Washington, DC: TOPA, deed taxes, zoning and historic review — the District rules that change what you offer
Washington, DC is not a Virginia or Maryland transaction with a different address on it. The District writes its own landlord-tenant, tax and land-use law, and several of those rules land directly on the contract, the closing statement and the renovation plan. A tenant in the property can hold a statutory right to buy it before you do. Two separate deed taxes run on the same rate schedule, and the reduced first-time-buyer rate must be claimed when the deed is offered for recordation, not afterward. The DC Office of Planning's Inventory of Historic Sites covers more than 27,000 protected properties across the city, and a 2016 zoning rewrite governs what can go behind the house or in the alley. What follows is the mechanism behind each, with statute cites and dates so a stale figure can be found and re-checked. All figures are stated as of August 2026 and should be confirmed before you rely on them.
D.C. Code § 42-3404.02 requires an owner to give the tenant an opportunity to purchase the housing accommodation, at a price and terms representing a bona fide offer of sale, before selling it or issuing a notice to vacate for demolition or discontinuance of housing use. The statutory periods are floors, not targets. In a two-to-four-unit building, tenants acting jointly have 15 days to deliver a written statement of interest; if the group does not file, an individual tenant then has 7 more days. The owner must allow at least 90 days to negotiate a contract of sale and at least 90 days after contracting to secure financing. At five units or more, tenants get 45 days to register a tenant organization, at least 120 days to negotiate, and at least 120 days after contracting for financing. That financing period extends further where a lender estimates in writing that a decision will come within 240 days of contracting. Under § 42-3404.06 a tenant may assign or sell the rights to any party, private or governmental, which is why assignment payments appear as a line item in District deals. Section 42-3404.07 provides that an owner shall not request, and a tenant may not grant, a waiver of the right to receive an offer of sale. The TOPA Single-Family Home Exemption Amendment Act of 2018 (D.C. Law 22-120, effective July 3, 2018) removed most of this for a single-family accommodation. Section 42-3401.03 defines that as one single-family dwelling, or one single-family dwelling with one accessory dwelling unit, and also a single rental unit in a condominium, cooperative or homeowners association. A notice obligation survives the exemption, and so does a compressed purchase right for tenants who are elderly or have a disability and meet the statute's 2018 tenancy dates. Cites current as of August 2026.
DC charges two deed taxes on the same schedule. Under D.C. Code §§ 42-1103 and 47-903, each runs at 1.1% of consideration on residential property transferred for less than $400,000, and 1.45% at $400,000 or more, applied to the entire amount. Section 47-903 makes the transferor responsible for the transfer tax, with the transferee jointly and severally liable if the transferor fails to pay; recordation is customarily the buyer's side. A qualifying first-time District homebuyer pays recordation at 0.725% instead. For tax year 2026, beginning October 1, 2025, OTR raised the purchase price ceiling for eligible property from $753,000 to $777,000. Household income limits by household size are printed in the ROD 11 First-Time Homebuyer Table, and § 42-1103 caps eligibility at 180% of area median income. The buyer must be a District resident, or be establishing residency in the immediate future. The buyer must also never have owned a DC house, condominium or co-op interest that qualified for the homestead deduction as a principal residence, and must file the homestead application for the same property. A prior residence owned jointly with an ex-spouse can be excepted where the applicant relinquished ownership under a court order or separation agreement. Form ROD 11 must be submitted when the deed is offered for recordation; OTR states the reduced rate cannot be applied for after the deed is recorded. A separate program under D.C. Code § 47-3503 exempts a qualifying lower-income homeownership household from the deed recordation tax. It also gives that household a credit against the purchase price equal to the transfer tax that would otherwise have been due. And it exempts the property from real property tax until the end of the fifth tax year following the transfer, for as long as the same household owns and occupies it. These figures are current as of August 2026.
