Rent Withholding Laws in Washington, D.C.

In certain states, tenants can legally stop paying some or all of their rent until their landlord makes major repairs—a tactic known as “rent withholding.” Washington D.C. law is very tenant-friendly and allows a tenant to withhold rent if the landlord has failed to fix a significant problem in a rental unit. While this “right” is laid out in the law in a somewhat complex manner, it still serves as an important tool for tenants to use against a negligent or hostile landlord.

Rent withholding is allowed if the landlord has violated D.C.’s housing regulations

It’s only legal for a tenant to withhold rent if a landlord has breached D.C.’s “warranty of habitability,” which typically means the landlord has violated one of the city’s many housing regulations. D.C.’s housing regulations are hundreds of pages long, but here are some specific examples:

• Rental units must be properly heated¹
• Rental units must have proper plumbing, with hot and cold water, and be connected to a sewage line²
• Every room must have at least two electrical outlets³
• Buildings with more than five units must have a live-in super or janitor, and common areas must be kept clean⁴
• Buildings must be rat-free and rat-proof⁵

This list is not exhaustive. Tenants should take a look at the D.C. Housing Code⁶ to figure out whether the landlord does have a duty to perform the repair in question. (Luckily, the code is well-organized and easy to read and understand!)

D.C. law establishes the correct process for rent withholding

The gist of D.C. law is this:

1. A tenant should notify their landlord of the violation of housing regulations either in writing or in the presence of a witness
2. The tenant should give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to fix the violation
3. If the landlord still hasn’t fixed the problem, the tenant can legally withhold rent

Confusingly, D.C. law doesn’t explicitly grant tenants the right to withhold rent. What the law does say is that an eviction performed after a tenant has followed the procedure above is presumed to be “retaliatory,” and therefore illegal.⁷ Since a landlord can’t legally evict a tenant for withholding rent, this law serves as a convoluted, backdoor way of giving a tenant a right to withhold rent.

It’s very important for tenants to follow this process to the letter. Otherwise, they can’t claim an eviction is retaliatory if a landlord files suit against them for failing to pay rent.

There is no strict definition of a “reasonable” time to make a repair

D.C. law does not provide a timeframe for a landlord to make a repair—it just has to be “reasonable.”⁸ The idea of a “reasonable” period of time is common in law, but that doesn’t make it any less vague. Tenants should use their best judgment. More serious conditions should be fixed right away—tenants aren’t expected to live without heat or hot water, for instance. It’s probably not reasonable to expect that smaller violations, like a non-functioning electrical outlet, would be fixed immediately (but a landlord does have to fix them eventually).

D.C. tenants can sue landlords in response to an eviction lawsuit

District of Columbia law allows tenants to sue landlords for a multitude of reasons. Tenants can file what’s known as a “tenant petition,” which alleges bad action by a landlord.⁹ These allegations can include breaching a lease, raising the rent too high, or failing to correct a defective condition in an apartment.

For the purposes of rent withholding, the most important reason a tenant can sue a landlord is for what is known as a “retaliatory eviction.” If a landlord starts eviction proceedings against a tenant for failing to pay rent, the tenant can sue the landlord for retaliatory eviction—as long as the tenant followed the correct procedure when withholding rent.

Landlords have to prove in court that they didn’t retaliate

Many states have laws that protect tenants from eviction if they withhold rent. Where D.C. differs is in its creation of a legal “presumption” when a tenant has followed proper procedure. If the landlord then sues the tenant for eviction, the tenant can counter-sue the landlord for retaliatory eviction, and create a “presumption” that the landlord acted inappropriately.

What does this mean? Basically, it means the legal burden falls on the landlord to disprove the claim that they acted in a retaliatory manner and evicted the tenant based on the tenant’s valid complaints. In the same way criminal defendants are “innocent until proven guilty,” the landlord’s actions have now become “retaliatory until proven otherwise.” The landlord now needs to do the heavy lifting in court to show they acted in good faith.

There’s a six-month expiration date for tenant complaints

Only things that happened within the six months prior to the landlord’s eviction lawsuit are considered by the court to decide whether it’s retaliatory.¹⁰ If a tenant complained about a major problem with their rental, the landlord didn’t fix it in a reasonable amount of time, the tenant started withholding rent, and then—seven months later—the landlord sues for eviction, there is no presumption that the landlord was acting in retaliation, even if the tenant followed all the rules seven months ago in withholding rent. That means it’s important for tenants to follow up with additional complaints if the landlord is still not fixing the problem.

Related articles

[1] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-501

[2] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-601

[3] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-605

[4] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-801

[5] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-804

[6] Title 14 – D.C. Housing Code

[7] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-4303

[8] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-4303

[9] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-4214

[10] D.C. Municipal Regulations § 14-4303