The box on the form
The exemptions in §42-3131.06a include one for a building that is the subject of a probate proceeding or of litigation over its title, and it runs up to 3 tax years, the same length as active construction. The exemption form guide lists it alongside the others. The logic is that nobody can occupy, rent or sell a house in good faith while a court is deciding who owns it, so the District stops the Class 3 clock while the court works. The inherited house article covers the probate half. This one is about the litigation half.
What counts as title litigation
The cases that fit are the ones where the outcome decides who holds the deed or whether the deed stands. A quiet title action. A partition suit between co owners who inherited together and cannot agree. A challenge to a deed signed under duress or forged. A dispute between a buyer and a seller over whether a contract closed. A foreclosure contest where the owner is litigating the lender's right to sell. A divorce in which the house is the contested asset and neither spouse can list it until the court divides it. In each of these the person who could fix the vacancy is not yet known, which is the point of the exemption.
What DOB expects behind the box is the court record: the Superior Court case number, the complaint or petition showing the house is the subject, and the docket showing the case is still open. A case that settled or was dismissed ends the exemption on the date the docket closes, and the owner has to move the house into another status in the half year that follows. The 5 in 12 cap applies here as everywhere: at most 5 tax years of exemption in any 12 year period across all categories, so a long title fight can use up the account.
Why an eviction case is different
A landlord tenant case is a dispute about possession, not about title. Nobody doubts who owns the house. The owner is suing to get a tenant out, and DOB reads that case through the definition of a vacant building in §42-3131.05, which turns on whether anyone is living there. That produces a result that surprises owners: while the tenant is still inside, the house is occupied, and it does not need an exemption at all. A holdover tenant who has not paid in a year is still a resident. The utility accounts run, the trash goes out, the lights come on at night, and an inspector looking at the house from the sidewalk sees an occupied home.
The exposure begins the day the tenant leaves. The judgment for possession, the writ, the marshal's eviction or the voluntary move out: whichever comes first, that is the day the house becomes empty and the clock in the timeline article starts. Owners who spent two years in landlord tenant court are often exhausted and broke by then, and the house sits while they regroup. That stretch, after the tenant and before the next plan, is where the designation lands. The rental turnover article explains how long an empty unit can sit before DOB treats it as vacant.
An appeal by the tenant after judgment does not change the analysis. If the tenant is still in the house during the appeal, the house is occupied. If the tenant is out and appealing from elsewhere, the house is empty, and the pending appeal is still a possession case, not a title case. Filing it under the litigation box produces a denial and costs the 15 day window.
What to file at each stage
- Tenant still inside, designation notice arrives anyway. Respond inside 15 days that the building is occupied. Attach the lease, the court filings showing the tenant is in possession, and utility bills showing consumption. The occupancy evidence article lists what carries weight. Do not check an exemption box.
- Tenant out, repairs needed before the next tenant. Pull the permit if the work needs one and file under active construction. Cosmetic work with no permit does not qualify, and the gap between move out and a permit is a Class 3 gap.
- Tenant out, house going on the market. List it with a licensed agent and file under for sale. For a single family house that exemption runs half a tax year from the initial listing, so the listing date matters. The selling article covers the closing side.
- Tenant out, house going back to rent. A basic business license and a listing at market rent under the for sale or rent category. An unlicensed listing does not qualify.
- A genuine title dispute at any stage. The litigation box, with the case number and the complaint.
Two mistakes that cost a half year
The first is letting the OTR mailing address stay wrong through the dispute. In a tenant case the owner often lives elsewhere and the house is the address of record, so the designation notice goes to the tenant, who is the last person motivated to forward it. The owner of record article shows the field to fix before anything else. The second is paying nothing while the appeal runs. An appeal does not pause the bill, and a Class 3 half that goes unpaid reaches the tax sale on the same schedule as any other delinquency. Pay the half, correct the class, then claim the refund for every half the house was in fact occupied.
If you are mid dispute and unsure which status the house is in today, send us the address and the case number. We read the DOB record and the OTR account at no charge and tell you which halves were occupied, which qualify for an exemption, and which are exposed. Correction work on a half that already billed is a flat $1,500 per tax period corrected, paid up front, and refunded in full for any period OTR does not correct.