A new three-story apartment building has been constructed with nine units. The building has no elevator. Which units must meet the accessibility requirements of the Fair Housing Act?

• A. All units
• B. Ground floor units only
• C. First and second floor units
• D. Only units designated as accessible

Answer: (B)

The key idea here is how FHA accessibility rules apply when a multi-unit building has no elevator. For new multi-family buildings with four or more units, the Fair Housing Act requires accessible design features in the units that people can actually reach without using an elevator. If there is no elevator, the only units that can be accessed by someone with mobility limitations are the ground-floor units, so those units must meet accessibility standards. Units on the upper floors would not be required to be accessible because there’s no elevator to reach them. So, in a three-story building with nine units and no elevator, the ground-floor units must meet accessibility requirements.