Purpose

The Chief Tenant Advocate advocates for, educates, and provides outreach for tenants in the District of Columbia.

The Office of the Tenant Advocate (OTA) was started to respond to concerns about DC’s tenants:

• Tenants often don’t know their legal rights as renters–and they have trouble learning their rights.
• Tenants frequently can’t pay for legal representation.
• Tenants usually don’t know how to use lower-cost court mediation and adjudication services.

• Advocacy
• Education
• Outreach
• Future Plans

• We represent them in court and in administrative proceedings.
• We advocate for changes in laws and regulations to protect them.
• We work to make sure that landlords and developers follow requirements in the 1985 Housing Act and related amendments; and the Tenant Opportunity Act (TOPA). TOPA gives renters the right of first refusal, when an owner wants to sell or convert rental property to new uses.
• We help tenants in rent-controlled housing to understand and protect their rights (when housing
  providers propose rent increases or capital improvement assessments).
• We monitor and protect the rights of older and disabled renters.

Education

• We educate tenants about rental housing laws, rules and other policies–especially rights to petition and form tenant organizations. We help them to know about changes in these laws.
• We hold workshops to give tenants important, up-to-date information about their rights.

Outreach

• We help tenants to prepare for and get building-wide housing code inspections.
• We help tenants complete tenant petitions.
• We work with tenant and resident organizations to build strong leadership–so they can improve the living conditions of DC residents in rental housing.
• We coordinate and communicate with the Tenant Advisory Council.
• We administer the Condo Conversion Development Fund.
• We investigate and track all condo sales and conversion filings.

Future Plans

We’ll be creating a system to monitor capital improvement petitions and tenant relocations. We’ll be expanding our direct services to tenants.

Contact the Office of the Tenant Advocate