FHA/HUD Apartment and Condominium Inspections

ADA Inspections Nationwide, LLC, offers FHA/HUD inspections of multi-family housing units consisting of four or more dwelling units in apartment buildings and condominiums. These inspections include pre-construction, during phases of construction, and post-construction.

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, commonly known as the Fair Housing Act (FHA), prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of dwellings based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. In 1988, Congress passed the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA). The Amendments expand coverage of Title VIII to prohibit discriminatory housing practices based on disability and familial status. Now it is unlawful to deny the rental or sale of a dwelling unit to a person because that person has a disability.

As a protected class, people with disabilities are unique in at least one respect because they are the only minority that can be discriminated against solely by the design of the built environment. The Fair Housing Act remedies that in part by establishing design and construction requirements for multifamily housing built for first occupancy after March 13, 1991. The law provides that a failure to design and construct certain multifamily dwellings to include certain features of accessible design will be regarded as unlawful discrimination.

The design and construction requirements of the Fair Housing Act apply to all new multifamily housing consisting of four or more dwelling units. Such buildings must meet specific design requirements so public and common use spaces and facilities are accessible to people with disabilities. In addition, the interior of dwelling units covered by the Fair Housing Act must be designed so they too meet certain accessibility requirements.

The consultant for ADA Inspections Nationwide, LLC, will conduct an accessibility survey/inspection of a multi-family dwelling unit facility in accordance with the Fair Housing Act Checklist, A Guide to Accessible Design and Construction Compliance (FHA Checklist), provided by the the Equal Rights Center, and using the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design (2010 Standards) and Fair Housing Act Design Manual (FHA Design Manual), to determine if the facility complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) promulgated by the United States Access Board (USAB) and the Fair Housing Act, promulgated by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). If applicable, other document sources or safe harbors will be noted.

The purpose of the FHA Checklist is to highlight regulations as they apply to covered multifamily dwellings. Covered multifamily dwellings are defined by the Fair Housing Act (FHA) as buildings with four or more dwelling units that are newly constructed for first occupancy on or after March 13, 1991. All covered buildings, as well as the covered units within, are required to meet the accessibility regulations of the Fair Housing Act.

The FHA checklist is organized along the seven technical requirements of the FHA; certain deviations in sequencing have been made to enhance the usability of the checklist during a site survey. Images featured throughout this publication are taken from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Fair Housing Act Design Manual and the Institute for Human Centered Design.

The FHA Checklist is not a safe harbor for compliance with the FHA. Departures from this checklist may still result in compliance provided that the alternative resource meets the requirements of the FHA. In addition, the FHA requirements listed in this document focus on accessibility at a federal level. Please note that different regulations may vary within state and local jurisdictions. It is the Equal Rights Center’s recommendation to always consult with accessibility experts who are familiar with and knowledgeable on all regulations that impact accessibility in multifamily housing.

The results of the survey/inspection will be provided in either a narrative formatted and/or checklist formatted Property Condition Report (PCR). For details of these reviews please see Phased Constructability Inspections.

For additional information about FHA/HUD Multi-Family compliance inspections please call Richard at 615-752-0060.