2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Legislation

The District of Columbia has widened its rescue of buyers at one failed condominium to cover people who no longer own a unit there. The River East at Grandview Homeownership Relief and Restoration Amendment Act of 2026 took effect on August 20, 2026, and it is the clearest statement DC has made about what happens when a condominium is built badly enough that the government steps in.¹

It is a single-project statute, not general law. But it is the template a future Council would reach for, and it is the only recent DC enactment that puts real money behind construction-defect harm in owner-occupied housing.

What the measure does

The Act amends the Relief for River East at Grandview Condominium Owners Act of 2024, codified at D.C. Code § 42-2081 et seq.

A new class of beneficiary. New § 42-2081(c-1) defines a “Former Property Owner” as “an individual who purchased a condominium unit at the River East at Grandview Condominiums between July 2017 and March 2019 and who no longer owns that unit.” The relief follows the person, not the unit — an unusual choice, and a deliberate one.

Loans become grants. A new section directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to make Property Owners and Former Property Owners eligible for Home Purchase Assistance Program help “in the form of a grant,” to “exclude them from the HPAP program's credit requirements,” and to convert outstanding HPAP loans to grants, with releases recorded in the land records.

Grants up to $50,000. Buyers who purchased without HPAP may receive grants of up to $50,000 toward a principal recast or refinance.

Priority on affordable units, with a shortened covenant. Eligible individuals get priority for Inclusionary Zoning and Affordable Dwelling Unit purchases, with the affordability covenant terminating 15 years after the owner closed on their Grandview unit — measured from the transaction that harmed them, not from the new purchase.

Tax-free. A new § 47-1803.02(a)(2)(BBB) excludes from District income tax, for tax years ending on or before December 31, 2032, income realized from forgiveness of debt under § 42-2083(b) or (c) and from the conversion or forgiveness of an HPAP loan under the new section.²

DHCD must report to the Council annually from September 1, 2027 through fiscal year 2032. The Act sunsets December 31, 2032.

1. D.C. Law 26-174, the River East at Grandview Homeownership Relief and Restoration Amendment Act of 2026 (Bill 26-545; D.C. Act 26-366; 73 DCR 9414; effective Aug. 20, 2026) ↩
2. D.C. Code § 42-2081, Relief for River East at Grandview Condominium Owners — definitions ↩