Reasonable Modifications for Tenants

Why this matters

A tenant calls for grab bars, a ramp or a wider bathroom door. The tenant is the one paying and the one who needs it, but the tenant does not own the walls. Start drilling on the tenant's word alone and the shop can end up in the middle of a landlord dispute, with the landlord demanding the walls restored and the tenant saying the law gave them the right. Refuse the job because "the landlord has to approve everything" and you may be helping a landlord deny something federal law requires them to allow. The useful position is in between: know what the right is, know what a landlord may lawfully ask for, and do not start until the paperwork that protects all three parties is in hand.

This card covers the federal rule and the shop's documents. The law layer for the whole group, including which buildings the Fair Housing Act's design rules reach, is in a sibling card. This is not legal advice.

The right, in the statute's own shape

The Fair Housing Act, at 42 USC 3604(f)(3)(A), makes it unlawful for a housing provider to refuse to permit, at the expense of the disabled person, reasonable modifications of existing premises occupied or to be occupied by that person, if the modifications may be necessary to afford them full enjoyment of the premises. HUD's regulation is at 24 CFR 100.203, and HUD and the Department of Justice published a joint statement on reasonable modifications in 2008 that answers most practical questions.

Four parts of that sentence do the work:

• A modification is a physical change. A grab bar, a ramp, a lever handle, a removed vanity, a widened door. A change to a rule or policy (a reserved parking space near the door, permission for an assistance animal) is a different right, a reasonable accommodation, under 3604(f)(3)(B).
• It reaches the unit and the common areas. A ramp at the building entrance or a handrail on a shared stair is a modification the tenant can request.
• The tenant generally pays, in private housing. In housing that receives federal financial assistance, Section 504 generally shifts the cost of a structural change to the provider, subject to an undue-burden limit. See related: What the ADA Does and Does Not Cover in a Private Home.
• "Reasonable" and "necessary" are tested against the person's disability-related need. When the disability or the need is not obvious, a provider may ask for information that verifies them, generally not a diagnosis or medical records.

The right reaches most rental housing, with narrow exemptions in the Act for some owner-occupied buildings of four or fewer units and some single-family homes rented by an owner without an agent. State fair housing laws often track the federal rule, and some reach housing the federal exemptions leave out, so a landlord who is exempt federally may not be exempt under the state's law. Check your state's civil rights or fair housing agency.

What a landlord may ask for, and what they may not

A landlord may generally:

• require a description of the proposed modification before approving it, and approve it in writing;
• require reasonable assurance the work will be done in a workmanlike manner and that required building permits are obtained;
• for a rental, where it is reasonable, condition permission on the tenant agreeing to restore the interior to its prior condition at move-out, reasonable wear and tear excepted;
• in some cases tied to restoration, ask the tenant to pay into an interest-bearing escrow account over a reasonable period, with the interest going to the tenant.

A landlord generally may not:

• refuse a reasonable modification the tenant will pay for;
• require an increased security deposit as a condition of the modification;
• require restoration of a change that would not interfere with the next occupant's use, such as a widened doorway, according to the joint statement;
• require restoration of exterior or common-area modifications such as a ramp at the entrance;
• insist on choosing the contractor, per the joint statement, though competence and permits can be required.

Each of those is the federal floor as HUD and DOJ describe it. A state law can add protections; a lease cannot remove them.

Which documents the shop should see before starting

The shop's protection is a short stack of paper, collected before the first hole:

1. The landlord's written approval, describing the specific work: which walls, which fixtures, which door. A verbal "fine" passed on by the tenant is not enough, because the shop is the one physically altering someone else's property.
2. Any restoration agreement between tenant and landlord, so the shop knows what to keep (original knobs, the removed vanity, the old door) and what the tenant may later pay someone to put back.
3. Who signs the permit. Many building departments want the owner or the owner's agent on the permit application, not only the tenant. Ask before quoting a start date.
4. Who the customer is. If the tenant pays, the tenant signs the contract. If the landlord agreed to pay (some do, voluntarily or under a state rule or a 504 obligation), the landlord signs it. Mixed arrangements get both signatures and say who pays for what.
5. The insurance certificate the landlord asks for, sent to the landlord directly.

