tenant rights

“I’d really appreciate any advice as to who’s legally liable for the partial rent here.”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by Jordan Barab

“Dear PoPville,

Like the person who wrote in the other day with a rental/lease question, I’m writing in hoping to get some advice on a tricky lease situation. I rent a lovely 3-bedroom rowhouse in DC with 2 roommates. We’re all three on the lease together (“jointly and severally liable”), and we pay the landlord one single combined payment each month. The lease is now month-to-month, having rolled over from a year-long lease originally.

One of my roommates gave exactly 30 days’ notice to move out, and I’ve been diligently searching for a new roommate to start July 1 … and so far coming up short. (more…)

“the thing that jumped out at me is that they are threatening to evict residents if they don’t wear masks in common areas”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by Clif Burns

“Dear PoPville,

I received this email from my apartment building’s management. The stuff about amenities is not new, but the thing that jumped out at me is that they are threatening to evict residents if they don’t wear masks in common areas or if they have guests over. Besides that there’s nothing I can see in the lease that allows this, evictions are illegal right now (for 60 days until the end of the public health emergency). Management has not laid out an exceptions for people who have difficulty putting on masks due to a disability, or for children, and haven’t laid out exceptions for people with essential guests (caretakers and the like). This is a Bozzuto building; it would be interesting to know if other Bozzuto residents have gotten notices like this?

Dear Valued Residents, (more…)

“Apartments requiring masks everywhere”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by DCbmyers

“Dear PoPville,

This is the first I’ve seen of a building requiring residents to wear masks just to leave their apartment (run to trash room, take the dog for a walk). Considering masks aren’t required for regular exercise, I can’t imagine a landlord has any ability to throw this on lease-holders, right? Regular mask wearer here, but considering the legality. Any experience with this?” (more…)

“Construction/renovations in apartment buildings”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by angela n.

“Dear PoPville,

I was wondering if tenants have any rights to question/stop renovations of rental apartments during the stay at home order. I don’t know if we have any say, but when most tenants are working from home (and not allowed to use amenity spaces) during this time, it is incredibly disruptive to have the leasing agency for our building completely renovating unoccupied apartments. Is there anything we can do? They want us to keep paying rent but to do that we kind of need to keep our jobs…Are others experiencing this issue?”

“Any Apartments Reducing Rent due to Closed Amenities?”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Tim Brown

“Dear PoPville,

I live in Adams Morgan and wrote to my apartment management when they closed amenities in March due to COVID-19 to see if they would be willing to reduce the rent. While we certainly agree with their decision, we chose the apartment building specifically for the amenities, and pay a lot of money to use the rooftop, gym, lounge, courtyard, and other perks. With these being closed, we thought it was fair to request a bit of reduction in our rent, especially considering the financial uncertainty of these times. Management wrote back saying they were open to negotiations but first wanted to know if other apartments have done the same before making a decision on the amount. (more…)

“Are we being screwed?”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user brunofish

“Dear PoPville,

In November, I got a new job out of state that I started in January. My family has been renting a great home in Manor Park since August 2015 and our lease is slated to end at the end of July 2020. When we inquired with our property management company about our options they said we could 1) market and show the property ourselves and if we found new tenants the penalty would only be the loss of a portion of our deposit, or 2) have the property management company market the property, which would require a 60 day notice to vacate (read: two additional months rent) and the loss of our entire deposit. The property management company recommended that we go with option one, which made sense to us.

Flash forward to mid-February. (more…)

Resident Frustration Mounts After Saturday Morning Shooting in the Capitol View Building: “Please see the attached photo of the bullet hole in the elevator landing wall.”

By Prince Of Petworth

A reader shares some frustration and more details about the Saturday morning shooting inside the Capitol View building at 14th and Belmont Street, NW:

“The UDR building management has sought to downplay this incident from the start. They didn’t send any message to residents until more than 3 hours after the incident occurred with very little information. Then when they did follow-up several more hours later, the message is an unacceptable minimization of their knowledge of the ongoing problem with this unit, the seriousness of the incident itself and the severity of the damage caused.

Per the MPD on the scene, multiple rounds were fired within the fourth floor hallway. The gunfire was not confined to the unit. Please see the attached photo of the bullet hole in the elevator landing wall. If it’s not an “on-going threat to the community” now, it certainly was when bullets were flying in a common space at 9 a.m. on a Saturday! (more…)

“Settlement Secures OAG’s Largest-Ever Recovery of Rent from a District Landlord”

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Erin

From the Office of the Attorney General:

“Attorney General Karl A. Racine today announced that notorious landlord Sanford Capital, LLC, and its owner will return over $1.1 million in rent payments to 155 tenants forced to live in uninhabitable conditions. The joint settlement agreement resolves three consumer protection lawsuits the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) brought against Sanford for charging rent but failing to maintain its properties and endangering its tenants. It also resolves 32 claims filed by the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia on behalf of individual tenants relating to housing conditions at one Sanford property. Under the terms of the joint agreement, Sanford will be required to return rent paid by tenants at three properties located in Wards 5, 7, and 8, pay the District a penalty, and continue divesting from all their properties in the District as required by a previous settlement. (more…)

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