United States Files Fair Housing Act Lawsuit Against Toll Brothers And Related Entities For Failure To Construct Apartments With Features Accessible To Persons With Disabilities

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that the United States has filed a federal Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) lawsuit against TOLL BROTHERS, INC. and TOLL BROTHERS REALTY TRUST (collectively, “TOLL BROTHERS”), relating to their failure to design and construct new apartment buildings so as to be accessible to persons with physical disabilities.  The lawsuit also names certain TOLL BROTHERS affiliates as well as other entities that participated in the design or construction of these residential complexes, as well as a condominium association whose cooperation is essential to ensure retrofits.  Upon filing suit, the United States also submitted to the Court a proposed consent decree with LENDLEASE (US) CONSTRUCTION LMB, INC. f/k/a BOVIS LEND LEASE LMB, INC., (“LENDLEASE”), which participated in the design and construction of one such building.  This settlement is subject to the review and approval of the U.S. District Judge assigned to the case.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “This is the 19th suit that this Office has filed to remedy the failure of real estate developers to comply with the Fair Housing Act.  We appreciate Lendlease’s cooperation in taking responsibility for its actions so that more properties are more accessible to more people.  This Office will remain vigilant in ensuring that developers and architects comply with the FHA and remedy inaccessible housing in this District.”

The FHA’s accessible design and construction provisions require multifamily housing complexes constructed after January 1991 to have basic features accessible to persons with disabilities.

According to the allegations in the Complaint:

The inaccessible conditions at TOLL BROTHERS’ buildings include excessively high thresholds at building entrances and entrances to common use areas, common use bathrooms that lack grab bars, excessively high thresholds at entrances to individual apartments and within the apartments, and bathrooms in individual apartments that lack sufficient clear floor space for people who use wheelchairs.  These features in the common use areas of TOLL BROTHERS’ buildings, as well as in the buildings’ apartment interiors, did not meet the specifications set forth in the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines, Design Guidelines for Accessible/Adaptable Dwellings.

The Complaint identifies, by way of example, inaccessible conditions at the following five properties:

• The Sutton, at 959 First Avenue, New York, New York 10022.

• 49 North 8th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11211 (“North 8th”).  Based upon an investigation by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”), the Complaint names several entities as defendants that were involved in the design and construction of North 8^th: LENDLEASE (with whom, as noted above, the Government has reached an agreement subject to Court approval); GREENBERGFARROW ARCHITECTS; TOLL LAND XIII LIMITED PARTNER; TOLL NORTHEAST LP COMPANY, INC.; and NORTH8 CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION, INC., which has been named as a defendant not because it created the accessible conditions but because its cooperation is essential to making retrofits to the property.

• 3000 Goldfinch Boulevard in Princeton, New Jersey (“Parc at Princeton Junction”).  The Complaint names TB PRINCETON VILLAGE LLC as a developer of the Parc at Princeton Junction.

• 134 Plymouth Road in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania (“Parc Plymouth Meeting”).  The Complaint names TB-BDN PLYMOUTH APARTMENTS as a developer of Parc Plymouth Meeting.

• 10 Provost Street, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302.

Similar inaccessible conditions existed at nine additional properties: Emerson at Edge on the Hudson, 203 Legend Drive, in Sleepy Hollow, New York; 160 Morgan Street in Jersey City, New Jersey; 527 Old Bridge Turnpike in East Brunswick, New Jersey; 900 Wessex Place in Princeton, New Jersey; 45 North Main Street in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania; 275 2nd Avenue in Needham, Massachusetts; 2150 Astoria Circle in Herndon, Virginia; and 1011 1st Street, SE and 200 K Street, NE in Washington, D.C.

Due to the inaccessible conditions at the buildings they designed and constructed, TOLL BROTHERS engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of rights protected by the FHA and denied such rights to people with disabilities.  The Complaint seeks a court order directing TOLL BROTHERS to retrofit individual apartments as well as the public and common use areas of the buildings so that they are accessible, to adopt policies and procedures to ensure FHA compliance in future constructions, and to compensate people who suffered discrimination due to the inaccessible conditions.

Under the settlement with LENDLEASE, LENDLEASE agreed to establish procedures to ensure FHA compliance at future development projects and agreed to institute policies and training to ensure that their employees and agents will comply with the FHA’s accessibility requirements.  LENDLEASE also agreed to pay a civil penalty of $10,000, commensurate with its role in designing and/or constructing North 8^th.

People who believe they may have experienced discrimination due to the inaccessible conditions at the above-named buildings developed by TOLL BROTHERS may contact the Civil Rights Complaint account at USANYS-CivilRights@usdoj.gov, use the Civil Rights Complaint Form available on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/civilrights.html, or send a written report to: 

U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York 

86 Chambers Street, 3rd Floor 

New York, New York 10007 

Attention: Chief, Civil Rights Unit

The suit against TOLL BROTHERS is the 19th lawsuit filed by this Office with developers and architects to remedy inaccessible housing in this District, including suits against The Durst Organization, Glenwood Management, Silverstein Properties, Related Companies, and Atlantic Development.

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Mr. Williams thanked HUD for its assistance on the investigation.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Rights Unit in the Civil Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys David J. Kennedy and Danielle J. Marryshow are charge of the case.