DHCA is Expanding Its Focus on Tenant Rights!
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An important part of the mission of the Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) is to maintain a marketplace that is fair to both tenants and landlords. Toward that, DHCA is responsible for inspecting apartment buildings for certain safe housing conditions and promoting tenant rights. Through the enactment of Bill 19-15, and with improved resources and authority to do our job, DHCA is ratcheting up our efforts in ways that benefit everybody.

At the direction of County Executive Marc Elrich, the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) launched a new interactive housing code website as well as the Troubled Property Analysis.

The new website provides interactive maps, a progress report on DHCA’s two-year inspection surge, housing code statistics including violation details, useful links to tenant rights information and the Troubled Property Analysis. The designation of troubled properties is intended to assist DHCA in prioritizing where to focus its limited housing code inspection resources among the more than 680 multifamily rental properties in Montgomery County; these properties contain approximately 73,000 individual rental units. A troubled property is a multifamily rental property, which – because of the severity and quantity of housing code violations observed during DHCA’s most recent inspection of the property – is subject to annual inspections by the DHCA.

In addition to a more extensive inspection process, Bill 19-15 includes several other improvements in tenant rights and protections. Those include greater clarity and flexibility with leases, expanded options for DHCA to deal with landlords who do not make mandated repairs in a timely manner, and guarantees of free meeting places to gather and form tenant organizations. Details, additional rights and protections, and resource guides can be found below.

DHCA will continue to add features to this website to provide users with a more interactive experience and tools to show DHCA’s progress in implementing this important legislation.

Resources

• Summary of Tenant Rights
• Summary of Tenant Responsibilities
• Summary of DHCA Services
• Enhancing Tenants' Rights
• Bill 19-15 (Enacted, Clean)

Landlord-Tenant Materials

• Landlord-Tenant Handbook  (Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese)
• Standard Lease
  • Single-Family  (English, Spanish)
  • Apartment/Condominium  (Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese)
• Lease Summary  (Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese)
• Landlord-Tenant Pamphlet *
• Tenants’ Rights and Resources Lobby Sign
• Why Purchase Renters Insurance?

Code Enforcement Materials

A quick resource guide about our housing and building enforcement codes to help promote community compliance.

• Code Enforcement Action Plan
• Code Enforcement Handbook
  • Updated July 2023:   -
  • Updated March 2017:   -  -  -
• Code Enforcement Pamphlet *
• Troubled Property Analysis

“Renters Have Rights” Outreach Campaign Elements

• Ads on interior (English, Spanish) and exterior Ride On buses, bus shelters and County facilities
• Doorhangers regarding tenant rights and responsibilities
• Online communications via social media (Twitter, Facebook) and the County website, electronic message boards (English, Spanish) and the Paperless Airplane County newsletter
• Lobby signs posted in every multifamily apartment building, in six languages
   

* Content will be provided in Chinese, English, French, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese. They will be posted as soon as they become available.