ADA Compliance for Commercial Buildings in the DMV

Take an illustrative case. A letter arrives at the ownership entity from a law firm nobody at the property has heard of. It describes your parking lot in unusual detail — the count of spaces, the absence of a van-accessible one, a sign a parked SUV hides, an access aisle sloping toward the drive lane. It says the plaintiff could not exit their vehicle, and asks for remediation and fees.

Nothing happened at the property that week. The lot was striped by one contractor years ago, repaved and restriped by another later, and nobody in that chain was asked whether the result complied. That is the pattern this guide is about: the problem arrives not from an inspector, but from a letter about a condition in plain view for a decade.

Accessibility is the one major building obligation with no calendar attached. Fire alarms have annual test dates, elevators have certificates that expire, backflow assemblies have a utility chasing them. The Americans with Disabilities Act (opens in a new tab) has none of that, so it gets deferred and then surfaces as a legal matter rather than a maintenance one. Here is what owners in DC, Northern Virginia, and Maryland need to know, and how it folds into the same compliance inspections program that carries the rest.

Does the ADA apply to my commercial building?

Almost certainly. The ADA became law in 1990, and Title III is the part that reaches private property. It covers two overlapping categories: public accommodations, privately operated facilities whose goods or services are offered to the public, and commercial facilities, nonresidential facilities affecting commerce.

The public accommodation list in 28 CFR 36.104 (opens in a new tab) is broad — retail, restaurants, hotels, banks, theaters, medical and dental offices, accountants’ and lawyers’ offices, health clubs, private schools. If the public walks through your door to buy or be treated, you are in it.

Commercial facilities is the quieter half and catches most of the rest. Office buildings, warehouses, and industrial buildings qualify even where no member of the public is invited in. Under 28 CFR 36.102 (opens in a new tab), their obligation attaches only to new construction and alterations, but it is real, and it covers an office building with no public-facing tenant.

Two boundaries matter. Title II covers state and local government facilities under different rules. Residential property answers primarily to the Fair Housing Act, so in a mixed-use asset the retail and the apartments above it sit under different statutes. And there is no size exemption: Title III exempts private clubs and religious entities, not small businesses, so a small tenant’s duty is scaled to its resources, never waived.

Is there an ADA certificate, or an inspection that proves compliance?

No. There is no federal ADA certificate of compliance for a building and no routine federal accessibility inspection of commercial buildings. The Department of Justice’s ADA Title III Technical Assistance Manual (opens in a new tab) says the ADA relies on case-by-case enforcement in response to complaints and “does not contemplate Federal ADA inspections.” No agency will measure your building and declare it clear.

Title III is enforced through two channels: private lawsuits brought by individuals, and enforcement action by the U.S. Department of Justice. Both are reactive: DOJ acts on complaints or on reason to believe there is a violation.

That difference is structural. A sprinkler contractor tests and lists deficiencies, so the fire and life safety inspection requirements create their own reminders; an elevator certificate carries an expiration date, and our elevator compliance guide walks a cadence you can calendar. Accessibility has no built-in prompt, so the first notice can be a demand letter.

The closest thing to an accessibility inspection is the building permit. Accessibility is also enforced through the building code at plan review. As of October 2026, Virginia’s 2021 Uniform Statewide Building Code (opens in a new tab) (in effect since January 18, 2024) and the 2017 DC Construction Codes (opens in a new tab) carry the International Building Code’s accessibility chapter, which points to the ICC A117.1 standard. The Maryland Building Performance Standards (opens in a new tab) replace that chapter with the Maryland Accessibility Code (opens in a new tab), which applies the 2010 ADA Standards (opens in a new tab) plus Maryland additions to private buildings; a local jurisdiction may adopt the IBC chapter if it meets or exceeds that code. Each jurisdiction adopts its own editions on its own schedule, so confirm the current one with the department reviewing your project.