Under D.C. Code § 47-850 the Homestead Deduction subtracts a fixed amount from taxable assessed value on an owner-occupied house or condominium unit. For tax year 2026 OTR puts that at $91,950, which it states is worth $781.58 a year against the $0.85 per $100 residential rate. Timing decides how much of it you get. An approved application filed October 1 through March 31 earns the deduction for the entire tax year, while one filed April 1 through September 30 earns half the deduction, applied to the second installment only. An individual may claim only one lot as a homestead, and only one person in a household may claim one in the District. The larger financial effect is the cap. Section 47-864 gives homestead properties an owner-occupant residential tax credit that limits taxable assessment growth to 110% of the prior year, with a 102% multiplier where the property also receives senior or disability relief under § 47-863. That cap does not travel with the property. When the ownership interest transfers and the property no longer qualifies, the credit runs through the half tax year of transfer and then ceases. Model your taxes from the new assessment rather than the seller's capped bill. Separately, since tax year 2025 the residential rate is split under §§ 47-812 and 47-813. Class 1B property, meaning residential property with no more than two dwelling units, pays $0.85 per $100 up to an indexed threshold and $1.00 above it. The statute set that threshold at $2.5 million; OTR publishes it at $2.558 million as of August 2026.
D.C. Code § 47-812 taxes Class 3 vacant property at $5.00 per $100 of assessed value and Class 4 blighted property at $10.00 per $100, against $0.85 for occupied residential. On a $700,000 assessment that is the difference between roughly $5,950 and $35,000 or $70,000 a year. The Department of Buildings maintains the vacant and blighted lists that drive the classification, and § 42-3131.06 requires an owner to register a vacant building within 90 days after it becomes vacant, with registration approved for one year at a time. Section 42-3131.06a supplies the exemptions, each on its own clock. A single-family property actively marketed for sale or rent gets half a tax year; multifamily, commercial and mixed-use get two tax years. Probate or title litigation runs up to three tax years, pending zoning or historic approvals up to two, and hardship up to two. An active building permit application gets half a tax year, and active construction or rehabilitation up to three. All of those together cannot exceed five tax years in any twelve-year period. Property owned by the government of the United States, and property exempt through the State Department's Office of Foreign Missions, sits outside the scheme. Section 42-3131.18 requires the Department of Buildings to keep the vacant and blighted data on a publicly available website, including the exemption type, the date received and its duration. Before writing an offer on a long-empty house, pull the current classification from that database and ask how much of the exemption clock the seller has already spent. These limits are current as of August 2026.
A DC condominium purchase conveys real property, and § 42-1904.11 governs the resale disclosure. The unit owner must furnish the condominium instruments and an association certificate on or prior to the tenth business day following the purchaser's execution of the contract. If the documents never arrive, the purchaser may cancel in writing at any time before receiving them; once they arrive, the purchaser has three business days to cancel. Earnest money and deposits come back without delay or deduction, and the statute bars cancellation after conveyance under the contract. The parties may extend the three-business-day period in a signed writing; the section provides no mechanism to shorten it. A cooperative works differently. You buy shares in a cooperative housing association plus a proprietary lease, so the loan is a share loan secured by stock rather than a deed of trust, fewer lenders write them, and the board approves the buyer. There is no transfer tax on a co-op economic interest, but recordation runs at 2.2% below $400,000 and 2.9% at $400,000 or more, reduced to 1.825% or 2.175% for a qualifying first-time buyer. OTR's Transfer of Economic Interest Tax Return (Cooperative Only) computes that tax on the consideration for the economic interest plus your proportionate share of cooperative indebtedness, such as the blanket mortgage. The taxable base can therefore exceed the share price. Homestead relief is claimed by the association under § 47-850.01, which deducts from the association's assessed value for each qualifying shareholder's homestead, but the shareholder signs and files Form ASD-111/COOP. Rates as of August 2026.
Title 11 DCMR, the Zoning Regulations of 2016, took effect September 6, 2016, superseding the 1958 regulations. Under D.C. Code § 6-641.02, zoning maps and regulations may not be inconsistent with the comprehensive plan for the national capital. For an accessory apartment, Subtitle U § 253 sets the conditions. One accessory apartment is matter-of-right in the Residential House zones except R-19 and R-20, in either the principal dwelling or an accessory building, and a special exception in R-19 and R-20. Either the principal dwelling or the accessory apartment must be owner-occupied for the duration of the use, and § 253.10(a) bars waiver of that requirement in any R zone. Section 253.7 sets a minimum gross floor area for the house: 2,000 square feet in R-1-A, R-1-B and R-19, and 1,200 square feet in R-2, R-3, R-10, R-13, R-17 and R-20. It also caps the accessory apartment at 35% of the gross floor area. Section 253.13 requires a Residential Rental business license and a housing-code inspection before the unit is rented. For alley lots, Subtitle U § 600.1(e) conditions a matter-of-right dwelling on at least 450 square feet of lot area. It also requires access to an improved public street either through an improved alley 24 feet or more in width, or through an improved alley no less than 15 feet wide and within 300 linear feet of an improved public street. Zoning Commission case 25-06, effective on publication in the D.C. Register on July 17, 2026, extended alley-lot residential use to the R-1 and R-2 zones, raised matter-of-right height from 20 to 25 feet, and removed parking requirements for more alley uses. Confirm the post-amendment text before designing to these figures.
