What's Hot: Mortgage Rates Fall Towards 6% Following Fed Cut
Can You Still Exercise TOPA When Given a Notice to Vacate?
✉️ Want to forward this article? Click here.
Back in March, UrbanTurf re-published an article about the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), which gives building tenants in DC the right of first refusal when their landlord intends to sell the building in which they reside.
A reader found herself in a TOPA situation recently when her landlord gave the tenants of the three-unit building 60-day notices to vacate and also stated an intention to sell the property. However, the landlord did not formally furnish record of the listing price or any existing offers for the property, leaving the onus on the tenants to pursue a purchase. The landlord also pressured the residents to vacate prior to the 60-day expiration of the lease, according to the reader.
So what recourse do the tenants have? Landlord and tenant attorney Emilie Fairbanks told UrbanTurf that the tenants first need to decide if they want to try and purchase the building. If they don’t, they should think through trying to stop the sale as that could result in keeping a landlord who can’t afford to keep up the property, which is not a great outcome for the tenants.
That said, tenants do have the legal power to intervene and prevent the property from being sold. Moreover, a landlord cannot terminate a lease with a tenant unless it is “for cause”, which means that the tenants can refuse to vacate without being given a legitimate cause for the termination.
Tenants can decide to just move out, and in TOPA cases that UrbanTurf has covered in the past, they are often paid to do so by the landlord. In an article from 2012, we covered the TOPA process for the Garden Towers complex next to Meridian Hill park where many residents received $20,000 payments to vacate.
See other articles related to: landlord, tenant, tenant rights, tenant-friendly, topa
This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.production.logicbrush.com/articles/blog/can_you_still_exercise_topa_when_given_ntv/11253.
Most Popular... This Week • Last 30 Days • Ever
Mortgage rate buydowns can be a good option for buyers who want to save money on inte... read »
Plans filed this week provide the latest look at the 106-key hotel in the works at an... read »
A plan to add another new residential building to the Friendship Heights pipeline is ... read »
The eight-bedroom, 35,000 square-foot home in McLean known as The Cliffs went under c... read »
The large new development would take the place of the Ballston One office building al... read »
- How Does a Mortgage Rate Buydown Work?
- A Look At Georgetown's New 100-Key Hotel Along The Canal
- Donohoe Files PUD For 127-Unit Development in Friendship Heights
- A $30 Million Sale? One Of The DC Area's Most Expensive Homes Finds A Buyer
- Updated Plans Filed For 328-Unit Development At Arlington Office Site
DC Real Estate Guides
Short guides to navigating the DC-area real estate market
We've collected all our helpful guides for buying, selling and renting in and around Washington, DC in one place. Start browsing below!
First-Timer Primers
Intro guides for first-time home buyers
Unique Spaces
Awesome and unusual real estate from across the DC Metro