New D.C. Emergency COVID-19 Omnibus Bill Passed in May, 2020: What You Need to Know

Written by Pamela Bethel, Esq.

On Tuesday, May, 5, 2020, the Council of the District of Columbia passed the Coronavirus Omnibus Emergency Amendment Act of 2020. The Omnibus Bill is retroactive to March 11, 2020. As emergency legislation, the Omnibus Bill will go into effect upon the Mayor’s signature or, if she does not sign it sooner, May 19, 2020. The bill will amend and supplement the three prior COVID-19 emergency legislative measures enacted in DC.

The Council expects to address additional relief in its next legislative session.  Emergency legislation is only effective for 90 days, and if the DC Council does not pass permanent legislation before the expiration of the applicable 90 day period then there will be a question of applicability regarding the long-term payment plans and other similar provisions in this and the various other COVID-19 related acts recently passed by the DC Council.

Below you will find summaries of the key provisions in the Act.

  • Payment Plans for Commercial Retail Tenants and Residential Tenants: Requires commercial and residential landlords to establish a rent payment plan covering a one-year period after the end of the public health emergency for tenants who can demonstrate that they suffered financial hardship as a direct or indirect result of the public health emergency. Note that eligibility does not extend to all commercial tenants, but is limited to “commercial retail tenants.” The legislation does not define “commercial retail tenants”. An “eligible tenant” is one who has notified its Landlord of an inability to pay all or a portion of the rent as a result of the Emergency (regardless of prior rent delinquencies), and is not receiving a rent reduction pursuant the District’s COVID-19 mortgage relief program. The Omnibus Act does not specify the precise terms required for the payment plan, but identifies several payment plan requirements.
  • Mortgage and Rent Relief for Landlords and Tenants: On May 4, 2020, Mayor Bowser signed the COVID-19 Supplemental Corrections Emergency Amendment Act of 2020, which amends the pre-existing mortgage relief program (Supplemental Act signed in April that imposed obligations on commercial real estate loan servicers to develop and implement deferral programs) so that it applies to “mortgage lenders,” rather than mortgage servicers, and includes reporting requirements and further relief program details.
  • Rent Freezes: The legislation amends language in the COVID-19 Supplemental Corrections Emergency Act (passed on April 21, 2020) to clarify that the freeze on rent increases during the Emergency is limited to retail properties. This means that the rent freeze does not cover commercial rental leases. Residential tenant rents are frozen through the public health emergency and for 30 days thereafter.
  • Restrictions on Evictions: The legislation, when singed or active, will halt the filing of eviction complaints against residential and commercial tenants for the period of the Emergency and 60 days thereafter.
  • District Government Contracting: The Omnibus Bill requires District government contractors to report immediately to the District government when they learn or have reason to believe that one of their employees has come into contact with an individual who has been exposed, or is suspected to have been exposed to the coronavirus.
  • New Landlord Responsibilities: Finally the legislation requires landlords to refund to a tenant, on a prorated basis, any amenity fee that a tenant pays to a landlord if that amenity is no longer available to the tenant during the public health emergency, and a landlord or landlord representatives to clean (or cause to be cleaned) common areas of a housing accommodation on a regular basis, including surfaces that are touched regularly.

O’Riordan Bethel is a D.C. based law firm and SBA-certified government contractor. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us; we are operating in full telework mode and are open to receive email and phone communications.

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