A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
My Tenant is disabled, what am I required to do?
Many Landlords are very concerned about staying in
compliance with the Americans with disabilities act and they are not sure how
to handle a disabled Tenant. If you are building a new property and your plan
is to make that property a rental property, it would be to your advantage to
make the property friendly for the disabled. Of course every building
department will have their own codes and requirements.
What about my existing property?
The questions come from people who own existing properties
and they have a disable Tenant asks them to make some changes to the property.
The simple answer is that a Landlord must allow a Disabled Tenant to make
reasonable modifications to the property so the disabled person can have use of
that property. The Landlord is not required to pay for those changes, if the
disabled Tenant wants to make changes, they must pay for those changes
themselves.
What happens when the disabled Tenant moves out?
As a condition to allowing the Tenant to make modifications
to the property a Landlord can enter into an agreement that when the Tenant
moves out, the property will be restored to its original condition. The
Landlord cannot asked for an additional security deposit, but they can require that the Tenant
pay a reasonable estimate of restoration cost into an escrow account, to ensure
the property is restored upon termination of tenancy.
Helping the Disabled
Having a property that is accessible for the disabled is not
only a very good thing to have, but also a good business move. If a disabled Tenant
is happy with a property, they can become a long term Tenant, due to the difficulty
of finding properties that are disabled friendly. Simple things like wide doors
or having ramps for access can make a big difference. Making a property
disabled friendly is something to think about when re modeling a property.
Again, making a few changes will not add much to the cost, but will add to the
prospective Tenant pool that a property can draw from.
A.D. Cantelmo Property
Management Specializes in Property Management in Orange County
Ca.