Understand what that settles. A permit approval means the plans as reviewed met the code the jurisdiction adopted. It is not a finding that the finished building complies with the federal ADA, a civil rights statute enforced by a different mechanism; DOJ’s manual notes that state and local agencies are not authorized to enforce the ADA. Architects, engineers, and holders of accessibility certifications can survey competently; none can issue a certificate that stops a claim. (The regulation’s narrow “safe harbor,” below, is a different thing.)

My building is older — is it grandfathered?

It is not, and this is a persistent myth. There is no grandfather clause exempting a building from the accessibility obligation because it predates the statute. What the regulation does have is a narrow, element-by-element safe harbor in 28 CFR 36.304 (opens in a new tab): an element not altered on or after March 15, 2012 that complies with the 1991 Standards does not have to be upgraded to the 2010 Standards. An element that never met the 1991 Standards gets no protection from its age.

What applies to an existing, unaltered building is readily achievable barrier removal — removing barriers where doing so is “easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense,” in the statute’s words. The standard flexes with the resources of the entity involved. Where removal is not readily achievable, 28 CFR 36.305 (opens in a new tab) still requires you to offer the goods or services through alternative methods, such as curb service, where those are readily achievable.

Two features catch owners out. It is ongoing, not a one-time project: DOJ’s manual calls it a continuing obligation, so a barrier defensibly deferred years ago may be squarely achievable during this year’s lobby refresh. And it is prioritized — the regulation urges an order, beginning with getting a person into the building from the sidewalk, parking, or transit stop, then access to goods and services, then restrooms, then everything else.

For new construction and alterations the standard is far stricter: new construction must be accessible unless that is structurally impracticable, and alterations accessible to the maximum extent feasible. The current federal design standard is the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, which replaced the 1991 Standards for new construction and alterations as of March 15, 2012.

On cost, the IRS lists two tax provisions on its page of tax benefits for businesses accommodating people with disabilities (opens in a new tab): the Section 44 Disabled Access Credit for eligible small businesses and the Section 190 deduction for removal of architectural barriers. Eligibility and limits are a conversation for your tax advisor.

Who is responsible, the landlord or the tenant?

Both. It is an unwelcome answer, and understanding it early saves money.

Under 28 CFR 36.201(b) (opens in a new tab), the landlord and the tenant operating a place of public accommodation are both subject to Title III. The regulation lets the two allocate responsibility by lease, and that allocation works between them — but DOJ’s manual says it is “only effective as between the parties” and both remain fully liable. Someone who could not use your building can name the owner, the operator, or both, whatever the lease says about who was supposed to fix the ramp.

So the lease does not settle the exposure. It settles who performs the work, who pays, and who carries the indemnity — a risk allocation, not a shield.

The practical division follows control. The landlord controls parking, exterior routes, the entrance, lobby, elevators, and common restrooms, which include the first items in the regulation’s priority order. The tenant controls its premises: counters, circulation, fixtures, and the fit-out it designed.

Three lease provisions are worth reading before you need them: whether the landlord’s common-area repair obligation expressly includes accessibility, whether the tenant’s alteration clause requires landlord approval of construction documents, and whether the compliance-with-laws clause allocates accessibility work inside the premises clearly enough to be operative. Our tenant improvement allowance guide covers the construction side.

Which barriers actually generate complaints?

We found no public dataset that ranks ADA claims by barrier type, but the same physical elements run through the regulation’s priorities and example fixes, and nearly all are measurable and fixable.

Accessible parking. Parking is exposed for a plain reason: a lot can be surveyed from the street, without entering the building or speaking to anyone. The items to check are the count of accessible spaces, which scales with the lot’s total under Table 208.2 of the 2010 Standards; van-accessible spaces (at least one for every six accessible spaces, or fraction of six) and their access aisles; signage carrying the International Symbol of Accessibility, with the bottom of the sign at least 60 inches above the ground so it stays visible when a vehicle occupies the space; and the slope of the space and aisle, no steeper than 1:48 in any direction. Slope can catch even well-kept lots, where settling and repaving changed what once drained correctly.

