DC stormwater charge on pools and private streets carries an automatic lien
DC stormwater charge on pools and private streets carries an automatic lien
2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Legislation
An association's pool deck, tennis court and private roadway are chargeable impervious surface under District law, the charge is the property owner's obligation, and failure to pay it produces a lien on the property “without further notice to the owner.” The provision has been carried on the District's temporary and emergency legislative track since December 31, 2025, and it applies retroactively to March 25, 2009.1
What the measure does
The CRIAC Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2025 adds a new subsection (c-1) to D.C. Code § 34-2202.16, the DC Water rates and charges section. It directs that the Authority “shall assess an impervious area charge on any property in the District” using a methodology keyed to impervious surface, and then defines the surface broadly.
The definition includes “rooftops, footprints of patios, driveways, private streets, other paved areas, athletic courts and swimming pools, and any path or walkway that is covered by impervious material.”2
Then the enforcement language, which is the part that bites:
“The impervious area charge shall be the obligation of the property owner.” And: “Failure to pay the impervious area charge shall result in a lien being placed upon the property without further notice to the owner.”
The lien is enforceable in the manner provided by § 34-2407.02. Contest rights under § 34-2305 are preserved. The Act also amends § 34-2107 and adds a new § 34-2108(d). Its applicability provision reaches back to March 25, 2009.
Where it sits in the statute books — and why that is confusing
This provision has never been permanent law. The permanent text of § 34-2202.16 runs from subsection (c) straight to (d); there is no (c-1) in the codified section. The rule has instead been carried by a chain of instruments: D.C. Law 25-285, then emergency D.C. Act 26-171, then the temporary D.C. Law 26-74 effective December 31, 2025, then the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2026 — D.C. Act 26-416, effective August 13, 2026 — whose Subtitle Y carries the same text.3
The permanent version is riding in the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Support Act of 2026, which passed the Council in August 2026 and was published in the DC Register, but which has not completed congressional review and is not yet a D.C. Law. Until it does, the operative authority is an emergency act with a 90-day life.
What it changes for boards and managers
Three features of this charge make it different from an ordinary utility line item, and each of them is a governance problem rather than a budgeting one.
The chargeable surface is the common element. Rooftops, private streets, paved parking, walkways, the pool, the sport court — in a condominium, essentially all of it is common element owned by the association or held in undivided interest by the owners. The charge therefore attaches at the association level, and it grows with exactly the amenities a community was built around.
The lien arises without notice. Read plainly, the text does not require the Authority to notify anyone before the lien attaches. That is a materially different posture from the association's own assessment lien, and it means a title search — not a letter — may be the first place an association learns the lien exists. Any board that has been carrying a disputed water balance should check title before it next refinances or sells a common-element parcel.
Retroactivity to 2009 contemplates back-billing. An applicability date sixteen years in the past is not decorative drafting; it is there to validate charges already assessed and to authorize assessment of charges that were not. The absence of a bill through 2025 is not the same as the absence of a liability.
The budgeting consequence
Because the charge attaches to the property and is enforced by lien, it behaves like a tax rather than a service fee, and it should be budgeted that way. Two practical implications for a DC association's annual budget:
First, it is a fixed common expense, not a variable utility. It does not fall when the building conserves water, because it is not measured by consumption. The only way to reduce it is to reduce impervious surface — green roofs, permeable paving, tree canopy — which is a capital decision, not an operating one.
Second, an association considering new hardscape — resurfacing a lot, adding a pickleball court, replacing a lawn with pavers — is now creating a permanent recurring charge as well as a construction cost, and one that is enforceable against the property. The capital-project analysis should carry that number, and the reserve study assumptions should reflect it.
What to watch next
Two things.
The first is whether the permanent version survives congressional review. The FY2027 Budget Support Act carries the language; the Home Rule Act's review process is where DC legislation goes to be delayed or, occasionally, disapproved. Until the permanent law appears, associations are operating under an emergency act with a 90-day clock and should confirm the instrument in force at the date they need it.
The second is how the charge interacts with an association's stormwater retention obligations. DC's Stormwater Retention Credit market and the recorded Declarations of Covenants that go with retention practices sit on the other side of the same ledger, and a property that generates credits is in a different position from one that simply pays. That relationship is not addressed in this Act.
Related District of Columbia HOA Topics
- D.C. Law 26-74, the CRIAC Clarification Temporary Amendment Act of 2025 (Bill 26-385; D.C. Act 26-191; 72 DCR 12869; effective Dec. 31, 2025) ↩
- D.C. Code § 34-2202.16, Rates and charges (permanent codified text, which contains no subsection (c-1)) ↩
- D.C. Act 26-416, the Fiscal Year 2027 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2026, Subtitle Y (effective Aug. 13, 2026) ↩
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