A months-long review of Department of Building practices found several key deficiencies in how the agency manages its housing inspections, a critical part of agency functions that document poor housing conditions and hold negligent property owners accountable for them. 

Findings and recommendations from the review, conducted by the D.C. Council’s Committee of the Whole staff, were published this week and broadcast in a hearing Thursday afternoon. 

In a survey of enforcement actions taken at 50 rental properties across D.C., council staff found deficiencies in how inspectors deliver and settle notices of housing code infractions. More than half of the notices of infraction sent to property owners went to the wrong address, the report found, and because property owners can self-certify that they have addressed housing code violations, it’s easy for bad actors to falsify results. 

 Also, most housing code violations aren’t fixed within the time frame required by notices of infraction, per the report.

“The committee has long heard complaints from tenants, advocates, and legal service providers that the inspection process and the outcomes that result from these inspections are flawed and failed to adequately protect tenants,” said D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, who presided over Thursday’s hearing. 

The consistency and urgency of those complaints led the council in 2020 to initiate a massive overhaul of the Department of Buildings, formerly known as the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. In 2022, DCRA split into two agencies – the Department of Buildings and the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, which manages basic business licenses. 

That split was designed to reduce DCRA’s administrative burden and streamline operations. At the time, it was a $90 million agency with roughly 500 employees, responsible for everything from construction permits to enforcing consumer protection laws.

But the council’s review found DOB’s housing inspection process is still deeply flawed, beginning with how the agency trains inspectors.

The format and content of training for new inspectors is “lacking in many respects,” the report concludes, in part because the recorded virtual training sessions “do not allow employees to ask questions, perform tasks or activities, or engage with colleagues.” Screenshots of training materials show several slides that simply list housing code violations as defined by D.C.’s municipal regulations, alongside stock images of cleaning supplies and a gavel.

DOB also has a poor track record of delivering notices of infraction to the appropriate party. 

“The big problem is that many NOIs never make it to the property owner, which means they can never contest or remediate the alleged violation,” the report reads. “One housing provider, Daniel, estimated that ‘around half’ of the NOIs they reviewed were sent to registered commercial agents, staff with no role in property management, or incorrect addresses. … Committee staff were stunned to hear this.”

Fifty-fix percent of the notices reviewed by committee staff were sent to the wrong address, the report states. 

Keith Parsons, DOB’s Strategic Enforcement Administrator, acknowledged during Thursday’s hearing that the agency has difficulty maintaining up-to-date contact information for property owners, some of whom decline to notify the agency if their phone numbers or email addresses change. Others never fill that information out, Parsons said, opting only to provide contact information for a lawyer. 

“This is a tough question, and we’re dedicated to looking at it,” Parsons said. 

But the renters who testified during Thursday’s hearing say that they can’t wait for the inspection process to improve – they need conditions issues addressed now.

“Right now I feel as though all of y’all are failing us,” said Barbara Cooper, a resident of the beleaguered housing complex Marbury Plaza, where D.C.’s attorney general is seeking a third party to manage the building because of poor conditions. “My baby got up this morning, and we don’t have hot water, right now, as we speak. But we back paying full rent.”