The accessible route. A compliant space is worth nothing if the path to the door is not usable. Curb ramps, level landings, cross slopes, surface condition, gratings, protruding objects, and clear width all live here — and so does seasonal work, because 28 CFR 36.211 (opens in a new tab) requires accessible features to be kept in operable working condition, and a snow pile in an access aisle removes the space as surely as never striping it.

The entrance. Thresholds above the permitted height (generally 1/2 inch), interior doors needing more than 5 pounds to push or pull open, hardware requiring tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist, and insufficient maneuvering clearance at the latch side. Installing accessible door hardware is one of the regulation’s own examples of barrier removal.

Restrooms. A technically demanding category, and one where an eyeball assessment is unreliable. What matters is turning and clear floor space, compartment size and door swing, grab bar placement, knee and toe clearance under the lavatory, insulation on exposed pipes, and mounting heights for mirrors and dispensers. Each carries a specific figure in the 2010 Standards and should be measured.

Signage and wayfinding. Permanent room identification with raised characters and Braille, correct mounting location and height, and directional signage to accessible entrances and restrooms where the nearest is not accessible.

Service counters and seating. Part of a transaction counter has to be usable by someone seated in a wheelchair, and a share of dining and assembly seating has to be accessible and dispersed, not clustered in one corner.

How do alterations and tenant fit-outs create new barriers?

This is how a compliant building becomes non-compliant without anyone deciding it; it never looks like a compliance decision at the time. A tenant builds out a suite with a reception desk at a single standing height. A retailer installs a security pedestal narrowing the entry below the required clear width. A lobby renovation replaces a sloped transition with a stepped detail. None are recorded as accessibility decisions; they are design decisions with a consequence nobody was tasked with noticing.

Alterations also carry an obligation that is easy to miss: the path of travel. When you alter an area containing a primary function, you are generally expected to make the path of travel to it accessible — including the restrooms serving it — to the extent the cost is not disproportionate to the overall alteration. Under 28 CFR 36.403 (opens in a new tab), that cost is disproportionate when it exceeds 20% of the cost of the alteration to the primary function area, and even then the path must be improved as far as that limit allows. The people to apply it are your design professional and your counsel.

So an owner’s suite renovation can pull the corridor, the common restrooms, and the entrance into scope, and owners who learn that late absorb an unplanned cost. A tenant’s alteration inside its own premises does not put that duty on the landlord for common areas the landlord is not altering, the same section says.

The control point is plan review. If your lease requires landlord approval of tenant construction documents, use it: have accessibility reviewed as part of that approval by someone qualified, and record the review. A tenant coordinator checking drawings for aesthetics and system impact is not an accessibility review, and the difference surfaces years later when nobody can say who looked.

What does an accessibility survey and remediation plan look like?

The deliverable is not a certificate, because none exists. It is a documented, prioritized, funded plan. DOJ’s manual recommends exactly this kind of implementation plan and says one “appropriately designed and diligently executed” could serve as evidence of a good faith effort to comply.

A workable survey has four parts. An inventory of accessible elements and routes: parking, exterior route, entrances, vertical circulation, corridors, restrooms, counters, signage. A measured assessment against the 2010 Standards and the locally adopted code, by a competent design professional, with photographs and dimensions rather than impressions. A finding list classified by the obligation driving each item, since a readily achievable removal, an alteration trigger, and a code item are three different decisions. And a prioritized plan with an owner, a cost, a funding source, and a date.

That last part is what changes an owner’s position. A finding with a documented correction is a functioning program; a finding followed by silence is a record of notice.

Then it has to keep running, which is the part that fails. Fold remediation into the capital plan alongside the roof and the chillers, so a multi-year restroom program is funded rather than deferred — our capital planning and reserve study guide covers that decision. Put the recurring items on the schedule with everything else, which is what our building compliance calendar is for: a periodic re-walk of the route, a seasonal check on access aisles, and an accessibility step in every fit-out approval.

