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DCRA Launches Rent Your DC Basement Apartment Legally

  • March 15th 2010

by Mark Wellborn

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DCRA Launches Rent Your DC Basement Apartment Legally: Figure 1

This past weekend, DC’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) launched Rent Your DC Basement Apartment Legally, a website that provides home owners and landlords with a resource page to find information about how to legally rent out the lower level of a property.

The so-called English basement is a ubiquitous rental option in DC, and many buyers considering the purchase of a row house expect to rent out the basement to help with their mortgage.

DCRA’s decision to launch the site was spurred by a lively discussion on Prince of Petworth about the challenges and misconceptions that arise for city residents who are already or are considering renting out the basement unit of their home.

Having just launched, the page is not a comprehensive resource just yet, but it does have a fact sheet for property owners outlining what they need to do to get a rental license, as well as a checklist for inspection and a forum for people to leave comments about problems they have experienced with the DCRA system.

UrbanTurf has reported on this issue extensively in past articles:

See other articles related to: dcra, renting in dc

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dcra_launches_rent_your_dc_basement_apartment_legally/1876.

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