POP QUIZ: What Should You Do When Requested Accommodation Isn’t Available?
Q: A tenant who uses a walker wants to transfer to an apartment on the ground floor near his assigned parking space to minimize how far he must walk to his car. Unfortunately, there’s currently no apartment available that fits his needs. What should you do?
a. Flatly reject his accommodations request.
b. Consider moving his parking space closer to his apartment instead.
c. Request documentation of the disability and why he needs to transfer to accommodate it.
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Answer: b
Reason: You must grant a transfer request as a reasonable accommodation if: (1) the tenant is really disabled; (2) the transfer is necessary to enable him to use and enjoy the property; and (3) the accommodation is reasonable. The request for relocation to a unit closer to a disabled tenant’s assigned parking space in this scenario meets the first two prongs; the problem is that there are no suitable units available. And since you don’t have to actually evict or transfer one tenant to accommodate another, the requested accommodation isn’t reasonable. However, you’re not done yet. Before flat out nixing the transfer, you must explore alternative ways to accommodate the tenant’s disability. And that means b. is the right answer.
Wrong answers explained:
a. While lack of an available apartment on the ground floor closer to the tenant’s parking space is grounds for rejecting the transfer, you shouldn’t hit the REJECT button unless and until you consider the availability of reasonable alternatives. The first thing to consider would be assigning him a new parking space that would be closer to his current apartment. If there are currently no such spaces available, you may want to ask—but you wouldn’t have to force—a tenant with a suitable parking space to swap.
c. You can ask tenants who request reasonable accommodations for documentation of their disability and need for the accommodation, but only if those things are not obvious or readily apparent. The reason c. is wrong is that in this case, it’s pretty obvious that a tenant who uses a walker has a disability requiring that he be closer to his parking space.
