What is TOPA?

As its name suggests, TOPA gives tenants the chance to buy their own building when it is put up for sale. But it also goes much further. Many tenant associations aren’t able to buy a building outright, but even in these cases, it gives tenants a voice in their property’s future. TOPA empowers tenants to identify a buyer they prefer, often one who will hear their needs and make repairs. By “assigning” their TOPA rights to a developer of their choosing, tenants protect one another and protect DC properties from falling into the hands of slumlords.

TOPA also gives tenants a seat at the table and leverage to negotiate with an interested buyer about needed improvements, keeping rent affordable, or other issues that are important to the families who already live in a building facing an ownership transition. Tenants may also be able to secure payments for themselves to leave the property, which helps lower-income residents find new housing without leaving the District.

According to research funded by the DC Council, more than 16,000 affordable units were developed or preserved through TOPA between 2006 and 2020. Through the ups and downs of the rental market, TOPA has made DC’s housing stronger, safer, and more stable for District residents.  

How does the RENTAL Act change TOPA?

The RENTAL Act claims to “refocus” TOPA, when its true focus is catering to landlords and telling thousands of tenants that they no longer have a seat at the table. While there are many problems with the RENTAL Act, here are just three of the biggest issues for TOPA:  

     1. Cuts TOPA rights for certain affordable housing.

One of TOPA’s main goals is to keep housing affordable for low-income tenants, but the RENTAL Act would take TOPA rights away from tenants who live in buildings where these rights are most important.  

Specifically, the bill would remove TOPA from properties that have affordability covenants — long-term agreements to keep rent at certain levels that stay with a building, regardless of its owner.  

While it’s true that these properties guarantee affordable units, it doesn’t mean that TOPA isn’t needed. Tenants shouldn’t be robbed of their chance to negotiate for repairs in aging buildings when their health and safety are at risk. And they should be able to advocate for going further than an affordability covenant requires to keep rent low for residents at all income levels. This is especially important when DC is short 37,000 units for people with extremely low incomes.  

     2. Leaves newer buildings out of TOPA.

Under the RENTAL Act, TOPA would not apply to properties that were built or “substantially improved” within the last 25 years and where more than half of rents are over a certain threshold. This would affect a large number of buildings and weaken TOPA in the District.  

Newer buildings can still have serious housing conditions issues, and TOPA matters to these properties too to negotiate for repairs and affordability. And because the bill looks at rents within six months leading up to a building’s sale, it would incentivize landlords to hike rent prices to get around TOPA.  

    3. Creates loopholes for investors to get around TOPA.

The RENTAL Act creates a massive loophole where there’s currently a narrow exception to TOPA. It would allow landlords to bypass TOPA any time a new investor makes a “capital contribution” to the property — without explaining what the term means.

Under the current law, only landlords that use the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program to bring investors to a property can skip the TOPA process. Replacing this clearly defined piece of TOPA law with vague language would only create confusion, give landlords an opening to deny tenants their TOPA rights, and lead to more lawsuits.

Landlords and developers already have a history of creating tortured financial deals and hiding behind webs of complex business transactions to get out of following TOPA. The RENTAL Act would throw a door wide open for more underhanded tactics to keep tenants out of the sale process.

TOPA is one of the best tools the District has to empower tenants and encourage the type of responsible development that serves the city in the long term. Ripping up these protections would make DC and its residents more vulnerable to exploitation by those developers that answer only to their own profits and not to the most basic needs of tenants.

The DC Council should instead shore up TOPA by, for example, reintroducing a 2018 bill that would create a new TOPA process for properties in bankruptcy, when many tenants are currently losing their TOPA rights. The Council should also use the Housing Production Trust Fund to support responsible developers who are trying to preserve already existing affordable housing in DC. The Council should set aside one-third of the fund for preservation of affordable housing, rather than new development, and to ensure that these funds are quickly and efficiently released through a competitive application process.

What You Can Do to Stop the RENTAL Act

Contact your DC Councilmembers and tell them that tenants deserve more than the RENTAL Act and to protect TOPA.

Sign up for Legal Aid DC's Community Newsletter to stay up to date on ways to get involved.

Follow tenant advocacy organizations including the Fair Budget Coalition, Empower DC, DC Jobs With Justice, and Jews United for Justice for more updates and advocacy opportunities.