That is where Levaru’s role sits. We are not a law firm and not a certified accessibility specialist. We coordinate the survey, procure and supervise the licensed design professionals and contractors who do the assessment and the work, track every finding to closure as a work order with evidence attached, and carry the recurring obligations in the compliance calendar and CMMS. Specialist judgments belong to specialists; the schedule and the follow-through are the half that goes missing.

One note before the questions below: this is general information for building operators, not legal advice, and any accessibility question carrying real legal exposure belongs with your counsel.

Frequently asked questions

Is there an ADA certificate of compliance for a commercial building?

No. There is no federal ADA certificate for a building and no routine federal accessibility inspection of private commercial buildings. Title III is enforced through private lawsuits and Department of Justice action rather than a permit-and-certificate system. A qualified design professional can survey and document your building, which is valuable — but nobody can certify it compliant.

Is my building grandfathered because it was built before 1990?

No. There is no grandfather clause in the ADA. An existing building that has not been altered still carries the ongoing obligation to remove architectural barriers where doing so is readily achievable, and that duty is re-evaluated over time rather than satisfied once. The one narrow protection is the safe harbor in 28 CFR 36.304: an unaltered element that complies with the 1991 Standards does not have to be upgraded to the 2010 Standards. Age alone does not create an exemption.

If a tenant built the barrier, is the landlord still liable?

Potentially, yes. Both the landlord and the tenant operating a place of public accommodation are subject to Title III, and while the two can allocate responsibility between themselves by lease, that allocation does not bind a plaintiff. The lease determines who performs and pays for the work; it does not determine who can be sued.

What does “readily achievable barrier removal” actually mean?

It is the standard applying to existing, unaltered buildings: removing architectural barriers where doing so is easily accomplishable and able to be carried out without much difficulty or expense. It flexes with the resources of the entity involved, and it is an ongoing duty rather than a project with an end date. Where a removal is not readily achievable, the regulation still requires you to make goods and services available through alternative methods where those are readily achievable.

Does the ADA apply to my building’s website?

The Department of Justice’s March 2022 web accessibility guidance, still on ADA.gov as of October 2026, says Title III covers the goods and services that businesses open to the public offer online. There is no Title III regulation with a detailed web standard; the guidance points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the federal Section 508 Standards. Treat it as a scoped project with your web vendor — a review, a remediation list, and an owner for it — not as an emergency.

Does building permit approval mean my renovation is ADA compliant?

Not by itself. Accessibility is enforced twice over: through the building code at permit and inspection, and through the federal ADA as a civil rights statute. A permit approval establishes that the reviewed plans met the code your jurisdiction adopted — meaningful, but not a federal compliance determination. Confirm the adopted edition with your building department, and keep ADA review as its own line on the project checklist.

What is a CASp inspection and do I need one in DC, Virginia, or Maryland?

CASp — Certified Access Specialist — is a California state program, and the procedural benefits attached to it, such as a court stay and early evaluation conference, arise under California Civil Code sections 55.52 and 55.54. It does not apply to properties in the District, Virginia, or Maryland, and we know of no equivalent in this region’s law; ask your counsel if it matters to a claim. What does transfer is the practice: a measured survey against the 2010 Standards by a competent design professional, documented and acted on.

Where should an owner start if nothing has ever been done?

Start outside, with the parking lot and the route to the front door — the first item in the regulation’s barrier-removal priority order, and the part a stranger can assess without entering your property. Then commission a survey by a qualified design professional, sort the findings by the guidance priorities, and attach dates and money to them.

Accessibility is not a harder problem than your other compliance obligations. It is an unscheduled one, which makes it the one that goes unowned until a letter arrives. If nobody can say when your parking lot was last measured, or who reviewed the last fit-out for accessibility, that is the gap worth closing first — and it is what our compliance inspections program is built to carry across the DMV.