For Big Bear Lake, CA home owners who rent their homes to visitors when they're not using them, there has been some controversery over the past few years. Some factions of the community contended that private home rentals created problems for the community and tried to stop them. Their efforts using law suits and legislation were thwarted.
The attorney representing those interests, however, found another approach. He had prospective visitors claiming to have disabilities email a couple of Big Bear's smaller vacation rental companies looking for ADA compliant rentals. As it was explained in the Big Bear Board of Realtor's meeting, these rental agencies who broker private homes to the public on behalf of the home owners, responded stating that they had rentals that would accomodate wheel chairs, etc. but ADA compliance is something applied to commercial properties not private homes. This response appears to have qualified as a denial. As a result, this attorney filed a law suits in FEDERAL court. Shortly after filing the law suits, we were told that the Attorney offered to settle both suits for $7000 each.
It turns out that ADA compliance requirements had never been determined for private home rentals, so the groups most effected by such rules banded together to help these agencies defend this lawsuit and set some precidents.
Several years, and about $150,000 later, the courts ruled that agencies, who broker, but do not own the private homes being made available to the public, have no control over the compliance of the properties, and therefore cannot be held responsible for their lack of compliance, so the ADA rules do not apply to them. Remember, this was decided in FEDERAL court.
If you own a home which is being rented to the public through a vacation rental broker, you are probably safe from ADA compliance regulations. HOWEVER, IF YOU OWN A HOME AND RENT DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC YOU COULD BE AT RISK. Understand that if someone calls you asking if your property is ADA compliant and you say no, that is a denial and could make you vulnerable to a law suit. You own the home and have control over it's condition. This specific situation was not determined in the above case. It is recommended to offer to get back to that person with more information, and then get more information before calling them back.
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