The 51st reported that a spokesperson for the District's Department of Buildings recently explained that a certificate of occupancy alone does not show whether a building is "new construction or a substantial renovation or conversion." That comment came up in reporting on a 36-unit rental property in Southeast, and it has nothing to do with a one-bedroom at Chase Point that a Friendship Heights owner is renting out to a young professional this year. But the confusion is a useful signal. The District rewrote its tenant purchase law less than a year ago, the rewrite is still being argued over building by building, and anyone selling a rented condo in this neighborhood right now is doing it while the rulebook is mid-edit.
Here is the part that gets missed. Friendship Heights sits directly on the line between the District and Montgomery County, Maryland, and that line does more legal work than most owners realize. The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, known as TOPA, is a District law. It does not follow Wisconsin Avenue across Western Avenue into Chevy Chase, Maryland. A rented unit at the Willoughby, which sits in Montgomery County, is not governed by TOPA at all. A rented unit at Chase Point, at The Harrison, or at 4620 North Park Avenue, all of which sit inside the District, is. Two owners renting out condos three blocks apart can be operating under completely different rules.
What TOPA actually asks of a condo owner
TOPA's headline feature is a tenant's right of first refusal: when a rental building goes up for sale, the tenants get the first chance to buy it. That is the version of the law most people picture, and it is largely built for apartment buildings changing hands as a whole, not for a single owner selling one unit they happen to rent out.
DC carved out an exception for exactly that second situation back in 2018. Under the TOPA Single-Family Home Exemption Amendment Act, a single rental unit inside a condominium, cooperative, or homeowners association is exempt from the full tenant-purchase-rights version of TOPA. The tenant doesn't get to organize and make an offer on the unit. That part of the law is settled and has been since 2018.
What didn't go away is the notice. An owner of an exempt unit still has to give the tenant written notice within three calendar days of receiving an offer of sale, and a copy of that notice has to go to DC's Office of the Tenant Advocate and to the Rental Conversion and Sale Division inside the Department of Housing and Community Development. Skip it, and you haven't lost your exemption, but you have created a paperwork gap that can slow down a settlement while everyone scrambles to fix it after the fact.
This is the mistake that shows up most often with owners who read one article about DC's 2018 exemption years ago, filed it away as "not my problem," and never thought about it again. The exemption removed one obligation. It left another one standing.
Why the news about DC "loosening" TOPA doesn't touch this
If an owner has been half-following DC housing news this year, they've probably seen headlines about the District easing up on TOPA. That coverage is accurate, and it is describing a different exemption than the one that applies to a rented condo.
Mayor Bowser signed the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act, known as the RENTAL Act, on November 13, 2025. It took effect December 31, 2025, and it is the broadest rewrite of TOPA in years. Its centerpiece is a new exemption for buildings that received a permanent certificate of occupancy within the past 15 years, covering whole rental properties changing ownership, the kind of transaction where an investor sells an entire apartment building rather than one condo unit.
Chase Point was built in 2007 by PN Hoffman, directly across from the Friendship Heights Metro station. The Harrison, a 49-unit boutique building, dates to 2010. Neither is being sold as a single rental property. They are condominiums, individually owned unit by unit. The RENTAL Act's marquee change simply isn't the exemption doing any work here. The one that matters is still the narrower 2018 rule, and the notice obligation that survived it.
The new construction exemption is also, as of this year, genuinely unsettled. The 51st reported that the Department of Buildings issues new permanent certificates of occupancy for substantial renovations as well as for new buildings, so the certificate alone does not settle whether a property counts as new construction under the exemption. That report also noted that a law firm's real estate group told clients after a meeting with DHCD that full guidance on the distinction could take up to two years, and that parts of the law "are unclear and subject to interpretation." That is a live fight over whole-building sales that will likely take time to resolve. It is worth knowing about mainly because it explains why anyone searching "TOPA changes 2026" right now is going to land on stories about that fight, not about the three-day notice a condo owner actually owes.
What did change, and might touch your notice
Two pieces of the RENTAL Act do brush up against the process for exempt units, even though the exemption itself stayed intact.
Sale notices can now be sent by a delivery service that provides tracking confirmation and return receipt, alongside the traditional certified mail route. That gives an owner more flexibility in how the notice physically reaches a tenant, which matters if a tenant travels frequently or the building has spotty mail pickup.
The definition of tenant was also tightened. Under the Act, a tenant is someone who, under a current or expired written lease or rental agreement, is entitled to occupy the unit and is liable to the owner for rent. If a unit has an occupant who isn't on the lease and isn't paying rent, they may not need to be included on the notice the same way a co-signed tenant would. That distinction is easy to get wrong without checking the current language, especially in a share situation common among younger renters in this stretch of Wisconsin Avenue.
A short list, not a shortcut
For an owner sitting on a rented condo in a DC-side Friendship Heights building and thinking about listing it:
- Confirm the building's jurisdiction first. Chase Point, The Harrison, and 4620 North Park Avenue are inside DC and subject to TOPA. Buildings across the line in Chevy Chase, Maryland, including the Willoughby, are not.
- If it's a DC-side unit and you rent to one tenant, the 2018 exemption almost certainly applies, meaning no tenant purchase rights.
- The exemption does not remove the requirement to send written notice within three calendar days of receiving an offer, with copies to the Office of the Tenant Advocate and DHCD's Rental Conversion and Sale Division.
- Confirm who legally counts as a tenant on your lease before drafting the notice, since the definition changed under the RENTAL Act.
- Because DHCD is still working through its own guidance on other parts of the Act, checking current requirements before listing beats relying on an older explainer, even a well-written one from a year or two ago.
None of this changes the sale price or the timeline in a typical transaction. It changes whether the paperwork trail is clean when a title company or a buyer's attorney asks for it, which is usually the moment an owner discovers whether they handled it correctly the first time.
A few questions worth asking early
Does this apply if I only recently started renting out a unit I used to live in? Yes. The exemption and the notice requirement are tied to the unit being a rental at the time of sale, not to how long it has been rented.
What if my tenant doesn't have a written lease? The RENTAL Act's tenant definition is built around a current or expired written lease or rental agreement. If there's no written agreement, confirm with current guidance how that affects the notice, since this is one of the areas the Act touched directly.
Do I need to notify anyone besides the tenant? Yes. A copy goes to DC's Office of the Tenant Advocate and to DHCD's Rental Conversion and Sale Division, not just to the person living in the unit.
Does any of this apply to my unit at the Willoughby? No. TOPA is a District of Columbia law and doesn't extend across the line into Montgomery County, Maryland.
Selling a rented condo in Friendship Heights isn't complicated once the right exemption is identified and the notice goes out on time. It just requires knowing which side of the avenue the building sits on, and which version of a law that changed twice in the last decade actually governs the unit. If you're weighing a sale on a tenant-occupied condo in this stretch of DC and want a clear read on timing before you list, Ricardo Vasquez can walk through the notice requirements with you and help line up the paperwork before an offer ever comes in.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