Based on information from Bright MLS for July 1, 2026 through July 31, 2026; data is reliable but not guaranteed.
The DC Office of Planning states that the DC Inventory of Historic Sites now includes more than 750 historic landmarks and 50 historic districts, covering more than 27,000 protected properties, as of August 2026. The Historic Preservation Review Board, established under the District's Historic Landmark and Historic District Protection Act of 1978, has nine members under D.C. Code § 6-1103 who are confirmed by the Council, and it is constituted to meet the federal requirements for a State Review Board. Permit applications affecting a landmark or a property in a historic district are referred to HPRB, except that applications subject to review under the Old Georgetown Act or the Shipstead-Luce Act may be referred to the Commission of Fine Arts instead. Under § 6-1107(c) the required finding must be made within 120 days after the Board receives the referral. The standards differ by work type. For new construction, § 6-1107(f) directs that the permit issue unless the design of the building and the character of the historic district or landmark are found incompatible. For demolition, § 6-1104 reverses the presumption: no permit unless the Mayor finds that issuance is necessary in the public interest, or that failure to issue one will result in unreasonable economic hardship to the owner. A documented project of special merit is the other route, and it requires a simultaneous new-construction permit under § 6-1107. Scale matters here. The Capitol Hill Historic District was listed on the National Register on August 27, 1976, and its amended nomination sets a period of significance running from 1791 to 1945 across roughly 8,000 previously listed contributing resources.
Two governance layers attach to every DC address. Under D.C. Code § 1-204.01 the Council has 13 members: a chairman and four at-large members, plus one from each of the eight wards. Below that sit 46 Advisory Neighborhood Commissions and 345 single-member districts under boundaries effective January 1, 2023. Section 1-309.03 requires each single-member district to hold a population of approximately 2,000 people, as nearly equal as possible. Under § 1-309.10(b) and (c), agencies must give 30 days' written notice, excluding weekends and legal holidays, before formulating a final policy decision or guideline on requested or proposed zoning changes, variances, public improvements, licenses or permits affecting the Commission area. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board must give at least 45 calendar days' notice before a hearing on issuance or renewal of a retailer's license. ANC recommendations then carry "great weight": the agency must acknowledge the Commission as the source, refer explicitly to each of its issues and concerns, and articulate with particularity and precision why the advice is or is not persuasive. On flooding, the Department of Energy and Environment regulates development in the floodplain under 20 DCMR Chapter 31, the Flood Hazard Rules, whose current version was published in the D.C. Register on June 20, 2025. Work in a regulated Special Flood Hazard Area requires a Flood Zone Building Permit. The District's FEMA Flood Insurance Study and rate maps carry a September 27, 2010 revision date, subject to later map revisions, so verify the effective panel for a specific lot before assuming a zone. DOEE published updated Integrated Flood Model maps on July 27, 2026; check the current version rather than a screenshot taken earlier.
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Usually not in its full form. Since D.C. Law 22-120, effective July 3, 2018, a "single-family accommodation" is exempt from most of TOPA. Section 42-3401.03 defines that as one single-family dwelling, or one single-family dwelling with one accessory dwelling unit. Two obligations survive. First, the owner must deliver written notice to the tenant within three calendar days of receiving or soliciting, in writing, an offer to purchase; for one year after that notice, the same tenant need not be re-noticed on later offers. Second, a tenant who is elderly or has a disability as of the date of the offer of sale keeps a purchase right on a compressed schedule, provided the tenant signed a rental agreement by March 31, 2018 and took occupancy by April 15, 2018. That schedule runs 20 days to deliver a statement of interest, at least 25 days to negotiate, and at least 45 days after contracting to secure financing. An owner may not serve a notice of intent to sell more than 60 days before issuing the offer of sale. The tenant then has 20 days to state that status in writing, and a failure to respond in time is deemed a waiver of rights under the subchapter. For those tenants the only permitted consideration for assigning the right is the right to use and occupy the unit for 12 months following the sale at the existing rent. Get the tenancy documented in writing before going under contract, and have counsel confirm the current statute. Cites current as of August 2026.
