Troubled and At-Risk Properties

Montgomery County, Maryland is home to approximately 1.53 million people. Approximately 35% of occupied housing units in the County are renter-occupied. The demand for rental housing is growing and aging housing stock is challenging to maintain. As such, property owners and/or property managers play a vital role in the community as they are responsible for providing and preserving one of the most basic human necessities – shelter. Because of this vital need, Montgomery County Government enacted legislation to motivate certain property owners and managers to improve the living conditions of the apartments they own and/or manage by reducing the overall number and severity of violations existing on their properties. This is accomplished through scheduled inspections of multi-family buildings, where properties are designated Compliant, At-Risk, or Troubled based on their inspection results. The designation of Troubled and At-Risk Properties is also intended to assist the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) in prioritizing where to focus its limited housing code inspection resources among the approximately 715 multifamily rental properties in Montgomery County; these properties contain approximately 82,363 individual rental units.

 

Our housing Code Enforcement team conducts legally mandated inspections of multifamily apartment buildings to determine which properties are housing code “Compliant”, “At-Risk” of being troubled, or “Troubled”. In addition, the team annually addresses over 10,000 Montgomery County 3-1-1 service requests regarding safety and maintenance upkeep concerns for all types of residential properties, vacant lots, and the exterior of commercial buildings.

 

Chapter 29 ( §29-22) of the Montgomery County Code and the accompanying regulations define “Troubled” and “At-Risk” properties and set criteria for determining if a property fits into either category.  In general, a “Troubled Property” is a multifamily rental property with numerous and or severe “health and safety” housing code violations such as:

An At-Risk property has a number of violations, some of which may be severe, but it doesn't meet the threshold to be designated as a troubled property.

 

A multifamily apartment building that is well maintained and code “Compliant” is inspected every three years. At-Risk properties will be inspected at the discretion of DHCA annually, biennially, or triennially, with a minimum of 25% of the units being inspected.  100% of the units at a Troubled property will be inspected annually until DHCA determines that the property is no longer troubled.

How can the Troubled or At- Risk designation be removed from a property? 

A property designated as Troubled or At-Risk may have the designation removed at the time its TV and SV scores no longer exceed the thresholds at which properties are designated as Troubled or At-Risk, based upon inspection by DHCA, such that they are no longer located in the applicable quadrants of the X-Y scatter graph specified in the regulations.  Additionally, for Trouble properties the DHCA Director must determine that the corrective action plan for the rental housing has been successfully completed.  Further, for properties designated as Troubled, failure to submit the required corrective action plan and quarterly maintenance logs and abate all violations will result in those properties remaining on the Troubled property list, even if a subsequent scheduled inspection yields a different result.