DC Council Advances Key Rental Reform in Compromise Vote

D.C.’s biggest rental reform in years is one vote away from becoming law.

The City Council advanced a scaled-back version of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s RENTAL Act in a 10-2 vote on Monday, Bisnow reported.

The revised bill still tackles two longtime pain points for landlords: the city’s tenant purchase law and eviction policies. But the compromise left tenant advocates fuming and Bowser only partly satisfied.

The centerpiece is a retooling of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. The council’s version shortens the window of exemption to the law for newly-constructed buildings to 15 years — down from the 25 years Bowser originally proposed — but keeps her proposed carveout for owners who sign 20-year affordability agreements. That alone could loosen one of the region’s biggest levers on multifamily investment.

The bill also trims eviction timelines, aiming to fast-track removals in violent crime cases and shrink the prefiling and hearing periods in nonpayment cases. The changes come amid heightened concern from landlords over rising rent arrears and a sluggish recovery in construction, which has cooled under regulatory uncertainty.

Council member Robert White, who chairs the housing committee and steered the bill through Monday’s vote, framed the reform as essential to stabilizing the rental market. Seventy percent of D.C. residents are renters, he noted, and many are stuck in a market hobbled by stalled development.

Landlord groups, once sharply critical of the version crafted by the committee, welcomed the amendments. The leader of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington said the bill had come a long way and the Small Multifamily Owners Association chief executive officer called the vote “real progress.”

But tenant advocates slammed the outcome. Legal Aid DC warned that the bill weakens renter protections and could lead to increased evictions and displacement, especially in tandem with recent budget cuts and strained housing programs.

The legislation next heads to a second and final vote, likely in mid-September after the council’s August recess. Until then, the text remains open to changes — and Bowser is pushing for more.

In a pre-vote email, she urged lawmakers to restore her 25-year TOPA exemption and rework eviction protections, making clear she won’t support any rollbacks to those provisions.

— Holden Walter-Warner