Justice Department files suit against Toll Brothers

Dive Brief:

Last week, the Department of Justice filed a federal Fair Housing Act lawsuit against Toll Brothers and Toll Brothers Realty Trust, alleging the Fort Washington, Pennsylvania-based builder failed to design and construct new apartment buildings with features accessible to persons with physical disabilities, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.
The suit also named other Toll affiliates and other entities that participated in the design or construction of these residential complexes, including one condo association. The FHA’s design and construction provisions require multifamily housing complexes constructed after January 1991 to have basic features accessible to persons with disabilities.
The DOJ also submitted a proposed consent decree with Lendlease, which participated in the design and construction of one of the buildings. The Australia-based builder and developer agreed to pay a civil penalty of $10,000, establish procedures to ensure FHA compliance at future development projects and institute policies and training to ensure that its employees and agents will comply with the FHA’s accessibility requirements.

Dive Insight:

Toll Brothers did not respond to Multifamily Dive’s request for comment. In the complaint, the DOJ alleged that inaccessible conditions at Toll properties included:

“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.
Bathrooms in individual apartments that lack sufficient clear floor space for people who use wheelchairs.

The DOJ seeks to direct Toll Brothers to retrofit individual apartments and the common areas of the buildings to be accessible. Additionally, it wants the builder to adopt policies and procedures to ensure FHA compliance in future constructions and compensate people who suffered discrimination due to the inaccessible conditions.

The complaint listed inaccessible conditions at the following five properties:

The Sutton at 959 First Avenue in New York City.
49 North 8th Street in Brooklyn, New York. Two Toll entities, GreenbergFarrow Architects and North8 Condominium Association were also named as defendants at this property. The association was named as a defendant because its cooperation was essential to making retrofits to the property, according to the DOJ.
3000 Goldfinch Boulevard in Princeton, New Jersey. Toll entity TB Princeton Village LLC is named as a developer of the property, which is called Parc at Princeton Junction.
134 Plymouth Road in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Toll entity TB-BDN Plymouth Apartments is listed as the developer of the property, which is known as Parc Plymouth Meeting.
10 Provost Street in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Additionally, the DOJ says inaccessible conditions existed at nine other properties spanning from Massachusetts to Virginia.

The Toll Brothers filing marks the 19th time the Southern District of New York has sued developers for allegedly failing to comply with the Fair Housing Act. Other builders sued by the office include The Durst Organization, Glenwood Management, Silverstein Properties, Related Cos. and Atlantic Development, according to the news release from the Southern District of New York.

“We appreciate Lendlease’s cooperation in taking responsibility for its actions so that more properties are more accessible to more people,” Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement announcing the suit. “This office will remain vigilant in ensuring that developers and architects comply with the FHA and remedy inaccessible housing in this District.”

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