The Profit in Decay Landlords Who Empty Buildings of Tenants Reap Extra Benefit Under Law By Debbie Cenziper and Sarah Cohen Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday March 9 2008 Page A01 Landlords determined to cash in on a lucrative real estate market pushed thousands of tenants out of apartments across the District in recent years and then reaped more than 328 million by converting the buildings into condominiums Dozens of landlords refused to make repairs forcing families to live in filth at times without heat hot water or electricity Other landlords delivered urgent letters or mass notices demanding that tenants leave In the past four years landlords emptied more than 200 buildings from Columbia Heights to Southeast most of them rent controlled thwarting the intent of one of the nation s toughest tenant rights laws with the approval of the city government a Washington Post investigation found It was the hidden toll of a frenzied condominium boom that turned aging neighborhoods into coveted urban communities At 3872 Ninth St SE three floors of misery in the heart of Southeast Washington tenants lived for years with leaking pipes crumbling ceilings and kitchens that reeked of rat urine When Sherita Evans returned home from work with her young son she d shield his eyes and step over addicts who broke into vacant unsecured apartments to get high or get warm After new owners took over in 2005 tenants pleaded for months for repairs Most eventually moved out allowing the owners to turn the rent controlled apartments into a 9 million condominium complex It was clear They wanted us out said Evans among a handful of tenants who struck a deal with the owners to stay on as renters It got so bad all I wanted to do was leave Nearly three decades ago city leaders created a law that gave tenants extraordinary power the right to vote on whether property owners could convert rental buildings into condominiums The law also requires owners to pay the city a fee on the sale of new condominiums which would help displaced renters with relocation costs But as the District s real estate market thrived landlords found a way out The law doesn t apply to vacant buildings By emptying buildings and taking advantage of a provision known as a vacancy exemption landlords can avoid the tenant vote and the tax and turn rental apartments into condominiums City officials have granted the exemptions even when government records chronicled widespread evictions and buildings riddled with code violations In the past four years nearly three quarters of the landlords who received permission to begin converting apartment buildings into condominiums did so through a vacancy exemption not a vote by tenants saving 16 million in condominium conversion fees while families across the city lost their homes The exemption is providing every incentive for a landlord to be aggressive in some instances bordering on actually being criminal said Joel Cohn legislative director with the District s Office of the Tenant Advocate You have a real concerted effort to get rid of tenants
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