Both taxes run on the same schedule: 1.1% on residential consideration below $400,000, and 1.45% at $400,000 or more applied to the whole amount (D.C. Code §§ 42-1103, 47-903). Section 47-903 places responsibility for the transfer tax on the transferor, with the transferee jointly and severally liable if the transferor fails to pay. The recordation tax is customarily the buyer's charge, and OTR's own ROD 11 instructions describe the 1.1% or 1.45% transfer tax as owed by the seller. On a $700,000 purchase that is $10,150 on each side, or $20,300 in combined deed taxes, before title, lender and escrow charges. Allocation is negotiable in the contract, so read carefully who is agreeing to pay what. Rates and thresholds move with the District's budget cycle; these are the figures in effect as of August 2026, and your title company should confirm them when you go under contract.
You file Form ROD 11 at the moment the deed is offered for recordation. OTR states that the reduced rate cannot be applied for after the deed is recorded, and that prior versions of the form will not be accepted, so this is a settlement-table item rather than something to fix later. The rate falls to 0.725% for a house or condominium unit. For tax year 2026, beginning October 1, 2025, the purchase price ceiling rose from $753,000 to $777,000, and household income limits by household size are printed in the form's First-Time Homebuyer Table. You must be a District resident, or establishing residency in the District in the immediate future. You must also never have owned a DC house, condominium or co-op interest that qualified for the homestead deduction as your principal residence. And you must file the homestead application for the same property: Form ASD-100 through MyTax.DC.gov for a house or condominium unit, or the paper Form ASD-111/COOP for a co-op interest. A prior residence held jointly with an ex-spouse can be excepted where you relinquished ownership under a court order or separation agreement. The entire benefit of the reduction must be allocated to the grantee, cannot be shared with the transferor, and the allocation has to appear on the Settlement Statement or Closing Disclosure. Figures as of August 2026.
File as soon as you close. Under D.C. Code § 47-850, an approved application filed October 1 through March 31 delivers the deduction for the entire tax year; one filed April 1 through September 30 delivers half the deduction, applied to the second installment only. For tax year 2026 OTR puts the deduction at $91,950 off taxable assessed value, which at the $0.85 per $100 residential rate it publishes as $781.58 a year. The bigger prize is the cap it unlocks. Section 47-864 limits a homestead property's taxable assessment to 110% of the prior year, which compounds in a rising market. That cap does not transfer with the deed. When the ownership interest changes hands and the property stops qualifying, the credit ceases at the end of the half tax year of transfer. Budget from the new assessment, not from the tax figure on the listing, which may reflect years of a prior owner's capped growth.
It is a different instrument and a narrower lender pool. You buy shares in a cooperative housing association plus a proprietary lease, so the loan is a share loan secured by stock rather than a deed of trust on real property, and the board approves the purchaser. On tax, the answer cuts both ways. There is no transfer tax on a co-op economic interest, but recordation runs at 2.2% below $400,000 and 2.9% at $400,000 or more, against 1.1% or 1.45% recordation on a condo. Harder to budget: OTR's Transfer of Economic Interest Tax Return (Cooperative Only) computes the tax on the price of the economic interest plus your proportionate share of cooperative indebtedness, meaning the blanket mortgage, so the taxable base can exceed what you pay for the shares. A qualifying first-time buyer pays 1.825% or 2.175%. Homestead relief is claimed by the association under § 47-850.01, but you sign and file Form ASD-111/COOP yourself. Rates as of August 2026.
A FEMA zone determines whether a federally backed lender requires a policy. It does not determine whether the house takes on water. The Department of Energy and Environment points out that the District's FEMA floodplain maps show flooding along coastlines, major rivers and streams, and do not depict flooding caused by heavy rain and overwhelmed stormwater systems. DOEE's Integrated Flood Model maps that rainfall-driven flooding across the whole city, and DOEE published an updated version of those maps on July 27, 2026. Look the address up on the DC Flood Risk Tool at dcfloodrisk.org, which layers the FEMA rate maps, the Integrated Flood Model, storm surge and sea level rise. Then ask the seller directly about water in the basement, check for a backwater valve on the sewer line, and get an insurance quote either way before removing contingencies.
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