The statute says lawfully occupied
The definition in §42-3131.05 calls a vacant building any real property improved by a building that is not lawfully occupied on a regular or habitual basis by the owner, a tenant, or another person who has the owner's permission. Three people can make a building occupied: the owner, a tenant, and someone the owner let in. A person who came through a rear window is none of them. The building stays a vacant building no matter how many mattresses are inside, and the months the squatter spends there are vacant months on the tax account.
It gets worse before it gets better. The eight factors the inspector weighs under §42-3131.05b include the building being open to casual entry or trespass and the absence of the owner or a lawful resident. A squatter is proof of the first and a side effect of the second. The neighbor complaints that usually come with an occupied shell are a third factor on their own. An owner who argues the house is occupied because someone is in it has conceded the designation and handed over the evidence.
What the unlawful entry statute gives you
§22-3302 makes it a misdemeanor to enter a private dwelling or building without lawful authority against the will of the person lawfully in charge, or to refuse to leave when that person says so, punishable by up to 180 days. The part that matters most to a vacant building owner is the presumption that follows: a property that is vacant and boarded or otherwise secured to show it is not to be entered, or that displays a no trespassing sign, creates a presumption that anyone found inside entered against the will of the person in legal possession. The plywood and the sign are what turn a shrug at the door into a charge. An unsecured house with an open back door gives the officer nothing to work with.
In practice the officer at the door decides whether the call is an unlawful entry or a civil dispute. A person who produces a lease, however it was obtained, mail addressed to the house, or a story about rent paid to someone, will often turn the call into a civil matter on the spot. From there the route is a possession case in Superior Court, and DC courts have long refused to let an owner remove a person claiming a right to be there by changing the locks or shutting off the water while they are inside. Do not do it. The person who went in through the window can become the plaintiff the week you do.
A possession case is not the litigation exemption
Owners read the exemption list in §42-3131.06a and stop at the litigation entry. That category covers probate and litigation over title, the cases in which nobody can lawfully act for the property until a court says who owns it. A case to remove a trespasser is a case about possession by someone who has no claim to title, brought by an owner who is free to act. The litigation exemption article explains why an eviction does not qualify, and a squatter case sits on the same side of the line. The months pass at the vacant rate under §47-813: $5.00 per $100 of assessed value, $12,500 a half on a $500,000 house, against about $2,125 at Class 1. If the condition slides while the case runs, broken windows and trash in the yard, the building is a candidate for blighted, and Class 4 is $10.00 per $100, or $25,000 a half on the same house. The vacant versus blighted article has the examples.
The order that works
- Document the day you find it. Photographs of the point of entry, the condition of each room you can see, the posted sign if there is one, and the date. The file you build now answers the DOB notice later.
- Call MPD with the deed and your identification in hand and ask for an unlawful entry determination. Get the report number. Whether the officers act or decline, the report is the record that you treated the entry as unlawful from the start.
- If they decline, file for possession in Superior Court the same week. Delay is the owner's enemy twice over: the person inside gathers paper, and the vacant halves keep billing.
- The hour the building is empty, secure it to the standard in §42-3131.12: every door and window weathertight and secured against entry, plywood over any opening that is missing or broken, and a no trespassing sign. That is the presumption under §22-3302 and the answer to the open to entry factor in one afternoon.
- Register if DOB has not already designated the building. Registration is $350 and renewal is $500 under §42-3131.09, and the fines article explains why the penalty for not registering is a separate and larger number. The maintenance plan filed with the registration names the person who checks the house.
- Answer the designation notice inside the 15 day window with the file: entry date, police report, court filing, the date the building was re secured, and photographs of it secured. The timeline article covers what happens to a notice that goes unanswered.
- Decide the end state before the next half begins. A tenant under a basic business license, a sale to someone who will live there, or you moving in. Nothing else ends the billing.
The two files that follow the squatter out
The first is insurance. A standard homeowner policy narrows on a vacant house, and a break in followed by months of occupation is the vandalism claim most vacancy clauses were written to exclude. The insurance articleexplains what a vacant dwelling policy covers and why carriers ask for the same boards and sign the statute does. The second is the District's own abatement power. A building found open to entry can be secured by a District crew under §42-3131.01, with the cost coming back as a lien that the tax appeals commission cannot touch. An owner who boards the house first spends plywood money instead of lien money.
Correcting the halves that were actually occupied
One distinction survives all of this. The halves during which a lawful resident lived in the house, before the entry or after a tenant moved in, were never vacant halves. If OTR billed them at Class 3 because the designation ran on past the facts, those halves can be corrected and refunded. The occupancy evidence article lists what carries weight. Send us the address and the dates. 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.