolved more than 75% of the over 5,000 complaints it has handled.¹² A court asked to decide will look at the lease language, the degree of control each party exercises, and the default regulatory framework. The one outcome that hurts both sides is doing nothing: the violation stays in place, and every day a customer is denied access, both parties keep accumulating legal exposure.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12182 – Prohibition of Discrimination by Public Accommodations
2
eCFR. 28 CFR Part 36 Subpart B – General Requirements
3
ADA National Network. If I Am a Business or Non-Profit Organization Leasing Building Space From a Building Owner and the Building Does Not Have Enough Parking Spaces
4
ADA National Network. Who Has Responsibility for ADA Compliance in Leased Places of Public Accommodation, the Landlord or the Tenant?
5
U.S. Department of Justice. ADA Standards for Accessible Design Title III Regulation 28 CFR Part 36 – Section 36.201 Activities
6
U.S. Department of Justice. Businesses That Are Open to the Public
7
eCFR. 28 CFR 36.302 – Modifications in Policies, Practices, or Procedures
8
U.S. Access Board. Chapter 2: Alterations and Additions
9
Department of Justice. Highlights of the Final Rule to Amend the Department of Justice’s Regulation Implementing Title III of the ADA
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 12188 – Enforcement
11
eCFR. Part 85 Civil Monetary Penalties Inflation Adjustment
12
ADA.gov. Resolving ADA Complaints Through Mediation: An Overview