In the time crunch before the end of the Council Period, it seems that the years-in-the-making legislation to quell the practice of rent concessions will finally come to fruition.
Brief history lesson: prior to 2006 Rent Control was based on a system of rent ceilings. The “ceiling” was the maximum chargeable rent under the statute. For a variety of reasons, the “ceiling” would typically be substantially higher than the market rent.
In October the Council took a preliminary vote to adopt among the most restrictive short-term housing regulations (AirBnB Law) in the Country. This week the Council passed the final version of the law, with only small changes. The new law will be a potentially huge impediment for owners who earn money renting out their property via sites like AirBnB, Homeaway, or VRBO.
Two or more people own a house, and one co-owner decides that he or she no longer wants to be an owner. What, can be done? It’s called ‘partition’ and it happens all the time, in a variety of circumstances.
On Tuesday October 2, 2018, the D.C Council took a preliminary, unanimous, vote to enact one of the most stringent regulations in the Country on short-term housing rentals such as Airbnb , HomeAway, and VRBO.
If the bill becomes law in its present form, homeowners would only be allowed to rent out rooms in their main residence for 90 days per year while they are absent – so called “vacation rentals.” However, there is no limit on rentals while the host is present, i.e. spare bedroom “house sharing.”
A week ago the D.C. Court of Appeals handed down a decision that answered lingering questions about condo super priority lien foreclosures. It is a potentially a huge blow to mortgage lenders and a windfall to the investors who bought up these foreclosures by the dozen.
It’s hot, like really hot. Like sign of the apocalypse, wrath of god, we are finally paying for our sins in a fiery humid eternity. I can’t imagine that anyone can generate the energy it takes to househunt or perform due diligence walkthroughs of un-airconditioned pre-buildout space. But, the Council has been busy with its legislative agenda much of which can impact your real estate business.
A couple of months ago, I posted that the U.S. Marshals Service announced changes to DC eviction procedures. Broadly speaking the Marshals decided that they would no longer supervise the removal of tenant belongings from a unit, but merely allow the landlord to execute a lock change at eviction.
Here is a scenario I’ve seen a half-dozen or so times. A homeowner hires a professional property manager to rent out the owner’s house after a move out-of-state. The management contract contains fairly standard language stating that if the Owner sells the property to a tenant, the Property Manager is entitled to a sales commission as the procuring source. The owner at some point decides to sell, hires an agent, and either via TOPA or directly, the tenant purchases.
For years landlords and tenants alike have complained that the DC eviction procedures are unfair. Landlords complain that the process is inefficient and slow, as a result, it takes too long to regain possession of the rental unit after an eviction order. Tenants have decried the process as inhumane and resulting in damage, destruction, and theft of personal belongings.
The DC Rent Contol Law is actually a convoluted stew of esoteric code and regulation sections. If you are burdened by logic and reason, you have little hope of understanding this flaming trash heap of a statutory scheme. However, for all of its shortcomings, it is actually clear on one point. IF a landlord is eligible for a Rent Control exemption, he or she MUST, file the exemption AND serve the affected tenants SIMULTANEOUSLY with the filing. If the landlord fails to do this, the exemption is VOID. 14 DCMR § 4101.6; Levy v. District of Columbia Rental Housing Commission 126 A.3d 684 (D.C. 2015)