What the shop gets from this stack is a dated record that the owner approved specific work and knew who was doing it. Whether a given approval or restoration clause binds anyone in a later dispute is a question for the parties' attorneys, not for the shop.

Worked example: four items, three answers

A tenant who uses a walker after a stroke rents a ground-floor unit in a privately owned eight-unit building, first occupied in 1978. The Fair Housing Act's design rules do not reach a building that old, so nothing was built in. The tenant asks the shop to quote four items and asks the landlord in writing for permission.

Item 1: two grab bars in the bathroom, into framing. The landlord approves in writing and conditions it on restoration at move-out: bars removed, holes patched and painted. That condition is reasonable because the bars are inside the unit. The shop quotes the install and, separately and as an option, the restoration, so the tenant knows the later cost in hours. The shop also offers a cheaper path for the landlord: leave the blocking and the bars, which many future tenants will use. The landlord can waive restoration; the shop cannot.

Item 2: lever handles on five interior doors. Approved, with the condition that the original knobs be kept and reinstalled at move-out. The shop bags and labels the knobs and hands them to the tenant with a note on the invoice. Restoration is about 15 minutes per door, so 5 doors is roughly 1.25 hours of a handyman's time.

Item 3: remove the bathroom vanity cabinet and install a wall-hung sink for knee clearance. The landlord approves with restoration and asks for the restoration cost to be held in escrow, paid monthly over the lease. That request is within what the joint statement describes as sometimes permissible, because the vanity removal changes the interior in a way the next tenant might not want. The shop's role is to give both parties an honest restoration estimate: reinstalling a stored vanity and reconnecting the trap and supplies, about 2.5 hours, plus any wall repair where the wall-hung bracket was.

Item 4: a ramp at the building's rear entrance, three steps up. The landlord first refuses, saying the entrance is shared. Under the joint statement that is a common-area modification the tenant may request at their own expense, and the landlord may not require it to be removed later. The landlord may reasonably require that it be built to code with a permit and approve its design and location. The shop stops quoting this item until the landlord's written position changes, and tells the tenant where to take the refusal (below). Two weeks later the landlord approves a location along the side wall. Layout details belong to a sibling card. See related: How to Lay Out an Entry Ramp.

The counts. Of the four items, the landlord approved two with restoration (grab bars, levers), one with restoration plus escrow (vanity), and one after initially refusing, without restoration (ramp). Three needed restoration terms and one could not lawfully carry them.

What changes the answer. Make the building a housing authority property and the tenant's request goes to the authority, which under Section 504 generally pays for structural changes and may do them with its own contractor. Make the tenant an owner in a condominium and the unit interior is theirs, but the ramp is a request to the association, which the Fair Housing Act also reaches. Put the building in a state whose own law reaches small owner-occupied buildings the federal Act exempts, and a landlord who said "the law doesn't cover me" may be wrong under the state statute even if right under the federal one.

When the landlord says no

The shop does not argue the law with a landlord on the tenant's behalf. If a landlord refuses a modification, or attaches conditions that look like more than the list above, the tenant's routes are a complaint to HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, the state or local fair housing agency, or a fair housing organization, many of which help tenants for free. The shop's useful contribution is a clear written description and quote of the work, which the tenant can attach. Walk in with: the tenant's written request, the landlord's written response, the quote describing the work, and photos.

What the shop does not do: start work while the dispute is open, or accept a tenant's assurance that "it's the law, they have to let you." That may be true and it is still not the owner's written approval.

References

• Fair Housing Act, 42 USC 3604(f)(3)(A) and (B); HUD regulation, 24 CFR 100.203
• Joint Statement of HUD and the Department of Justice, Reasonable Modifications Under the Fair Housing Act (2008)
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, HUD regulation at 24 CFR Part 8, for federally assisted housing
• See related: What the ADA Does and Does Not Cover in a Private Home; How to Lay Out an Entry Ramp; Funding Paths for Home Modifications