Reply to TOPA exemption for SFHs in DC - will this create more supply?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]"But if TOPA is removed and the lease is up anyway, what does it matter what the intent was? I can tell you to prepare to vacate in 90 days. My house, I want back for my purposes."
[b]
In DC, unlike MD or VA, leases are never "up". [/b] You may certainly ask tenants to "vacate in 90 days" if you certify that you want to recover the property for personal use.  But if you make such a certification falsely (i.e., having some other intent), that is fraud.

Now, if you remove TOPA, I suppose tenants' incentive to sue for fraud might be slightly lower.  But people tend to react badly if they feel they have been treated as suckers...  And, if they do sue, it will likely take a year before the case is even heard--and in the meantime you would find it challenging to sell.[/quote]

What kind of nonsense is that. It's standard to sign a one year lease. Two years at the most. After which it goes month-to-month. So if your 1-year ended in February, you're now on a month-to-month basis which gives me the right to ask you to leave after a month is over. Though I will give the full 90 days as a courtesy. [/quote]

That's not how it works in DC. When the lease is up and it goes month-to-month, the TENANT has the right to terminate the lease with 30 days notice. The landlord has no such right. The lease continues until there is a violation or a valid reason to end the lease. Personal use and occupancy is one such reason. "I want to sell the house" is not a valid reason. The tenant would be within his rights not to vacate and the court would not agree to evict for that reason. And if you lie and say you want to live there and the house goes on MRIS a few weeks later, the tenant could sue you for wrongful eviction. Even if they didn't have TOPA rights, they had rights as a tenant. The penalties for wrongful eviction can be severe and there are a lot of lawyers who will take these cases on contingency.[/quote]

Okay.

So a) if you repossess the house and kick the tenant out for 'personal use' you just have to wait 12 months to put the home on the market. They can't prove whether or not you were actually living in the house yourself, and b) What if you wanted to increase the rent within normal guidelines - i.e. between 3% - 5% - if the tenant is unwilling to pay, how long before they must leave the premises?[/quote]

a) it's hard to prove whether you're living in the house or not, but obviously there could be evidence gathered and presented during a lawsuit. If someone claimed the homestead deduction for living someplace that he didn't live, that's also tax fraud and the government could get involved.

b) it's possible to raise the rent on a month-to-month lease, but how much depends on whether the property is exempt from rent control or not. If not exempt from rent control (and it's only exempt if it meets the guidelines for an exemption AND the owner actually got an exemption from DHCD) then it can only be raised by CPI+2% (or CPI if the tenant is elderly or disabled) though there are situations where a higher increase is allowable, often involving petitioning DHCD.

But if a landlord raises the rent an allowable amount and the tenant doesn't pay, the landlord can start eviction proceedings fairly quickly (how fast depends on whether the lease waives a notice to quit for nonpayment of rent or not, but within a month or two). How long it would take to get the court to allow an eviction depends on lots of factors (does the tenant enter into a payment plan? demand a jury trial? assert defenses like housing code violations?) and then it can take longer to actually carry out the eviction since there are rules about that too. At any point, if the eviction is only about nonpayment of rent, the tenant can pay the full amount he owes and the case goes away.[/quote]

Thank you - very helpful![/quote]

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