DC bill would let the buildings department lien you before you fix it
DC bill would let the buildings department lien you before you fix it
2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Legislation · Pending — not yet law
A pending District of Columbia bill would let the Department of Buildings record a lien against a property before a hazardous housing-code violation has been fixed. Bill 26-591, the Lifesaving Intervention Empowering Neighborhoods Act of 2026 — the LIEN Act — is not law and has had no hearing.1
It was introduced on December 30, 2025 by Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr., chair of the Committee on Housing, and referred to the Committee of the Whole. A Notice of Intent to Act was published in the DC Register on February 6, 2026. No hearing or markup has been recorded.
What it would do
The bill would expand DOB's authority to record liens on real property in two respects: before hazardous housing-code violations are abated, rather than only after the District has abated them and seeks its costs; and for non-payment of DOB fines.
The policy target is evident from the sponsor and the committee assignment: negligent owners of distressed rental housing, where the District's existing sequence — cite, wait, abate at public expense, then lien to recover — is slow and leaves tenants in unsafe buildings while it runs.
Why it reaches a condominium board anyway
Because a condominium's common elements can carry a housing-code violation, and the association is the responsible party for them.
A District association with a hazardous condition in a common element — a failed egress, a structural issue, a life-safety system out of service — would, under this bill, face a recorded District lien on the property before it has had the opportunity to complete the repair. Not after a refusal to fix. Before the fix.
The specific problem for common-interest property
Three features of condominium ownership make a pre-abatement lien land differently than it would on a single-owner rental building.
Title is fractured, and the lien is not. A lien recorded against condominium property fouls title for every unit in the building, not merely for the party that failed to act. Every owner trying to sell or refinance meets it — including owners who voted to fund the repair and owners who have no involvement in governance at all.
Association repairs run on a slower clock by design. An association cannot simply write a cheque. A significant common-element repair typically requires a board vote, competitive bids, sometimes an owner vote or a special assessment, and often a reserve draw or a loan. That process is a governance safeguard, not obstruction — but from outside it looks identical to delay. A lien authority triggered before abatement does not distinguish between the two.
It would collide with the association's own lien. The assessment lien under D.C. Code § 42-1903.13 carries a limited statutory priority that is the foundation of association collections in the District. How a District lien recorded ahead of abatement would rank against it is a question the bill leaves to be worked out after the fact.
What is unknown, and should stay unknown until verified
This bill's text has not been read closely for its treatment of common-interest property, and it would be wrong to assert how it handles the questions above. What can be said with confidence is that it exists, what it is aimed at, and that its mechanism reaches any property carrying a hazardous violation.
The question a District board or its counsel should actually ask, if the bill moves, is whether it contains a carve-out or a distinct procedure where the responsible party is a unit owners' association acting through its governance process. If it does not, that is the amendment worth asking for.
What a board can do that is useful regardless
Nothing about this bill requires action, because it is not law. But it points at something real.
Know whether the association has open violations. Many boards do not. Notices are served on the property, arrive at a management office, and are handled — or not — without ever reaching the board. A standing agenda item asking whether any DOB notice is open is cheap and it prevents the surprise.
Have a documented response process for a hazardous condition. An association that can show a dated sequence — notice received, engineer engaged, bids solicited, board resolution, contract signed — is in a defensible position under any enforcement regime. One that cannot show anything is not.
What to watch next
A hearing notice from the Committee of the Whole. Council Period 26 ends at noon on January 2, 2027, and a measure not finally adopted by then lapses without prejudice to reintroduction. A bill introduced in December 2025 with no hearing by September 2026 is not on a fast track — but it is sponsored by the chair of the Committee on Housing, which is not nothing.
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