AOBA Fully Endorses the Bowser Administration’s RENTAL Act

WASHINGTON, DC | February 13, 2025 – The Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington (AOBA) strongly supports the introduction of the Resetting Expectations for Tenants and Landlords (RENTAL) Act. We commend Mayor Bowser for recognizing the need to address the District’s ongoing rent delinquency crisis plaguing housing providers and renters alike and call on the Council to schedule a hearing expeditiously.

The current landlord-tenant process is fundamentally flawed. It burdens renters with levels of debt that all but ensure their eventual eviction, compels housing providers to absorb millions in unpaid rent, jeopardizing the viability of rental properties across the District, and offers no effective judicial pathways for addressing violent behavior that endangers resident safety.

This comprehensive legislation addresses these flaws through the following critical reforms:

• Streamlines court process timelines to prevent the overwhelming accumulation of rental debt and make settlement agreements between housing providers and residents possible.
• Strengthens Resident Safety Protections through the creation of an expedited court process for specific lease violations that involve violent offenses.
• Makes Recent Reforms to the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) permanent, ensuring cases cannot be stayed indefinitely regardless of funding availability or renter qualification status.

“The RENTAL Act includes much-needed reforms to a landlord-tenant court process that harms renters and housing providers throughout the District,” said Lisa Mallory, CEO of AOBA. “This legislation will break the cycle of debt that fuels the rent delinquency crisis and the evictions that accompany it while upholding the due process rights of tenants. It will also provide housing providers with a legal avenue for protecting their residents from other renters who commit violent acts on their properties. We applaud Mayor Bowser and her administration for collaborating with numerous stakeholders to develop this bold yet necessary legislation that reforms a system no longer serving the interests of the District and its residents.”