Posted on 02/13/2018 2:26:53 PM PST by Leaning Right
See if the landlord will pay for the bathroom and amortized it on top of the rent
Have the media get involved, unless she lives in NYC her best chance is the media to ridicule the bureaucrats for persecuting some hard working woman that is trying to comply with the law but they are vindictive assholes that like to see people in pain.
Maybe it WAS fine for occupancy, except for tables which it didn’t have. It was just a room.
Put in (your own) tables and maybe that violates the occupancy conditions.
The media loves a sob story, individual woman against some jacked up city employees that like to think they should of been Gestapo.
“My experience is property managers are happy to handle this kind of stuff.”
Sure they are
> Beginnners rarely, rarely succeed with restaurants, there are hundreds of things that have to go very right. <
I don’t know much about the food industry. But I do know that. It’s a shame that this lady didn’t do more research, or get good advice, before she signed the lease.
Thanks for your post.
Lighten up Francis
Organize the local “handicapped accessible restroom users” to volunteer to build her one.
Handicapped ex-military would have the skills and the will.
Francis has to be heavy
Tables fastened to floor with benches/chairs attached to to tables or walls??? Appropriate clearances.
“”””I recently took advice from a forum pertaining to trucking issues. The forum “experts” were completely wrong, had me a nervous wreck until I found out from the DMV the actual rules.””””
Every single forum I have ever been on has a few guys that seem to be experts on every subjects. No matter what it is, they know the laws, regulations or how to fix it. Usually they are wrong.
I have read the responses on this thread. Most are completely wrong. I have been dealing with codes and building inspectors for 40 years. I would not even venture a guess on this subject because I do not know any of the details.
Free advice is seldom worth it.
Me and a bunch of tradesmen lived on the same block we gang banged a roof out for the old lady on the block one of the most rewarding week ends i ever had
The Americans with Disabilities Act. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all businesses that are open to the public or that employ more than 15 people to have premises that are accessible to disabled people. Make sure that you and your landlord are in agreement about who will pay for any needed modifications, such as adding a ramp or widening doorways to accommodate wheelchairs.
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/commercial-lease-basics-29934.html
She may also want to check with the office of the inspector (was it health dept or other?) and find out exactly what is required. For instance, if each of the bathrooms (men’s and women’s) are small and say only have 2 stalls each, can she convert to a single handicapped stall in each? As for the work itself, yes if the doorways have to be widened as well as adding the handicapped accessible stalls, toilets, handrails, sinks, I can see that it could be expensive but I would encourage her to get more quotes and there may be options to purchase used fixtures, such as when another establishment has closed.
She might also want to check out the SBA to see if she qualifies for a loans, especially as a woman owned business.
Jackie Chiles doesn't charge that outrageous, egregious, preposterous fee!
It’s pretty pitiful though when “conservatives” have been painted into the corner of telling us what a colossal, locality dependent pain it is to deal with the ruling “liberals.”
Tell them its just a undocumented bathroom and thank them for their concern
Please understand, I HATE being dour and discouraging, because I applaud entrepreneurship in impulse and in deed and I admire it in execution and I don’t mean to be polyanna cliched saying “most restaurants fail”.
But they do. I know, I know, you and I go out to restaurants at all levels, greasy spoons and high end places and think little of it, but they are very complex entities to open and run. My brother was the attorney for the CA Restaurant Ass’n for several years, I know folks who are restuarant consultants, and I know several people who are experts in commercial real estate. And all I can tell you is, I have no idea how an operator can conform to the requirements of running a restaurant without massive, massive capital. A restaurant can go out of business if their food costs go up 3%. If she is hard up against the wall capital-wise and running afoul of regs-wise in episode #1, she is cooked.
Again, without knowing any details; if she can exit her lease because the premises do not conform to ADA req’ments, she will probably be better off breaking her lease on the grounds of impossibility right now and exiting stage right. I’m sorry.
And it may be that there is such a train wreck of circumstances and provisions that the lease is null and void, but that’s only what a real estate attorney could tell her.
This is what happens when we got a nanny state and people are like “not my yob, mon.”
He’s asking, “ for a friend.”
Oh, believe me, there is such a law. Generally, unless the restaurant or bar, etc. is grandfathered (such as one owner passing it on to another relative or heir) the new owner MUST comply with ADA wheelchair accessibility laws. That means not only installing wheelchair accessible tables, but bathrooms. as well, at a tremendous and usually cost-prohibitive sum. That is why so many small shops either do not change hands, or go under. I know a few small shop owners, and they’ve had to comply with these ADA requirements, yet not a one of them has ever seen anyone in a wheelchair come in to eat or drink. Not. A. One.
PC run amok.
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