Serviced Offices

The DDA requires reasonable steps to be taken by a service provider or employer to avoid discriminating against disabled people.

If your business is not providing a service to the public, your responsibility is only to take reasonable steps to meet needs from your employees. If you currently have no disabled employees, you do not necessarily need to make arrangements to improve access to your office; however, as you or other tenants in the building may recruit such employees in the future it would be worth considering what options might be possible. It might be worth talking to your landlord. The landlord does not have a duty to make commercial premises accessible per se, although accessible premises are increasingly attracting higher rental. Alterations which the landlord might be planning to the existing premises, eg extending the building, may well require them to ensure access levels meet Part M of the Building Regulations in any case.

If you are providing a service to the public at your offices, then you have a duty under the DDA to take reasonable steps to avoid discrimination against disabled users. Depending on the nature of your business, you may have clients visiting your offices, but they might usually make an appointment rather than just wander in off the street? This gives you the opportunity to provide information in your correspondence with clients, and signs on the premises, to let them know about the limited access at your premises. Offer to arrange a home visit, or to see them at their offices? Even if the property is not ideal for people with mobility difficulties, you can do many things for people with sensory impairments, eg colour contrast, induction loops, large print, etc. which are not restricted by the fact that the offices are on the second floor. Other tenants in the building might have obligations under the DDA to think about these issues, if they are also ?service providers', so it might be a good idea to approach your landlord jointly to discuss what might be 'reasonable' adjustments to make.

Well, the answer depends on in which country you reside.

I guess for the building itself it is the landlord's responsibility e.g. the one that the serviced office provider leases from!

Within your office you need to take care of health and safety for your employees. If that requires (technical) input from your landlord do agree with them on how to solve this...if you improve the office for future tenants they may want to share the costs.

M.Rombouts

url: www.m2offices.com

I currently rent a three person office in a serviced office building. The three floored building is a converted home and has no lift available. I was wondering where I stand with regards to the DDA in terms of recruiting new staff and ensuring facilities are compliant for existing employees. Whose responsibility is it to ensure the building is DDA compliant, the landlord's or my own as an employer?