Where the eight factors come from
For years the vacant building definition in §42-3131.05 turned on one word, occupied, and left the inspector to decide what that meant. D.C. Law 26-41, effective October 1, 2025, added §42-3131.05b, and subsection (a) now lists eight things the Mayor shall consider when deciding whether a building is vacant. Subsection (b) does the same for blight with its own list of exterior condition items, which the vacant vs blighted article covers. The vacancy list is the one that matters to most owners, because it is the list that puts a building on the Class 3 rate in §47-813, $5.00 per $100 of assessed value instead of $0.85.
The list is also the best description anyone has published of how an inspector works. Every item on it can be judged from the public sidewalk. None of them requires entering the building, and none of them is a statement from the owner.
The eight factors, one at a time
- Neighbor complaints. The most common trigger. A neighbor files through the DOB complaint form, and the address goes into an inspector's queue. The list article describes the three ways a building reaches the list, and this is the first of them.
- Advisory Neighborhood Commission certification. The ANC for the single member district can certify that a building is vacant. A commissioner who has fielded complaints about a house for two years and watched nothing change will do this, and it carries weight because it is an elected body speaking for the block.
- Accumulated mail, fliers or newspapers. The oldest tell. A porch with a stack of menus and a mailbox that will not close is a photograph in the inspector's file before the owner knows there is a file.
- Past due utility notices, disconnected utilities, or low usage. This factor cuts in both directions. A shutoff notice taped to the door is visible from the street. Low usage is not, but it is in the District's records, and it is the same usage column that decides an appeal. The occupancy evidence article explains why a connected account with zero consumption proves the wrong thing.
- Overgrown vegetation, dead or diseased trees, or noxious weeds. Grass is the factor owners control most cheaply and ignore most often. A yard mowed every two weeks removes one of the eight from the file.
- Absence of furnishings or personal items. Bare windows in a house where every other window on the block has blinds. A living room visible from the sidewalk with nothing in it. This is the factor that catches a house between tenants, and the rental turnover article covers how long that window can safely run.
- Open to casual entry or trespass. A door that does not latch, a basement window out, a rear gate off its hinge. This is also the first item on the blight list, so a building that triggers it is on its way to Class 4 at $10.00 per $100, and the inspection article describes what the inspector photographs.
- Any other criteria the Mayor deems relevant. The catch all. In practice this is where a report from a management company, a front desk, or a tenant who moved out lands. It is also where the inspector's own observation goes: nobody answered on three visits, the same car has not moved since spring, the snow on the walk went unshoveled all January.
What the list does not say
Nothing in the eight factors says how many of them have to be present. A house can be designated on complaints and bare windows alone, and a house with a mail pile and tall grass can be an occupied home whose owner is in the hospital. The list guides the call; it does not score it. That matters for the response. An owner who can show the building was occupied does not argue the factors one by one. The appeal article explains that the response form asks for a position, occupied or exempt, with documents attached, inside the 15 day window.
The list also says nothing about intent. An owner who is away for work, waiting on an estate, or between tenants reads exactly the same from the sidewalk as an owner who abandoned the house. The owner away article covers the first case and the inherited house article the second. The exemptions in §42-3131.06a exist because the statute knows the sidewalk view is incomplete, but they have to be claimed.
Reading your own house against the list
Owners who are about to leave a house empty for a stretch, or who already have, can do the inspector's job before the inspector does. Stand across the street and go down the eight. Mail. Grass. Windows. Doors and gates. Then the two you cannot see: whether a neighbor or the ANC has reason to complain, and what the utility usage shows. The timeline article shows what follows a designation and why the cheapest moment to act is before the notice.
- Stop the mail or have it collected. Pull the fliers off the porch weekly.
- Keep the yard cut and the walk clear. A lawn service receipt is also evidence later.
- Leave blinds and some furnishings in place. Put a lamp on a timer.
- Secure every opening and fix the gate. Open to entry is the blight trigger too.
- Keep utilities on and used. Heat in winter protects the pipes and shows consumption.
- Tell the neighbors and the ANC commissioner who to call, so the first call is to you.
- If the house will pass 90 days empty, register it. Registration is $350 and a registered building with a plan is treated differently from a discovered one, as the fines article explains.
If you want to know where your building stands, 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.