Washington DC, and who TOPA still applies to
Single-family homes have been exempt from TOPA since 2018, with one carve-out that survives. Knowing which side of that line a file sits on is the whole job.
Most jurisdictions differ from each other in forms. Washington DC differs in kind, because the item that most often decides whether a DC file closes on time is not a document at all.
First, does TOPA apply at all
Single-family accommodations have been exempt from the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act since 3 July 2018 (D.C. Law 22-120). An earlier version of this article treated TOPA as a step on every DC file. It is not, and starting from the exemption rather than the obligation is what keeps the check honest.
There is one carve-out and it is worth running on every tenanted file: a current tenant who is elderly (62 or over) or has a disability keeps TOPA rights for the duration of that tenancy, if they signed a written lease by 31 March 2018 and took occupancy by 15 April 2018.
So the question at intake is not "have we done TOPA" but "is this accommodation single-family, and if so does the carve-out reach this tenant". Multi-unit and tenanted accommodations outside the exemption still carry the full offer and right of first refusal.
Where it does apply, TOPA is a timeline rather than a form. It is not satisfied by producing a document. It is satisfied by a process running to completion, and that process consumes calendar time that a thirty-day contract does not naturally contain.
The failure mode is treating it as a checkbox. Someone marks TOPA as handled because the notice went out, and the waiver confirmation, the item that actually clears the path to settlement, is still outstanding three weeks later.
A form is done when it is signed. A statutory right is done when its clock has run. Those are not the same kind of item and they do not belong in the same column.
The condo right of first refusal
Separate from TOPA and easy to conflate with it. For condominiums, the DC condo right of first refusal is its own compliance check on the offer side. A file can clear TOPA and still have this outstanding.
If your checklist collapses the two into one "right of first refusal" line, it will be marked complete when only half of it is.
The rest of the offer side
- GCAAR DC offer of purchase and sale, critical
- DC property condition disclosure
- Buyer pre-approval, agent-visible
The listing side
TOPA notice compliance where the property is a rental, the DC seller disclosure on property condition, the Bright MLS DC listing, condo or co-op documents including financials, and professional photos.
The condo and co-op financials are worth flagging as agent-visible for a reason: buyers and their lenders read them, and a building with financials that raise questions is a problem you want surfaced during marketing rather than during underwriting.
Contract to close
- DC recordation and transfer tax, confirmed against the current OTR schedule, marked critical
- TOPA waiver confirmation, where TOPA applied to the accommodation
- Closing Disclosure three-day rule
- Final walkthrough, twenty-four to forty-eight hours before closing
The tax rate varying is a small thing that behaves like a large one at reconciliation. Establish which rate applies when the contract ratifies, against the current OTR schedule rather than a figure someone remembers, and carry it forward. Discovering it at the settlement table is a bad time to be doing arithmetic.
Day one on a DC file
- Determine whether the property is or has been a rental, because TOPA follows from that
- Determine whether it is a condominium, because the condo right of first refusal follows from that
- Start the TOPA process immediately if applicable, and track it as a clock rather than a document
- Establish the applicable recordation and transfer tax rate
- Calendar the Closing Disclosure delivery date backwards from settlement
Note that items one and two are property facts, not contract terms. They have to be established at intake, and a coordinator who waits for the contract to tell them will wait a long time.
A note on scope
These are the requirements our Washington DC rule pack actually carries. TOPA in particular has real legal complexity beyond what a file checklist can express, and compliance content should be verified with counsel. A working map of the file, not legal advice.