Opinion: The RENTAL Act Guts Tenant Protections in D.C.

The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) has been lauded as the hallmark of tenant rights in the District of Columbia. Established in 1980, the law gives tenants the right to make the first offer on their building when their landlord puts it up for sale. The measure is meant to reduce displacement when buildings are sold. 

This law grants D.C. tenants leverage when they’re faced with a building sale and potential eviction. New purchasers may offer them buyouts so they have enough money to move. Tenants can bargain for better conditions or affordability covenants from new purchasers. Or they can turn down a new buyer altogether and transform their building ownership structure into a limited opportunity co-op. These options are lifelines for tenants facing a building sale that could upend their lives.

But in the eyes of Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council, TOPA is a burden on developers and delays the timeline of transactions. In other words, tenant rights are always expendable in the name of landlord profits. 

This is what Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Council have signaled with their relentless attacks on TOPA. With wealthy landlords and developers in their ear, the D.C. Council eliminated TOPA rights for all tenants residing in single family homes in 2018. Now, tenants face the largest attack yet on their TOPA rights under the newly proposed RENTAL ACT, which the council passed on a first vote last month, after several amendments. The council will vote on the law for a second and final time on September 17.

Under the RENTAL Act, Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Council will: 

• Expedite the eviction process from 30 days to 10 days for non-payment of rent, which takes tenants back to the pre-pandemic timeline
• Exempt TOPA rights from newly constructed buildings for 15 years 
• Exempt buildings from TOPA where buyers commit to an affordability covenant that keeps 51 percent of the rents affordable to people who make up to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), around 86k in 2025. 

Chairman of the Housing Committee and At-large Councilmember Robert White, seeking a political win with a bill introduced by Mayor Bowser, will tell you these changes are necessary because new construction permits in D.C. are down 83% since last year. He will tell you that developers view TOPA and rental arrears as the main reason not to build in D.C. He will tell you that his changes will only affect a small number of tenants. 

But Councilmember White’s remedy will increase the profit margins of large landlords and developers, while sidestepping the real issues facing tens of thousands of rent-burdened tenants. It is completely unreasonable to expect developers, who have historically failed to deliver on affordable housing despite every incentive thrown their way, to build their way out of the District’s housing affordability crisis.

Tenants are left with the short end of the stick. While the District overall boasts strong protections for tenants—at least relative to other U.S. cities—it is obvious to anyone who rents that landlords still have the upper hand. It only takes $15 for a landlord to file an eviction notice, a process which is notoriously traumatizing for tenants. In rent stabilized units, long-term residents – who are often Black and Brown – are targeted and intimidated by landlords in hopes that they will self-evict. In D.C., landlords are allowed to increase rent by 20% for units that tenants reside in for over 10 years if they move out.

Even agencies designed to help tenants often fail to provide actual relief. Department of Building inspections are unreliable, housing attorneys are understaffed and have limited capacity, and the Office of the Tenant Advocate lacks the teeth to help tenants fight against slumlords. 

As D.C. tenants ourselves, we encourage all renters to hold our politicians accountable when they do not act in our interest. Call your ward representative and the at-large members and tell them to vote NO on the RENTAL Act. If they ignore us, we’ll vote them out.