Where the standard lives
§42-3131.12 is titled vacant building maintenance standard and plan. Subsection (a) lists fifteen requirements the owner of a vacant building must meet. Subsection (b) requires a maintenance plan to be submitted with the registration form. The code page notes that a 2025 amendment to the section has not taken effect because its cost was never included in an approved budget, so the list below is the law in force today, and an owner who reads a summary of the amendment online should check the code page before relying on it.
The fifteen standards, grouped as an inspector walks them
From the sidewalk, the exterior. The outside of the building must be free of graffiti and tagging. Exterior walls must have no holes or breaks and no loose or rotting material. Exposed wood and metal on the building and its accessory structures must be protected from weather and decay. Cornices, trim and other decorative features must be anchored and in good repair. Balconies and fire escapes, stairways, and any attached signs must be anchored and sound.
Then the envelope, which is where most designations and most break ins start. Every opening, doors and windows and areaways included, must be weathertight and secured against birds and vermin and against anyone trying to get in, with plywood covering any opening that is missing or broken. The roof and flashing must be sound and tight and must not admit moisture, and the roof must drain properly. The storm drainage system must be adequately sized and working. This group is the one that overlaps with the open to entry factor in the designation statute and with the presumption in the unlawful entry statute that the squatter article describes.
Then structure. Structural members must be free of deterioration and able to carry their loads. Foundation walls must be plumb, free of open cracks and breaks, and resistant to vermin. Chimneys, cooling towers and similar structures must be sound and in good repair.
Then the site. The interior and the surrounding property must be cleared of debris and garbage. The property must be free of excessive vegetation. Openings in the sidewalk must be safe for pedestrians. And a catch all at the end: the property and its accessory structures must be free of anything that is a hazard to safety or health, fire hazards included.
The maintenance plan
Subsection (b) requires the owner or agent to submit a plan with the registration. It must contain the contact information of the person submitting it, the contact information of the person managing the property, a copy of a notice sent to neighboring properties identifying that manager, a plan for monitoring and securing the property while it is vacant, and anything else the Mayor requires. The notice to the neighbors is the part owners skip and the part that pays. A neighbor with a name and a phone number calls the manager about a broken window. A neighbor without one calls 311, and a neighbor complaint is the first of the eight factors under §42-3131.05b.
Why the list is a tax question
The maintenance standard is the line between the two vacant classes. A building that is empty but meets the fifteen standards is a vacant building and, absent an exemption, pays Class 3 under §47-813 at $5.00 per $100 of assessed value, $12,500 a half on a $500,000 house. A building the Mayor finds to be in a condition that poses a danger to the health or safety of the community, or to its general welfare, is a blighted vacant building, and Class 4 is $10.00 per $100, $25,000 a half on the same house. Open to entry, a roof letting water in, a collapsing porch and a yard gone to seed are the findings that carry a building across that line, and every one of them is a standard on the list. The vacant versus blighted article shows real examples on each side. Keeping to the list does not get a building off Class 3, but it is the whole difference between $12,500 and $25,000 a half.
Three other consequences hang on the same standards. A building found open or overgrown can be boarded or cleared by a District crew under §42-3131.01, with the cost returning as a lien. Violations are enforced as notices of infraction with the tiered penalties in §42-3131.10: $1,000 for a first violation, $2,500 for a second, $5,000 after that. And a vacant dwelling insurance carrier asks for most of the same things, as the insurance article explains, so the work done for DOB is the work that keeps the policy in force.
A quarterly walk
- Walk the outside first and photograph every elevation. Graffiti, loose trim, a sagging gutter and a fire escape with a missing bolt are the things a passing inspector sees.
- Try every opening. Each door and window closed and locked, plywood tight where glass is gone, areaway grates in place. Replace the no trespassing sign if it has faded.
- Go up. Check the roof after any storm, clear the gutters, confirm downspouts drain away from the foundation.
- Go in. Look for water on ceilings, animal activity, and anything that has been moved. A cleared interior stays cleared only if someone checks.
- Cut the yard, clear the areaway, sweep the sidewalk, and look for anything that would make a pedestrian step around the property.
- Date and file the photographs. The file is the answer to a notice of infraction and the evidence that the building was vacant, not blighted, if OTR bills Class 4.
Registration, renewal and the end state
Registration is $350 and renewal is $500 under §42-3131.09, and the late renewal article explains what a missed renewal does to the record. None of the standards shortens the vacancy or restores Class 1. The maintenance duty ends the day a lawful resident moves in, which is why the partly occupied building article describes keeping one unit occupied as the cheapest strategy there is. If a building of yours was billed as blighted while it met the list, or billed as vacant while someone lived in it, send us the address. We read the DOB record and the OTR account at no charge and tell you which halves can be corrected. Correction work is a flat $1,500 per tax period corrected, paid up front, and refunded in full for any period OTR does not correct.