HUD Has Changed the Deadline for Accessibility Complaints About New Housing

On August 31, 2026, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a memo. The memo changes how long you have to file a complaint with HUD when certain housing is built without required accessibility features. The memo covers buildings with four or more units in them — apartments you rent, condos you buy, and other kinds of housing built this way.

This explainer describes that memo. It is general information and is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer about your own situation.

The Fair Housing Act says that certain housing must be built with basic accessibility features. It applies to buildings with four or more units in them that were ready for people to move into after March 13, 1991. It does not matter whether you rent or own. Apartments, condominiums, and co-ops can all be covered.

• If the building has an elevator, all the units must have these features.
• If the building has no elevator, the ground floor units must have these features.

The required features include:

• An entrance you can get to and get through without stairs
• Doors wide enough for a wheelchair
• A route you can use through the unit
• Light switches, outlets, and thermostats you can reach
• Bathroom walls strong enough to add grab bars later
• Kitchens and bathrooms you can move around in

Builders were supposed to include these features when the housing was built.

HUD changed the deadline for filing this kind of complaint with HUD.

Now you have one year from the date the building got its first certificate of occupancy.

Note: A certificate of occupancy is the document a city or county gives a builder when the building is finished, and people are allowed to move in. It is usually issued before anyone lives there.

Before this memo, HUD said the problem continued for as long as the barrier existed. So you could file a complaint at any time while the building was still inaccessible, even many years after it was built.

HUD has now rejected that position. HUD says the violation happens during construction and ends when construction ends.

It means that for most covered housing, the deadline to complain to HUD has already passed.

Almost every covered building has had its certificate of occupancy for more than a year. Under the new rule, HUD will treat complaints about those buildings as too late, no matter how inaccessible the building is.

It also means the deadline can run out before you are harmed. If you move into a building five years after it was built and find you cannot get through the front door, your HUD deadline expired four years before you ever saw the place.

The barriers do not go away. The building is still supposed to be accessible under the law. What changed is whether HUD will act on a complaint about it.

Immediately. HUD says the change applies as of August 31, 2026.

No. Congress did not change the Fair Housing Act. HUD did not issue a new regulation, and there was no public comment period.

This is an internal memo telling HUD staff how to handle complaints. That matters, because HUD handles a lot of complaints. But it is not the same as a law, and courts are not required to follow it.

The accessibility requirements themselves. Housing covered by the law is still required to have accessibility features. Skipping them is still illegal.

Your right to go to court. You can file a lawsuit in court without going to HUD first. Courts, not HUD, decide the deadline for lawsuits. HUD says in the memo that it thinks the court deadline should also start at the certificate of occupancy, but judges make that decision themselves, and judges in different parts of the country have ruled different ways.

The Attorney General’s power to sue builders. The memo says it does not change this.

State and local fair housing laws. Many states and cities have their own accessibility and fair housing laws, their own agencies, and their own deadlines. Those are separate from HUD.

Your right to ask for reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications. If you need a change to a rule, a policy, or the physical space in order to use your home, you can still ask. That right is separate and is not affected by this memo.

Note: A reasonable accommodation is a change to a rule, a policy, or the way something is normally done, so that a disabled person has an equal chance to use and enjoy their home.

Note: A reasonable modification is a physical change to the building or your unit, so that you can fully use and enjoy your home.

Federal courts do not all agree on this question. In some parts of the country, including California, courts had already been using a deadline tied to the end of construction. In other places, courts have used different starting points.

A lawyer in your state can tell you which rule applies where you live.

Do not assume it is too late. The HUD deadline is only one of several ways you can get help. Other laws and other deadlines may still be open to you.

Write down what you find. Take photos. Note measurements if you can. Keep copies of anything the landlord or builder tells you.

Get legal help. Contact a fair housing organization, a disability rights legal organization, or a legal aid office in your area. Ask them about your options under federal, state, and local law.

Ask for what you need now. You can request a reasonable accommodation or a reasonable modification while you look into your other options.

HUD and the Department of Justice have published guidance on reasonable accommodations and reasonable modifications.