The District’s building code enforcement agency is taking a more aggressive approach with vacant properties, boarding them up immediately and billing the owner for the related cost.
Under a new D.C. law, the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs is now allowed to immediately close up a vacant building without notifying the owner. Prior to the bill’s enactment, DCRA would spend upward of three weeks simply notifying an owner that a building must be enclosed. The wait grew longer if the proprietor failed to act.
Mayor Adrian Fenty on Thursday, his 100th day in office, said of DCRA’s past performance with nuisance and abandoned properties, “not being inspected enough, not getting abated quick enough is a big deal.” The new DCRA director, whom Fenty has yet to hire, “will have to take care of that.”
A team of DCRA inspectors is canvassing neighborhoods to identify and scrutinize vacant, abandoned and nuisance properties, the agency said in a news release. The buildings may harbor rodents, pests and trash, encourage criminal activity or pose a fire hazard.
District statutes require that vacant buildings, which are taxed at more than five times the standard residential rate, be kept secure with no means of entry.
DCRA has 1,800 vacant properties listed in its databases, said Karyn-Siobhan Robinson, agency spokeswoman. To “enclose” a vacant building, DCRA workers nail 3/4-inch-thick plywood to the doors and windows and that ensure no other part of the property is accessible.
The agency boarded 94 vacant buildings last year, Robinson said.
“Many of the owners do the right thing and board them themselves,” she said.
