by Barbara Cline
Last month, the DC Rental Housing Commission announced that the 2014 Consumer Price Index for urban workers (CPI-W) will be 1.4%.
This percentage is the basis for the 2014 rent increases for the approximately 79,000 DC rent-controlled apartments, effective from May 1, 2014 through April 30, 2015. Ward 3 has 16.2%, or 12,818, of the rent-controlled apartments in the District – ranking second just behind Ward 1 with 16.5% or 13,034 units. See the breakdown of rent-controlled apartments by ward (PDF, page 13).
All DC tenants living in rent-controlled apartments will receive one of the following two 2014 rent increases:
Not sure your apartment is rent-controlled?
RAD Form 8 (PDF), the annual rent increase notice, is two pages of dense and often confusing “governmentese.”
But you’ll find three clues within:
1) Mentions the rent-control law “…in accordance with the provisions of the Rental Housing Act of 1985”
2) Cites the CPI-W: “…the increase in rent charged is based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-W)”
3) And buried on page 2 is the only place with the words “rent control:” The title of a RAD pamphlet called “What You Should Know about Rent Control in the District of Columbia” (PDF)
Mystery solved!