“seeking advice from the community regarding renting, construction sites, and quality of life”

photo by Victoria Pickering

“Dear PoPville,

I live in a residential building in Dupont Circle and am seeking advice from the community regarding renting, construction sites, and quality of life.

The building directly adjacent (shares a wall with the entire length of my apartment) is being demolished to build a new high rise apartment building. What makes this situation a bit different than usual is that our management company is also constructing the new adjacent high rise apartment building. Therefore, our management company is directly responsible for making our rented living space “unworkable” and “unlivable” from 7 am to 5 pm.

Management has offered the use of our relatively small penthouse common areas for work spaces during this time. However, we do not feel that is sufficient. The spaces are not conducive to working in privacy nor for social distancing.

What can we do? Our initial thoughts are to draft a letter of complaint to management with as many signatures from effected tenants in the building that we can garner. What are reasonable demands that would be supported by DC renter’s laws? reduction in rent for the duration of the demolition? Free parking space in the garage due to one entire side of street parking being taken away due to construction staging? Please advise!

I realize that construction is permitted during these hours, however I do not feel our management company is doing enough to accommodate current tenants for the disturbing conditions that will persist for months.”