DC can repave your private street without asking — and bill you forever
DC can repave your private street without asking — and bill you forever
2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Legislation
Where a District of Columbia association's private street or alley carries a recorded easement covenanted to the District, the Mayor may repair it without the association's consent and recover the cost as a “continuing and perpetual lien” on the property. The authority was created by the Restoration of Covenanted Roads and Alleys by the District Government Act of 2024, effective March 28, 2025, and codified at D.C. Code § 9-401.19.1
What the measure does
Subsection (a) permits the Mayor to repair or restore “a privately owned road, alley, or other right of way” and to “enter such private right of way for the purpose of such repair or restoration with or without the consent of the owner.”2
Subsection (b) sets the conditions. The authority applies where the owner has covenanted an easement to the District, the District uses the right of way — or, in an emergency, would use it — it is not in good repair, and the Mayor cannot locate the owner.
Subsection (d)(1) supplies the money. Where the covenant obliges the owner to maintain the right of way, the Mayor “may recover from the owner… the cost and expenses incurred by the District,” and “the amount to be recovered from the owner shall be a continuing and perpetual lien” on the property, enforceable in the manner provided for Litter Control Act liens under § 8-807(f).
The 2026 amendment: trash routes, and consent
A July 2026 emergency act — D.C. Act 26-393, effective July 30, 2026 and lapsing in late October — extends the section in a way that shows the District thinking about the consent problem.3
New subsection (e) reaches rights of way the District uses for regular trash removal where the owner has not covenanted an easement. In that situation the District needs the owner's consent, plus a release and indemnification, before it can act. New subsection (f) lets the Mayor impose terms and conditions.
The contrast is the useful part. A covenanted easement means the District may enter without asking and bill for it. No covenant means the District has to ask, and to accept a release in return. Which of those two an association is in depends entirely on what is recorded against its land.
What it changes for boards and managers
This reaches a specific and easily identified set of DC communities: townhouse and cluster developments with interior private streets, alleys and service drives — the ones where the plat shows a roadway the District's trucks use but the District has never maintained.
The first task is documentary, and everything turns on it. Pull the recorded declaration, the plat and the subdivision approval and answer one question: is there a covenanted easement or dedication running to the District over any part of the association's roadway? If yes, the association is inside § 9-401.19(a) and (d). If no, it is in the consent regime of subsection (e), where nothing happens without the association's agreement.
The second is to notice what triggers the authority. Two of the four conditions are within the association's control. The right of way must be “not in good repair” — deferred paving is what creates the exposure. And the Mayor must be unable to locate the owner. For an association, being locatable is a matter of keeping the registered agent and address current with the corporate registry; an association whose nonprofit filings have lapsed has made itself harder to find, and that is one of the statutory preconditions.
A perpetual lien is not an ordinary receivable. The phrase “continuing and perpetual” means it does not lapse with time and it does not go away when the property changes hands. It is enforced like a Litter Control Act lien. For a DC association, that is a title defect sitting on common-element land, and it will surface at the least convenient moment — a refinance, a sale, or a resale package for a unit whose buyer's lender orders a search.
How it interacts with reserve planning
Private roadway paving is one of the largest single line items in the reserve study of any DC community that has one. This statute changes the character of that item.
A deferred paving decision has always been a risk-of-failure decision: potholes, drainage, liability. Where a covenanted easement exists, it is now also a risk that the District performs the work on its own schedule, at its own cost basis, with no competitive procurement the association controls, and bills the result as a lien. An association that would have paved in year seven of a plan has an incentive to pave in year five instead — not because the pavement fails sooner, but because the alternative is losing control of the contract.
That belongs in the reserve study narrative, not just in the funding table.
What to watch next
The trash-removal extension is on the emergency track and lapses in late October 2026 unless the Council carries it forward. Emergency acts in the District are usually a signal of intent rather than an experiment, so expect a temporary or permanent successor — but an association relying on subsection (e)'s consent-and-release protection should confirm it is in force at the moment it matters.
No DC court has construed § 9-401.19. The open question on the face of the text is what “cannot locate the owner” requires of the District when the owner is a registered nonprofit corporation with a filed agent — and how much effort the District must make before the entry authority engages.
Related District of Columbia HOA Topics
- D.C. Law 25-320, the Restoration of Covenanted Roads and Alleys by the District Government Act of 2024 (Bill 25-920; D.C. Act 25-719; 72 DCR 1115; effective Mar. 28, 2025) ↩
- D.C. Code § 9-401.19, Restoration of private roads, alleys, and rights of way (codified text and history) ↩
- D.C. Act 26-393, the Restoration of Covenanted Roads and Alleys Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2026 (effective July 30, 2026) ↩
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