Renters/Tenants

Protecting Your Rights as a Renter

Whether you rent or own, home is home, and the importance of your home to you and every facet of your life cannot be understated. The fact that everyone holds his or her home so dear means that renters are uniquely vulnerable to improper actions by landlords. After all, issues with where you live bring trouble “home.”

While the DC area offers many opportunities to renters, and most jurisdictions (counties, cities, etc.) are firmly pro-tenant in their regulation, code, and enforcement of state law, abuses and unlawful policies by landlords are sadly still common. While issues with landlords occur in rental situations involving both the largest apartment-complexes to individual landlords with only one property to their name, the types of issues renters encounter with the different types of landlord and housing situations vary greatly, with some common types of improper behavior being more common with large, corporate landlords, and others being exhibited mostly by smallholders.

Whether the problem you are encountering has to do with a landlord charging high application fees or security deposits, not performing maintenance, not providing a necessary utility or service, or trying to force you out for improper reasons, we are here to help, and have probably seen and dealt with a situation much like yours.